Friday 10.00 - 13.00

Gizem: Was That All Really Improvised?

What distinguishes a scripted theater actor from an improv theater actor? In improv, you're not only the actor, but also the director, choreographer, and playwriter. Constantly, all at the same time. In this workshop, you'll practice how to make your improv feel seamless, with the power of repetition, tempo, and movement with intention. By the end, get ready to hear this question from your audience more: Was that really all improvised?? This workshop is great for those looking to bring more precision and flow to their performances.

Simone:

Maura: The magic toolbox

Improv should not be stressful.
Still, sometimes we are stuck in our head on stage, and we miss the fun. In this workshop, we find easy tools to make the scene move further, have fun together, and get rid of the stress.
No more sweaty hands…open up the tool box!

Shawn: MIXER - Abstracting the moment - FULL DAY!

The show works by starting in a concrete place and progressively starting to explore more abstract places. As the above description hints, when we start doing artsy things we can get lost in the weeds. This workshop and showcase explores how we can do artsy pieces while also grounding the work into something recognizable and concrete. We will explore three different sections: the Actors, The Poetics, and the Movement Artists. We will practice grounded character scenes, monologues and improvised poetry techniques, movement games for performances (no dance background required). Let's make some art and have fun doing it!

Javier: Anachronies: Icosahedron

8 characters.
5 temporal moments.
20 scenes.
And all told on stage without any type of pre-established chronological order. A workshop designed to play an El Club de la Impro format inspired by the films of Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Gramos, Babel). We work with information and time jumps to tell an improvised choral story where all the scenes fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

Pierpaolo: Dramedy (Characters)

This is the first segment of the day about Dramedy, where we will explore what kind of characters populate this universe. In the afternoon, we will look at what kind of plots/situations tend to appear in Dramedies.
But first: what is Dramedy? It’s a rather broad definition that includes all stories where dramatic and comedic elements coexist. You know those stories where you laugh and cry at the same time? Ideally, that. They can be more tilted towards one or another, but they all have in common some very quirky, but also very grounded characters, which we are going to look into this morning.

Friday 14.00 - 17.00

Gizem: Sky Is Not The Limit

In this 3-hour improv workshop, we’ll explore the power of heightening—an essential skill for taking your scene work to new heights. We'll practice to identify and amplify the “game of the scene,” the core comedic pattern that drives the action. Through techniques for escalation, we’ll discover how to push these patterns further, creating dynamic scenes that build to comedic peaks.

Simone: Lazzi! (Exploring comedic devices through Commedia dell’Arte)

Commedia dell’Arte traditionally combined flexibility and form, script and improvisation. The comic routines used in Commedia dell’Arte, the Lazzi, were structured routines that were inserted into the performances and were used even beyond Commedia. In fact we find lazzi in Shakespeare, in early silent cinema, and even in modern film. In this workshop, we will be looking at how we can apply these lazzi to our own improvised scenes. We will also see how some of the Master-Servant status exercises developed by Keith Johnstone actually have their origin in Commedia dell’Arte.
This workshop is not meant to be an academic study of Commedia, but a fun exploration of comic devices and whether they can still be applied in improvisation today.

Maura: The white sheet

There is an invisibile scene partner there, on stage, with you. It's the audience.
Hidden in the dark, this special guest writes the story with you, sharing the magic of creation on the spot. Why overwhelm the audience with informations, while you can invite everybody to write the story with you?
In this workshop we explore the tools to leave space for the audience and take their breath away.

Javier: I + D (Improv + Dramaturgy)

This workshop works above all with the fusion of improvisation and the written word. It is a round trip between the scene and the pen. This work is the basis of the PreTextos format (An El Club de la Impro Format
PreTextos arose with the idea of fusing improvisation and dramaturgy on stage. It is a show in which the participants are characters, but at the same time they are authors (each one is the author of another member of the cast).
The audience answers questions or participates in the creative process of the improvisers who, arranged around the room, produce written material inspired by these suggestions at the entrance.
All these materials will constitute the basis for creating the characters in our stories. Monologues, Collective Writing Scenes, Automatic Writing, Pierced Scenes, Creation from Space, Characters Defined by Dimensioning, Interpellation and Author-Character Dialogue...
All these elements make up a completely improvised story in which both theatrical branches intermingle and complement each other.
The final result is a written text resulting from all these processes.
NOTE: Students need to take paper and pen with them

Pierpaolo: Dramedy (Plots)

This is the second segment of the day about Dramedy, where we will explore what kind of situations and plots appear in these stories.
Like the dramatic depth of when something makes us laugh about a bad situation, the humanity of being imperfect, but still loving others in our own weird way.
You can take this workshop as a standalone work, but it does help if you come to the morning too, when we will look at the characters that give life to those situations.

Saturday 10.00 - 17.00

Gizem: Living Room: Truth Or Dare?

Do you love the camaraderie of hanging out with friends and sharing genuine stories? The Living Room is a classic format that brings this feeling to the stage, inviting you to a friendly gathering where authentic experiences are transformed into entertaining improv scenes. Drawing inspiration from the classic game of Truth or Dare, this workshop offers a blend of real-life experiences (Truth) and imaginative scenes (Dare), providing an opportunity for participants to connect on a deeper level and have fun in a new, engaging way.

Simone: Stop Faffing About!

There are no right or wrong choices in improv, but it’s important to make those choices! Do you sometimes find yourself in a scene unsure of what you’re doing? Do you leave things vague because you don’t really know what the scene needs? Do you find yourself forgetting that you were holding an imaginary object? This workshop is for you. We’re going to practise specificity - making choices, being decisive and giving details. This applies to our storytelling, to our object and scene work and also to our characters. Let’s be more precise in our improv and see how a scene that was stalling can come to life!

Maura: Tambourine - MIXER

Do you feel the impulse to sing from the top of your lungs under the shower, to tune a little rap when angry, or throw yourself into a serenade when you are in love? Yes?
Yet, you restrain yourself, because you think you are not good, and you would NEVER dare to be in a musical.
We will explore the structure of an improvised song, the secrets of a smart rhyme, we will learn to connect in a choir and shine as a solo singer.
Join our workshop, and you'll find out that you don’t need to be Pavarotti to shoot your song to the stars.

Shawn: Surrealism in Improv

When we are trying to create surrealism and or magical things, it is important to keep grounded in the scene. In this workshop, you practice thinking surrealistically while keeping scenes grounded and focused on the relationship and characters. With these tools, we can build worlds and change perspectives, all while learning to play outside of the boxes without losing ourselves to the madness of our imaginations.

Javier: The Ying and Yang Of The Improv

This workshop merges two small workshops called "Defense Against the Dark Arts of Improv" and "Make Your Partner Shine." In the first part we will work on more than 20 previously agreed scenarios in which things are prepared to go wrong and destroy history. We will learn to recognize and avoid these situations as well as how to get by and take advantage of the scene if we find ourselves in one of them. In the second part, we will work from the opposite side. We will strive to bring out the best in our scene partner, offer him proposals that make him shine and thus give him the improv of his dreams. In order to achieve this, we will train our colleagues so that they are able to offer us "good" proposals and know us better. And that happens when you say no sometimes. "No is the new yes."

Pierpaolo: Emotional scenes

Emotions are what drive us and our characters, and it all starts with the connection we have with ourselves and with our scene partners. Once that is in place, there are techniques we can implement to heighten the emotional aspect of a scene. Sometimes what helps is doing less, some other times using some specific tools can be the key to turn a scene around and deepening it to the level we are looking to achieve. Some level of physical contact may be included is in the work, so by all means we will state and respect about boundaries (physical and emotional), and as a group we will aim at being everyone’s safe space.

Sunday 10.00 - 17.00

Gizem: Living Room: Truth Or Dare?

Simone: Everything Here And Now

Are you curious about monoscenes? Or perhaps you’ve done them but wish to improve your skills? Or maybe you have no idea what they are and want to find out more? Or possibly you hate editing and want to pretend that you do it on purpose? Well, whatever your motivation, here is your opportunity!
A monoscene is a scene that takes place in one place and in real time. There are no edits, no flashbacks, no theatrical devices. The monoscene is very theatrical and tends to be grounded. Under these circumstances, improvisers sometimes find it challenging to keep a scene going. In this workshop, we will work on finding inspiration and keeping the fire of a scene burning from that initial spark.

Maura: Plug in!

Do you happen to feel alone on stage, trapped in your head, disconnected from your partners?
The river of energy is flowing somewhere else, and you missed it.
You missed the fun…
In this workshop we explore the territory of connection, reaction, interaction.
Connect with your stage partners, let's plug in!

Shawn: Surrealism in Improv

Javier: MIXER - Oniria

Oniria transports us to that thin line that separates reality from dreams. A journey to that intangible and ethereal world that we have all traveled through both asleep and awake. Songs, images, memories, routines, shapes, drawings... are some of the elements that will help us configure our particular universe. Do you dare to dream with us?

Pierpaolo: Modern Noir

Yeeeah… I know you’ve already taken (and seen) a lot of improvised Noir. But: what if I told you there can be amazing Noir without a crime and a detective, without characters smoking all the time, and without players trying to act like Humphrey Bogart or Jessica Rabbit? There is nothing wrong with this of course, but being noir one of my favourite genres, I think there is so much more to it than the decoration*. There is the exploration of the dark side of the human condition, how even good people can give in to their “evil” side** out of temptation or desperation, there are emotional scars and secrets in one’s past, there is the concept of anti-hero/anti-heroine. With this workshop we’re aiming to set a film noir in the modern days, with themes and topics close to us.
[* ok yes, there will be bar scenes set to melanchonic jazz. Everyone’s got to have a guilty pleasure]
[** I will definitely go into a small rant about German expressionism but I’m also self-conscious enough to keep it short]