This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of the ACTING part of narrative improvisation. We will practice skills that connect our internal process to our external words and actions, and yes, I will also use some neuroscience ideas to help introduce you to your Engineer and Jazz Brain and help you bring those sensibilities into harmony when you’re improvising scenes in a Narrative context! We’ll cover the importance Listening Through Emotion, Psychological Awareness and Narrative Strategy, Forwarding Relationships, Manifesting Story and Comedic Promises so that both Story and Comedy are a consequence of the connection between characters that we care about. We’ll also touch on Comedy Through Connection and Hot Reads as techniques we can use in the moment to engage each other, our story, and our audience. I will also offer some personal and general feedback to help you apply these skills going forward in your Impro/v life!
This will feel very much like an acting class because it is!
Date: 6/29/2025 11:00am -1:30pm
Location: 5700 6th Ave S Suite 109 Seattle. WA 98108
Maximum Students: 16
Cost: $140 ($147.61 including booking fees)
Prerequisite: None
Ages: 18 and above
About the Instructor: Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Improvised Storytelling and Scenic, Longform & Duo Improvisation in North America today. He is one of the founding members of Annoyance Theater Chicago where, for 12 years, he performed in and/or directed more than 60 different shows. Joe is ½ of the first touring Improv Duo in North America, BASSPROV, created in 2000 with Mark Sutton. They are still performing at Festivals and theater engagements globally 24 years later. Since then Joe’s been touring all over the world teaching, directing, and improvising with several other amazing Duo Partners like Patti Stiles (Our Play), Jill Bernard (SCRAM!), Stacey Hallal (Stacey & Joe, We Slept Together) Lee White (Paradigm), Heather Urquart (Blues Hammer), Felipe Ortiz (Les Disciplinos) and David Razowsky (Razowsky & Bill), ALL in different, original formats and styles. He's touring his solo scripted show, written as he successfully took on and survived Surgeries & chemo associated with 3 different cancers from late 2022 to early 2024, Joe Bill: Surviving Consciousness, (Lessons learned from Cancer, LSD & Michael Jordan) all over the U.S. and the world. In April 2024 he debuted it at the Auckland Imrprov Festival in Auckland, NZ. He has since preformed it at Festivals and Theaters across the USA and will record it at Curious Comedy Theater in Portland, OR in early 2025. He is the creator and host of Story Chain, a virtual (and now sometimes live!), 90-minute, international story sharing event that he developed in 2020 during the Pandemic. He was the Director of Corporate Training at iO Chicago for 15 years and started training and performing there in 1985. He was a Guest Artist in Residence at The Second City Training Center & Conservatory where he taught intensives in Duo Improvisation and Improvisation for Actors for 10 years.Award (Best-Taped Live Performance - The Minnesota Wrecking Crew), with The Imponderables nominated for the same award.
