Friday Afternoon: Student and Alumni Workshops

all these workshops will be offered from five to seven, except jim's mime workshop, which will be five to six thirty.

Adam Brooks (student): Musical Improv. Croon like Bing Crosby! Serenade like Ella Fitzgerald! Or just sing like yourself! Whether you think you can sing or not, learning to belt out a made-up song on the spot can be the most impressive thing to an audience! We will be covering rhyming schemes, song structures, musical exercises, solo songs and duets. Leave your inhibitions behind, and let?s get singing!

Jesse Jarnow (alumnus): Improvisation as Instant Composition. We will go �ber-Geek on some bands that use improvisation as a center, using listening examples and exercises to discuss ways that musical ideas emerge and ossify within a band over a period of time, and methods of listening to, dissecting, and discussing these ideas as art -- how a frozen moment of beautiful spontaneity can be contextualized and understood as both a process and a product. Presentation with examples, vocal listening exercises, and discussion. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Mike Leibowitz (student): Music Improv for Musicians and Non-Musicians. This workshop will explore techniques of free musical expression. The group will participate in a number of exercises intended to encourage spontaneity and instinct, as well as listening and accompanying others. The voice and body will be the primary instruments used in this workshop. No musical experience is required.

Mandoline Whittlesey (student): Dance/Movement Improvisation. Follow impulse and influence to create movement and composition. Develop sense of awareness and open up to possibility, both of one's body and of space/environment/others. Come dressed to move and ready to explore. No Previous Experience Required.

Jim Williams (student): Mime for Improvisers. In this workshop, Jim, an accomplished mime and a professional clown, will demonstrate and teach the art of effective mime for the improviser.

Kimberly Madalinsky (student): Contact Improv. This unique form of improvised movement will get you more in touch with the instrument that is your body, allowing you to find physical solutions in scenes and to be aware of yourself physically to create pleasant stage pictures.

Saturday Afternoon: Professional and Alumni Workshops

Saturday's workshops will run from eleven in the morning until six in the evening. Each of the professional workshops will be offered three times, once from eleven to one, once from two to four, and once from four to six. the alumni workshops will be offered as noted in the description below.

Miles Stroth (professional): Approaches to Long-Form

Miles is a twelve year long-form vet, and has spent ten of those years teaching at Improv Olympic and around the country. He was a member of the seminal troupe The Family, and the creator or co-creator of the Deconstruction, The Movie, The Armando, Lerand, The Horror, The Check-in Expansion, Zumpf, and many others. Del Close called him long-forms War Cheif. Maybe five people on the planet know long form as well as he does.

Miles' workshop will cover the following topics: How to approach the scene so you can play with anyone, a better layout of Harold, playing the piece as well as the scene, making use of pace and information, and the smart close.

Dan Bakkadahl (professional): Smaller Cast Long-Form

Dan Bakkedahl graduated from Florida State University about 100 years ago. Since then, Dan has traveled the entire country, and the middle east, spreading the word of comedy. Dan currently works for the Second City National Touring Company, where his responsibilities include living on $30 a day. Dan is a founding member of the 2 person national phenomenon that is ZUMPF. Believe me, it's easier with only two people.

Dan's will be a workshop focusing on the finer points of a smaller cast long-form improvised show. The main focus will be on learning how to get rid of the safety net that a larger cast gives a player. Learning how to edit yourself, your scene, and you partner. Branching out into multi-person scenes, (two people filling a single location with characters). Understanding that there is a need for even more attention to detail in smaller casts. (All info. given is important, realize that audiences hear it all and want to see it all again) Learining that you are 50% of the cast and that the responsibility to "take care of" you partner is hightened by that fact. I will be working towards getting players comfortable with being that 50% and playing that whole half.

Shaun Landry (professional): Workshop Description Currently Unavailable

Shaun, a native South Side Chicagoan, is the Artistic Director of Oui Be Negroes. Other credits include The National Touring Company of the Second City, The Second City Children's Theatre Co., The African American Shakespeare Company, Hit and Run Productions, Rough Theatre Company and Geese Theatre Company.

Shaun's workshop will focus on Intimacy in improv.. "The lack of intimacy onstage with improvisational performers is an always revolving topic in this work," says Shaun. "The object is to create realistic scenes within the environment, while in some way respecting and/or breaking the physical barriers around ourselves" This workshop will create a foundation for beginning to intermediate Improv actors. Basic physical theatre techniques and games will be used to achieve stronger scenes that are more intimate in nature.

Andy Eninger (professional): Solo Improv, the Ultimate Challenge!

An approach to solo improvisation as a way to strengthen character work & scene work in any situation. Participants discover their own personal "improv" voice and gain a new level of confidence, commitment and sense of responsibility onstage. Andy is a member of Boy Girl Boy .

Celeste Pechous and James Bennet (professional): Being at Play Onstage

Unleash the Playful Beast! Participants will learn from Jim and Celeste, the masters of "play," to get out of their heads and back to having fun onstage. This workshop is great for anybody who's become too cerebral in their improv or for improvisers who feel that they're stuck in a rut. Celeste and James are members of Boy Girl Boy.

Marissa Leonino (alumna): Developing the Group Mind (four to six)

Before graduating Oberlin in May last year, Marissa Leonino directed the Sunshine Scouts, Oberlin's long form improv troupe, for two semesters, directed Pageant, an improvised beauty pageant, and organized last year's conference. Marissa now lives in Chicago, where she works and takes classes at Improv Olympic.

Marissa's workshop will deal with developing the group mind. The group mind is a source of energy. We, as improvisers, need to believe that it exists, see it and plug into it. Be in the moment...the next scene will take care of itself. The GROUPMIND workshop will focus on how to have humility, let go and give yourself up to the group. Go where the group mind takes you. Give in. We will also explore ways to take care of yourself first. If you take care of yourself with a gift then you can take care of your partner.

Yvonne Piper (alumna): Sex Work as Improvisation (reverse it and it's also true) (eleven to one)

Yvonne Piper was a founding member of the Sunshine Scouts, Oberlin's long form improv troupe, and has extensive experience in the wacky world of sex work.

This workshop explores the improvisational techniques utilized in several types of sex work, as well as the dynamics of BDSM as applied to stage work. Players are encouraged to be uninhibited and ready to master/mistress some fun life skills.

Graeme Hinde (alumnus): Working with Objectives (Two to Four)

Graeme took the Improv Olympic Summer Intensive in 1999, and had a brief stint in Austin Theatersports in 2000. He's been directing the Sunshine Scouts, Oberlin's long form improv troupe, for almost a year now, and has been directing Last Exit in New Jersey, Oberlin's semi-improvised episodic teen drama, for almost a year and a half.

Many improvisers lack basic acting training. In order to create truly engaging scenes, an improviser must make his character want something from the other character, and must know how to get it, using his body as well as his voice. This workshop will offer an introduction to these skills.