Tim Orr workshop tour 2014

Full details of the recent workshop tour by San Francisco's Tim Orr, please see the wonderful report by Laura Doorneweerd.

Hili Yalon @ ImproBattle

Hili Yalon visited Impro Battle to conduct a workshop "Goodbye Mask." The workshop was attended by 20 participants. The objective of the workshop was to get the actor in touch with their own truth in order to become more believable. The side effects of the workshop were for the group to get to know each other better and to feel safer amongst each other. One of the  nicest points in the workshop came towards the end when all the participants read a monologue they wrote. The entire room was at full attention and the emotions of the readers were incredibly real and honest. Some immediate reviews from ImproBattle's closed Facebook page:
"Was vandaag weer een top les anders dan voorheen maar heb er echt wat van opgestoken het gaf mij weer power en extra inspiratcie om weer lekker de draad van impro battle op te pakken nogmaals was te gekke les en me complimente aan de leraares"

"It was a Great evening and we have been talking about working together with the israel class . So Lets hope .thanks a lot all of you but first off all the theacher hili thanks a lot"

Thanks Hili and hope to see you again soon.

Workshop with JSTAR from Atlanta

The fabulous JSTAR is coming to Amsterdam!
JSTAR ıs the founder and artıstıc dırector of the 9 year old Basement Theatre ın Atlanta, GA USA. He ıs also the producer of the Spontaneous Combustıon ımprov festıval ın Atlanta ın March (2013 wıll be year 6 for the fest) Jstar has studıed at ıO (ımprov olympıc), Second Cıty and The Annoyance ın Chıcago as well as UCB New York, and Keıth Johnstone. He has also worked wıth everyone (alıve) who has wrıtten an ımprov book! Hıs ımprov style and teachıng combınes the best of the best from all schools ın order to have the most fun on stage! Jstar has travelled the world teachıng and performıng ımprov... ask to see hıs tattoos!

He'll be teaching a workshop on Saturday November 23 about starting scenes in new ways called: THREE STEPS AWAY.
How many times do we get that suggestion from the audience
HAMBURGER... and start the scene... "this is the best Hamburger!"
MOTORCYCLE... "This is the first time I've ridden a motorcycle!"
FOREST..."I've never been to the forest before!"
In this workshop we learn how to expand from the Suggestions
to begin dynamic scenes that will please not only your audience
but you as the actor!

The workshop takes place at Crea in Amsterdam from 1 to 4pm, and costs only 25euros.

Email to anne@easylaughs.nl for more information or to register.

ps If you want to see him perform, he'll take the stage with easylaughs the night before (Friday November 22)

Tim Orr (USA) - Advanced Wheres and Action

Tim Orr is an actor and trainer from San Francisco, who played with renowned groups like 3 For All and True Fiction Magazine. He now owns his own company Improv Playhouse of San Francisco and has been visiting The Netherlands every two years since he performed at the Amsterdam impro festival in 2005.

For his 2013 tour he visited 3 countries to teach Dutch, Belgian and French improvisers (almost) everything he knows that can add to better improvising.

And it started all with the weekend intensive Advanced Wheres and Action. About this workshop Tim said: "I haven’t taught this yet in Amsterdam. I think that people would love it!"

After 2,5 days of swimming in the Olympics, getting lost in horror houses, flying helicopters and chasing murderers on a merry-go-round, that was indeed what had happened: all 14 participants loved it. And each other. And Tim for inspiring each of them tremendously. 

To close, the master himself speaks:

"Many thanks to all my students, friends and colleagues in Amsterdam and throughout The Netherlands for an awesome month of improv!  It's an honor to work and play with you.  Special thanks to Lady Laura Doorneweerd for a great job of organizing all the workshops, and also to All Improv for its support. Hope to see you next year!" 

Kevin Gillese (Rapid Fire Theatre) teaching two workshops

Kevin Gillese of Rapid Fire Theatre fame is coming to Amsterdam and teaching two workshops:

1. Shortform impro comedy: Saturday April 20th, 13:00 - 15:30, Crea Amsterdam.
Price: € 30,- per person. Max number of participants: 12. Experience level: All

Description:
Kevin has performed more Theatresports than anything else, and in this workshop he will be bringing all his favourite games and structures to play around with. You will brush up on some games that you have forgotten about, and learn some new ones too. In addition to this the instructor will share his personal tips and tricks for strong short form scenes. As we all know, having strong improv skills is only half the work, the other half is knowing how to play the format that you're in, and that's what this workshop is all about: mastering the art of short, improvised comedy scenes.

2. Narrative in longform: Saturday April 20th, 16:00 - 19:00, Crea Amsterdam.
Price: € 30,- per person. Max number of participants: 12. Experience level: Must have some experience with long form improv.

Description:
Kevin's personal improv philosophy is that narrative is a fundamental part of almost every type of improvised theatre, and that not enough focus is given to developing those storytelling skills. In this workshop Kevin will go over all the building blocks of narrative (objectives, super objectives, conflict, narrative arcs, etc.) and then lead the group through a variety of exercises designed to strengthen those specific muscles.

Kevin is mostly known from his 2-men improv group "Scratch". He performs all over the world and has a wonderful style of teaching.

Apply by e-mailing to: david@groenbrothers.com.

Payment can be cash at the workshop, or if preferred by invoice.

OFFER: if you attend both workshops, you pay only € 50 for 2 workshops!

Harri Olli from Switzerland and Dizzy and the Pit Kittens

The night of the 17th of November held for improv lovers a very special occasion

at CREA: the groups Harri Olli from Switzerland and Dizzy and the Pit Kittens
teamed up to show a variety of longform styles and foster international improv
exchange.

First Dizzy at the Pitt Kittens took the stage to perform their show ‘Whirlpool’.
This format highlights the power of the combination of abstract scene work,
realistic scenes, and colorful stories. In a collage of scenes inspired by the
two words betrayal and paranoia. After presenting an improvised dance, in
which everyone of the four performers took the lead at some point, to lure the
audience in and probably warming up their bodies Dizzy and the Pitt Kittens
took the audience on a journey through single scenes and reoccurring stories
about cheating wives, rejection in social groups, the royal hierarchies and land
ownership among lions, the old rivalry between postman and dog, and others.

They presented not only how to stay in and instantly refind strong characters but
also how to organically transform smoothly from one scene to the next with all
players on the stage at all times, even if the scene is only about two or even one
person. This was for the spectator surely the most inspiring experience, leaving
us with the question “How the hell did they do that?”.

It was clear that there were four highly skilled and well assembled performers
on stage who seem to have found an outstanding level of groupmind and who
dare to go to places very few other improv groups would take their scenes:
funny, sad, and abstract all in one show.
(by: Gerald Weber)

In the second half the three players of the Swiss longform group Harri Olli took
to the stage. The two founders Gerry and Simone trained this year with BATS
from San Fransisco and brought BATS format ' The Naked Stage' with them to
Zurich.

Earlier in 2012 the duo had performed their two men show (also made possible
by All Improv) and for this second performance they invited new group member
Niggi to perform with them. ‘The Naked Stage’ consisted of three acts, each with
a predetermined length in time, and no change of characters or location. The
audience suggested a shed for a location and the three performers told the story
of a man dealing with the relationship with his father now and in the past, and
how that affected his marriage.

The story evolved in a calm pace with a very interesting tension underneath it.
Regularly this tension was broken by the funny twists in the universe they had
carefully created. For instance when Sarah, the wife, made light hearted remarks
about issues that her husband had difficulty dealing with, both frustrating
and thawing him. It was in moments like this, that the actors could show their
experience as an ensemble and the acting skills that they individually own.

The evening ended with a short jam session with all seven players on stage in
which they showed themselves from even more different sides. The audience got
a full spectrum of abstract, serious, and light fun as a dessert.
(by: Laura Doorneweerd)