About This Series:
Intended for experienced and freshly baked improvisers alike, this 4-part series is geared towards helping you find ease and comfort in improv.
We will experiment with different elements that can naturally help us inhabit and discover scenes from the ground up. In this series we will lay aside rules and formulas (CROW, Story Spines, Harolds and forms and the like).
Instead, we will focus on foundational skills that make improv natural, effortless, and more authentic. What happens when we let go of what we should be, stop making things up, and discover what’s naturally there when we let ourselves be, feel, and connect.
The basic idea of this series is that when we ground ourselves in reality improv becomes both fuller and easier. Different people find different tools helpful, so we will explore a variety of elements that can help you feel more grounded, relaxed and authentic, on the way to naturally discover characters, relationships, and scenes. When we discover the reality of a scene that’s really there, felt, experienced, lived in, improv becomes much easier, and some (me!) would argue, more satisfying. And the funny? Funny will happen.
Each workshop can be taken standalone, but taking the full set is recommended, and we can offer a special rate for all four workshops!
About this Workshop:
Part III: Connection – our partners can be our greatest source of inspiration. This workshop will dive into how close observation of and authentic engagement with our partner can reveal the reality of the scene and have us effortlessly improvise through lived experience of what naturally exists and emerges in that magical in-between.
About the Facilitator:
Aner Tal (he/him) has been improvising since 2007 or 8 (he forgets). He started improvising in Durham, NC, and has since committed acts of improv wherever he lived, including Ithaca, NY, Tel-Aviv, IL, and, soon, Baltimore, MD (that's here! OMG). He's been lucky enough to learn Improv in some of the best and brightest theatres (Impro Theater, The Nursery, Improv Theater, Comedy Worx, and Momentum Theater, etc.), as well as some the best and brightest teachers (Patti Stiles, Inbal Lori, Mike Rock, Amir Atzmon, and Jules Munns, to name a few). He's performed with intermittent groups as well as the global/online ensembles Professional Weirdos, Dream Factory, Something in the Water (RIP), and Murder Cats (meow!). Some day he will start/join a stable live improvised theater ensemble.
Teaching wise, Aner has taught improv as well as a variety of other things since 2010. In addition to improvising, Aner is a Professor of Behavioral Economics, a writer, dancer, and a retired Acro-Yogi. His life long love is stories, and he's spent most of his life trying to make those stories repay his love, in improv, in creative writing, and in the current book he is working, which loosely revolves around the psychology of stories. He enjoys writing about himself in the third person.
Key Logisitics - Please Read for Ease!
All participants are required to follow the Highwire Improv Code of Conduct and arrive on-time to make sure that we can align on how we'll hold space for one another.
Parking is available for free in the parking lot at the intersection of 20th and St. Paul Streets. You'll enter through the doors on the raised porch on the St. Paul street side of the building. St. Mark's is an accessible space - for any detailed questions, please reach out to highwireimprov@gmail.com
About Highwire Improv:
Highwire Improv’s mission is to steward a community of artists committed to growth, collaboration, joy, and justice — in Baltimore and around the world — through improvisational theater. Learn more at https://www.highwireimprov.com
