Paul Vaillancourt is the co-founder (with Charna Halpern) of the iO West and has been teaching and performing improv for close to 30 years. In that time he has appeared all over the country including such notable venues as HBO’s Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Chicago’s iO (where he studied with the immortal Del Close), New York’s UCB Theater, and Austin’s Out of Bounds Festival to name a few. Paul Vaillancourt is the co-founder (with Charna Halpern) of the iO…

David Razowsky is one of the top teachers of theatrical improvisation and acting, and the host of the podcast ADD Comedy with Dave Razowsky. In his own words from www.DavidRazowsky.com: “From my 10 revues at Chicago’s Second City performing with the likes of Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, and Rachel Dratch, to the 10 years I spent as Artistic Director of The Second City Los Angeles, to the countless worldwide workshops and performances I’ve engaged in, I’ve developed a…

Single Workshop Sales begin January 30. Enroll in the Full Weekend of Workshops now and save! How often do we find ourselves ‘stuck on stage’ going up into our heads instead of staying grounded and truly present for our fellow players?  In this workshop, we will explore tools to help maintain Points of Concentration within a scene and get us into the here and now.  Re-discover the ability to:  really see what we’re looking at and hear what we’re listening…

Emotion is the glue to an improv scene. It's the thing that will lead you to a strong and affective scene also a great POV, character and connection to your partner. Without it your scene will fall of the rails pretty fast. In this workshop, we will work on intense emotion in scenes and having emotion get you out of your head an playing to the top of your abilities. We will also use emotion to keep you in the…

Dissect the long-form structure bit by bit, starting with the opening and moving into the game, tag outs, walk-ons, editing, callbacks, ensemble, grounded-scene work, environment/object heightening and of course the characters and relationships that drive the long-form forward. "The Montage" and "The Oak Tree" will be the centerpiece of this focus. NOTE: Location TBD. This workshop will not be held at Unscrewed Theater.

Sharpen your skills with a back to the basics workshop intensive with Michael J. Gellman.