FEST WORKSHOPS
The 2024 Asheville Improv Festival is offering an unparalleled amount of workshops taught by our incredibly talented headliners!
Below is the schedule of workshops, organized by day, along with pertinent info. Locations for all of them are currently TBD but you will be notified well in advance where they will be held.
Friday, OCTOBER 11
In recent years in the United States, improv teachers such as Joe Bill and TJ Jagadowski from Chicago, David Razowsky from Los Angeles, Greg Tavaras from South Carolina, and Jill Bernard from Minneapolis have begun working with the idea that improv can contain realistic characters who are vulnerable. Having the ability to create improv that is honest and vulnerable adds another layer to your work, a little bit of cake underneath your frosting to take your work from light entertainment to something with resonance. In this module, we start with your true self as a completely valid and powerful launchpad to creating original improvisation. We will explore emotion as a driver. We will practice letting your relationship, and how your partner sees you, define your character. We will learn to trust assumptions in place of inventions.
Saying yes isn’t just agreeing to the reality your partner is creating in the scene. It’s also saying yes to actively moving the scene forward. This workshop focuses on making active, fun choices so you can avoid talking about what you’re doing and pursue tackling what you’re doing instead. If you have been in a rut or recently found yourself standing around onstage with nothing more to offer than being a talking head, this workshop is for you!
Shut up and Move! (Friday)
with Ithamar Enriquez
3pm - 5pm (2 hrs.)
For: All levels
Mick Napier, founder of Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre, works with a small group of people taking them through exercises and giving specific individual feedback on their improv performance.
Four talented and seasoned improv instructors with over 130 years of combined experience — Shelby Burton, Beth Melewski, Liz Allen and Dee Ryan — will lead a workshop highlighting the key elements of their renowned long-form HodgePodge, a staple at The Bughouse Theater in Chicago.
The workshop focuses on the HodgePodge approach to:
group scenes maximizing collective creativity
the power of the personal monologue to enhance individual expression
building trust within the ensemble for early backline involvement
calling back and expanding scenes with confidence
This is an opportunity to tap into a female forward group mind and experience these ladies’ approach to creating cohesive long-form. Elevate your improv skills with guidance from some of the most respected performers in the field.
Writing for Late Night
with John Thibodeaux of 3Peat
11am - 1pm (2 hrs.)
For: All levels
Creating Realistic Characters
with Jill Bernard
10am - 1pm (3 hrs.)
For: Intermediate and above
Be Your Own Action Hero
with Carla Cackowski
11am - 1pm (2 hrs.)
For: All levels
Get out of your head and back into your body. Ithamar will supply tools, exercises, and games to build your physical comedy toolbox! Be much more in your comedic work than just a talking head. Surprise yourself by using physicality as a form of expression, and build stronger scene work. Along with his film and TV work, Ithamar has traveled the country performing his silent physical comedy solo show, Ithamar Has Nothing To Say, which was developed into a web series produced by Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key. Ithamar's theatrical and film/TV work as an actor and improviser includes: The Second City Chicago, WandaVision, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Miracle Workers, The Jim Henson Company's Puppet Up, Lady Bird, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Key and Peele.
Improv Workshop w/Individualized Notes
with Mick Napier
3pm - 6pm (3 hrs.)
For: Intermediate and above
Saturday, OCTOBER 12
Energy, confidence and decisiveness are 90% of the battle in improv, i.e. it's not so much what you say as when you say it and how you say it. How comfortable you are on stage will have a huge impact on how you're perceived by the audience. Whether you're a veteran improvisor or new to the artform, this is the perfect workshop for the performer who needs to practice owning their impulses and delivering them with confidence right away.
HodgePodge Form Deep Dive
with Hodgepodge
11am - 2pm (3 hrs.)
For: All levels
Participatory Q&A w/Real-Time Exercises
with Mick Napier
11am - 2pm (3 hrs.)
For: All levels
Mick Napier, founder of Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre, takes questions about any aspect of improv from the audience and creates participatory exercises on the spot to address them. Don’t miss out on this rare opportunity for an improv legend to help you work on what’s got you stuck!
If you are writing a Late Night-style show, working on a writing packet or have thought about it, then this workshop is for you! Students will bring in a newspaper of choice and together we will craft jokes and monologues that would work on a late night show.
This workshop teaches folks how to play for quicker pacing, just like the award winning group 3Peat. How tight can you be as an ensemble? We’ll work on techniques to improve trust and play harder that will improve the dynamics and add much needed energy to any show.
Playing Fast and Fun
with Patrick Rowland of 3Peat
11am - 1pm (2 hrs.)
For: Intermediate and above
Shut up and Move! (Saturday)
with Ithamar Enriquez
3pm - 5pm (2 hrs.)
For: All levels
Get out of your head and back into your body. Ithamar will supply tools, exercises, and games to build your physical comedy toolbox! Be much more in your comedic work than just a talking head. Surprise yourself by using physicality as a form of expression, and build stronger scene work. Along with his film and TV work, Ithamar has traveled the country performing his silent physical comedy solo show, Ithamar Has Nothing To Say, which was developed into a web series produced by Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key. Ithamar's theatrical and film/TV work as an actor and improviser includes: The Second City Chicago, WandaVision, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Miracle Workers, The Jim Henson Company's Puppet Up, Lady Bird, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Key and Peele.
Vapapo: Character Toolkit
with Jill Bernard
3pm - 5pm (2 hrs.)
For: All levels
Jill Bernard offers a character toolkit to give participants the ability to create strong, compelling characters that they can hang onto through the whole scene. This session will focus on using Voice, Attitude or Posture, and Animal, Prop or Obsession to build instant characters. Participants will use these tools to fearlessly initiate scenes, create relationships and find agreement. Please wear close-toed shoes to this workshop.
Creating Characters From the Outside In
with Jennifer Estlin
3pm - 6pm (3 hrs.)
For: All levels
Join talented actor and co-owner and Executive Producer of the Annoyance Theatre, Jennifer Estlin, as she uses Laban technique and improvisation, to work on creating and sustaining characters.
Sell It!
with Craig Cackowski
3pm - 6pm (3 hrs.)
For: All levels
Hodgepodge: Singular to Plural
with Hodgepodge
2:30pm - 4:30pm (2 hrs.)
For: All levels
This workshop explores how a group takes singular monologues — honest revelations about oneself — and transforms them into group scenes. We’ll focus on listening to personal monologues for:
relationships
specifics
parallel ideas
connections
satire opportunities
The teachers will address the common pitfalls of improv-from- monologues:
re-enacting the monologue
sinking into plot
ignoring theme
The transformation from singular to plural is the cornerstone of Hodge Podge’s form.
More on Hodgepodge.