Improv Training
PROFESSIONAL TEAM BUILDING
Training & Professional Development
I have worked with many organizations using improvisation as a team building activity, either for “Yes, And” philosophy of teamwork or just a fun shared experience. The takeaways from improv exercises are applicable to many professional venues including, but not limited to, education, healthcare & leadership level executives. I can also offer customizable training, including scenario based simulation using trained actors.
Please visit Arizona Actors Academy to get an estimate for your team building or training event. GET MORE INFO
IMPROV INSTRUCTION
IMPROVISATION FOR ACTORS
I can exercise anyones improv muscles to support their actor training or comedic writing process. I offer private coaching for these needs. I can also help with scripted comedic material, sketch performance or stock characters. See my coaching profile here -https://www.azactorsacademy.com/private-coaching/ & I also have an ongoing Tuesday Night class available at Arizona Actors Academy.
IMPROVISATION FOR PERFORMANCE
I have been teaching performance based improvisation for 13 years. I teach format & strong scene skills. I have also directed shows and coached ensembles. You can find me putting up workshop from time to time in the Phoenix area, most often Second Beat Improv Theater. I am available for workshops in your improv communities either locally or elsewhere, anywhere really. I have a strong interest in traveling and teaching in other communities.
Here is a list of my available workshops. Contact me with any questions.
INTENSIVE WORKSHOPS
Hot Mess’ Hot Harold
This winter intensive created by Hot Mess is a combination of 15 total classes focusing on longform skills and applying them to the Harold non-linear format. Students can enjoy our Skills Classes (10 in total) and our five session Form Class, culminating in a showcase.
Modern Day Longform: Origins
This crash course covers a handful of the structures in the beginning stages of modern longform. It is certain to give you everything you need to evolve your own longform play. This extended intensive combines my instruction of Harold & Deconstruction with my Boost Your Longform workshop covering Slacker & Armando.
Boost Your Longform
This is a two part intensive that can be offered in one day with a lunch in-between. Check it out, using two different formats we add to our toolkit for all longform performance.
Let’s Play
Check it out by following the link! This can be a four week workshop series or a two day intensive over a weekend. It is all the rage and totally made for TV!
ZOOMNASIUM ~ Put On Your Zoom Shoes
Workout our Zoomprov muscles. Play with the platform to find comfort and confidence in virtual longform improv. This can be a six-week workshop series or a two day intensive over a weekend.
INDIVIDUAL WORKSHOPS
Hello… Am I doing this Right?
The answer is always. However, you want to get better, I get it. Every scene is different, so our sense of play for every scene can be different. This is an intense scene study session where we deconstruct our scene work to identify what kind of scene we might be in and how we can focus our play to build to a strong finish. Are we matching, have we created a game? Is the relationship most important? Where do we go from here?
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 6 students Advanced |
Clarissa Justifies it All
We make a choice and then through justification we make sense of it. In improv we can make sense of every thing… We will talk about support through justification and break through the fear of making bold, bizarre choices. We will exercise support through smart justifications by giving our brain time to find the most interesting ideas.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 12 students Intermediate |
POV as an Accessory
Strong POV is a great tool to bring into your scenes. This workshop will exercise how we find a simple POV and use it as an accessory rather than the focus. Create rich characters with dimension, who are fun to watch in any situation.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 8 students Intermediate |
Stop Evading
We tend to beat around the bush when it comes to our characters secrets and wants. We try to play the comedic tension and subtext, often ignoring what everyone sees. This can be very hard to do if our partner is not in on the tension game, or reading our subtext. Let’s try addressing our tension right away, revealing our secrets & wants, calling out the odd behavior and then enjoy playing characters under pressure. Trust those can be the beginning and not the end of a scene. Find the play & comedy in making our characters more vulnerable. Let them say what they have to say and not fear the follow-up.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 14 students Beginner |
Ditch the Fixer
Do you find yourself tending to the emotion of the moment, trying to make it okay between you and your partner right away. Fixing the moment should be earned, it should be part of the arc and resolution. Exercise dealing with the problem at the top of your scene and ditching the instinct to fix it immediately. This opens your scenes up to stronger characters, relationships and opportunity for comedic pov or game of the scene.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 14 students Beginner |
Learn to Love Organic Group Games
Organic group games can be intimidating. It is a process of writing the rules as you go. How do you get an entire group to agree to the rules in the moment? This class will strengthen your tools of support, active listening, matching, pattern-making and heightening to help you turn any choice into a game. We’ll focus on simple choices and small steps so that organic group games feel like play and not work.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 16 students Intermediate |
Make it Mean Something
This class will focus on grounded, relationship based scenes. You will strengthen your listening skills to create honest reactions that mean something and offer stakes to your relationship with your scene partner. Being affected by your scene partner so your scene isn’t sitting on the surface, but rather diving deep into situations that draw your audience in and invite them into your moment. Get out of your heads and let your feelings drive the content.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 12 students Intermediate |
Us Against The World
This workshop will explore all the fun and joy of matching, peas in a pod, character driven scenes. Whether it be a game of heightening or a slice of life exploring thematics – this workshop will focus solely on the ability to yes and, matching POV to create a pure us against the world relationships.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 14 students Beginner |
Gift Giving Specifics
From the moment we take the stage we are giving gifts to our scene partner. Every moment is a gift. This workshop will zone in on the simple choices we make and how to offer specifics to make them beautiful gifts that enrich our scenes. This not only applies to establishing the who, where, what and why of the scene – but also creating interesting avenues within your scenework using the “if this, then what” approach to discovery on stage.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 14 students Beginner |
Straight/Absurd
The straight/absurd relationship is one of the best vehicles in comedy. It can exist in your realistic scene work or in your game play commentary. Let’s strip down the straight/absurd dance in our improv so we can better recognize and understand it’s many moves, such as, building tension and baking off. We will explore how using this relationship and mapping ideas can help you create more interesting scenes. You will exercise acceptance of game, sense of play and heightening through patterns of straight/absurd behavior.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 12 students Intermediate |
Behavior
Allow yourself to speak through your body language, let that be a beacon for what comes next. We will explore behavior, turning our senses up to recognize it in our partners and let it live in ourselves. Adding behavior to your presence on stage can offer your characters more life and inner thought. These moments, which are often had in silence can be as significant a gift to your scene work as any content you can create. Let the behavior create the questions and help you discover the answers.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 14 students Beginning |
Get Real and Don’t Work So Hard
Don’t ever let a moment get passed you. Simply stay present and communicate everything. Understand the relationships between the improvisor, your scene partner and the character’s you create. Let’s visit how we adapt from moment to moment, how we can use the truthful honest moment to create on stage and how to protect the reality of our characters. Let’s say yes and no while still being supportive, staying present and remaining true to yourself.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 14 students Beginning |
Let’s Deal With It
Drama and conflict. Let’s get down and dirty from the very beginning and let ourselves deal with it. This workshop does focus on realistic, grounded improvised drama and how to not let the conflict get away from you. We will play supportively while also diving into some of the more tragic bits of life. This class demands a desire to try a more dramatic approach and will lead to heavy situations. If students are not comfortable with dramatic material and committing to difficult content, this class is not recommended.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 8 students Advanced |
What A Wonderful World
Build that fourth wall, practice that digging. This class focuses on bringing your imagination alive on the stage, so that your scene partners and the audience enjoy it too. Class will exercise sensorial interaction with the objects & environments in our scene work.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 16 students Beginning |
Gibberish
We’ll run a bunch of gibberish exercises and we are sure to learn something about something improv related! Inevitably, we’re gonna have a blast.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 2-3 hours 20 students Beginning |
Deconstruction Intensive
An intensive look at the Deconstruction format. Students will review the format and learn the components including – base grounded scenes, developing strong realistic relationships that evolve, change and arc throughout the performance. Thematic scenes, pulling themes and translating them to strong peas in a pod characters. Commentary – understanding the approach to generating commentary ideas and executing them through the straight/absurd relationship. Creating a run, maintaining pace, retaining source material with strong ideas for callbacks and connections.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 6-8 hours 9 students Advanced |
Harold Intensive
An intensive look at the Harold format. Students will review the format and learn the components including – creating strong first beat scenes, heightening to second beats, applying editing tools to explore & expand your worlds, utilizing your opening to create ideas, group games, finding connections and callbacks. The overall focus is on longform performance and creating an experience that captures an audience.
| Length: Student Cap: Difficulty: | 6-8 hours 12 students Intermediate |
Jacque Arend 