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yourself a FESTIVAL PASS!
All classes will take place on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church building (directions here) at 1020 W Bryn Mawr. We will be on the City Lit stage, in City Lit’s 2 rehearsal spaces on the 2nd floor, and Redtwist theatre’s rehearsal space on the 3rd floor. All spaces are accessible by elevator.
Refunds/cancellation policy
Friday, July 11th workshops
Get in Focus with David Razowsky
What are you focused on when you begin a scene? What great offers are you missing because you’re building a story instead of a relationship? Get in Focus will teach you how to use the power of their kinesthetic responses to build strong scenes the moment the scene starts. Recognize how your body tells you where to focus your attention, then build a great connection from there.
Friday, July 11th, 9 AM-12 PM
Mainstage
$55
Insta-team, Insta-show! with Tony Rielage
Are you ready to perform but maybe don’t have a team? Join the insta-team class and let’s put together a show in just 4 hours! DIF’s one and only insta-team is a fast-paced journey from brainstorm to stage. We’ll build an improv show structure from scratch and premiere it as the opening performance of the Friday night 7 PM show!
Friday, July 11th, 1-5 PM
Mainstage
$60
Saturday, July 12th workshops
Point of View with David Razowsky
It’s the bedrock of every relationship. You state your point of view, and your partner says theirs. Sounds easy, right? But how often are scenes derailed because the actors don’t hold onto their points of view or mindlessly add unnecessary details that throw the scene off course? Recognizing, maintaining, and evolving a point of view creates confident and exciting scenes.
Saturday, July 12th, 9 AM-12 PM
Mainstage
$55
Focus Out to Focus In with Michael J. Gellman
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 to in every performance.
Saturday, July 12th, 9 AM-12 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 2
$55
Character Sustainability and Evolution with Jaime Rich and Randy Wight
Discover how to create dynamic, multidimensional characters that endure and adapt over the course of a scene, a show, or even a series of performances.
This interactive workshop focuses on character sustainability and evolution in improv, equipping participants with the tools to:
- Build authentic characters with depth and clear motivations.
- Maintain consistency in choices while exploring flexibility in response to shifting dynamics.
- Use emotional range, physicality, and voice to evolve characters naturally.
Through engaging exercises and practical techniques, students will learn how to stay true to their character's core while embracing transformation, keeping performances fresh and the audience captivated.
Saturday, July 12th, 1-3 PM
Mainstage
$30
Playing with Patience with Heather Marie Vitale
Playing with patience helps you key more into what's happening in the scene and in the environment as you're giving yourself and your scene room to breathe. You're able to better connect with your scene partner, make organic choices, and keep your scene strong.
Students will learn how to slow down, listen, and concentrate on their scenes to boost connection, communication, and laughs on stage. Focus will be on organic play, realism, and emotionality. Students will be playing with dramatic themes, but will learn how to find the funny and the game of the scene with patience. By the end of the class, students will be able to apply these lessons to multiple long-form formats.
Saturday, July 12th, 1-3 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 2
$50
Playing the Villain with Ben St. John
It is not easy being bad. There is a desire to want to play likable characters on stage, and playing a character so far removed from our own morals and ethics can feel very unnatural. This workshop will be exploring characters we usually shy away from while diving into the viewpoint and motivations of these antagonists. Without being cartoonish we will be using space, status and varying tactics to achieve our dastardly ends. It is easy to forget how rewarding and fun it is to play the villain. Because of the vulnerable nature of this work this workshop requires trust and openness from its participants.
Saturday, July 12th, 3:30-5:30 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 1
$30
Discovery Over Invention: How To Listen With Intention with Tanya Morgan
This workshop is focused on full body listening. Only through listening deeply are we able to fully respond and engage with our scene partner. Through a series of intense acting exercises and improv warm-ups students will learn about themselves, each other and the characters they create.
Saturday, July 12th, 3:30-5:30 PM
Redtwist Rehearsal Room
$55
Sustaining Tension in Improv with Kathy Rinaldi
Humans love tension. Will they or won't they kiss? When will the killer strike? Is she cheating on him - or him on her? In improv, the challenge is how to increase and/or sustain the tension so that the audience stays interested through a 1 minute scene or a full 90 minute show. Some people call this “raising the stakes”, but it's more than that. I like to think of it as increasing the tension; yes, piling on the stakes but also holding that tension. The audience sees that there's a lot to win and a lot to lose- even if that's something as simple as a kiss with a new love.
In this workshop, we'll use exercises to explore ways in which to sustain tension, and also create scenes that explore tension and its effect on both comedic and dramatic scenes.
Saturday, July 12th, 9 AM-12 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 1
$50
Emotional Vulnerability: The Art Of Getting Hurt On Purpose with Sarah Marie Curry & Cat Drago
The greatest gift to the dramatic improviser is learning to “take the hit” at the right time, for the greatest effect. This tool can help shape the scene, reveal and deepen the reality and relationship and heighten the intensity to great purpose. But to do so organically and authentically is a skill that requires practice! In this workshop, students will practice basic emotional responses and scene building techniques, specifically applied for dramatic effect.
Saturday, July 12th, 9 AM-12 PM
Redtwist Rehearsal Room
$40
The Space Between... with Diana Brown
The Space Between...
Sustaining your choices in the spaces between the words.
In this workshop we'll be mining the silence for the specificity of your intention.
Come and explore the rich inner life of your characters.
Play with the complexities of emotions that inform the human experience.
Learn ways to extend the dynamic tension between players without sacrificing brevity.
You'll leave this workshop with tools for and appreciation of staying in the golden moment.
All experience levels are welcome
Saturday, July 12th, 1-3 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 1
$45
Dramatic Improv in Immersive Theatre with Nina Castillo-D'Angier & Maren Rosenberg
In this immersive theatre workshop, you'll learn how to craft intimate and effective scenes with an untrained partner, perfect for interactive one-on-ones with audience members; how to negotiate consent and safety through self- and audience advocacy; and how to maintain the trajectory of your narrative while leaving space for audience agency. We'll also spend time brainstorming and developing your own work from ideation down to props and we'll run 1-on-1 scenes crafted during the workshop. When you leave, you'll have the skills and practice necessary to start dreaming up your own immersive pop-up!
Saturday, July 12th, 1-3 PM
Redtwist Rehearsal Room
$55
Stage Picture Secrets: Status and Power with Megan Sherrod
As our improv journey begins, we frequently find ourselves bound to certain sections of the stage. In this workshop, we will focus on stage pictures as a means of jump starting and informing both scenes and characters. By using all of the stage, we increase our options and empower ourselves to start with more information and stronger, bolder choices.
Saturday, July 12th, 3:30-5:30 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 2
$50
Sunday, July 13th workshops
Yes – And Also No! Navigating Boundaries, Consent, and Intimacy in Improv with Joy Carletti
"Yes - And Also No! Navigating Boundaries, Consent, and Intimacy in Improv" examines personal and partner boundaries in improv. Learn how to set physical and emotional limits both in rehearsal and onstage, navigate tricky topics with scene partners, and make bold choices without sacrificing safety or trust. We’ll also examine the optics of intimacy – because what you portray isn't always what the audience sees. Walk away with tools to help you create more dynamic scenes while taking care of yourself and your fellow players.
Sunday, July 13th, 9 AM-12 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 1
$40
Fear Embodied: Improvising Horror for the Stage with Marc Majcher
This workshop explores the unique challenges of improvising horror on stage. From ghost stories whispered around the campfire to world-shattering cosmic nightmares, we'll practice techniques to make the terrible viscerally real, evoke dread through movement and narration, and create settings that immerse performers and audience alike into the horrible unknown. No experience required, just a desire to get out of your comfort zone and creep folks out.
Sunday, July 13th, 9 AM-12 PM
Redtwist Rehearsal Room
$55
Stanislavski and Scene Dynamics with Oliver Georgiou
“On the stage do not run for the sake of running, or suffer for the sake of suffering. Don't act ‘in general’, for the sake of action; always act with a purpose.”
-Konstantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares
A part of my acting training that always stuck with me was the Stanislavski script analysis exercise of splitting a scene into beats, writing in the character's objective for that beat, and then the actions they're taking to achieve it. If they don't achieve it, they'll have to give up or try a different tactic; if they do, then the script will tell you what happens next. When there is no script, we have to flip the equation and let the desires and actions of the characters guide us through the unknown that is our unscripted play.
In this class, we'll play with objectives, super-objectives, and tactics. We'll learn healthy conflict dynamics, to recognize when a beat ends, and how to move forward with purpose. And we'll discover the benefits of both stumbling in with nothing and starting with a clear sense of direction.
Sunday, July 13th, 1-4 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 1
$50
Game of the Relationship with Karla Dingle
Do you enjoy playing with game but sometimes struggle to find one, or get your scene partner on the same page? Then, this is the workshop for you! You'll learn how to find your character's game first. Then, you'll use that game to challenge your partner's game. When that is accomplished, it's all about repeating and heightening and using your game to establish the dynamics of that relationship. Some of the tools used in this workshop will be honorifics, emotional noises, pet names and more.
Come to this workshop for experienced performers, that debuted at the 2022 Improv Ireland Festival with 2 sold out sessions. You will leave understanding that improv is about playing, agreement is about creating the relationship and justification is about finding the game. Once you've got all 3 intertwined you can play the game longer as well as rest it and return to it.
Sunday, July 13th, 9 AM-12 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 2
$45
Whatever Shaun Landry Would Like to do with Shaun Landry
Veteran Improviser Shaun Landry serves up exercises, games and interactive teaching and focuses on what YOU need to put into your improvisational toolkit. Whether to find joyful play, comedic or dramatic scenework or the tips of creating full scenes within long or short form, Ms. Landry does whatever she would like to teach via whatever you need. A three hour intensive for intermediate improvisers.
Sunday, July 13th, 1-4 PM
Mainstage
$45
You Already Know What's Going On with Michael J. Astrauskas
Confidence doesn't necessarily mean high-status, but means you are 100 percent behind what you're doing. Any character can be interesting and relatable if the improviser (and by extension the character) believes in themselves and their own life experiences. This workshop has games and exercises to focus on bringing out aspects of yourself as characters by creating a safe environment to commit and play naturally, rather than play as what you think you should be doing.
Sunday, July 13th, 1-4 PM
City Lit Rehearsal Room 2
$30
Duets – 10 Steps to Making Spectacular Duos with Ben Zolno
The combination of you and your show duet partner is not simply the sum of your parts. In this workshop (with a friend, old or new) we'll walk you through a playful process to discover the magic creature that is your unique duet!
Sunday, July 13th, 1-4 PM
Redtwist Rehearsal Room
$40
Questions? Email us at dif@theatremomentum.com