Workshops at the Manila Improv Festival 2023

About Impro 4 Losers

A lot of times improvisers, especially in the beginning of their Improv journey, tend to get stuck because they think things like "my idea is stupid", or "I don't know what to do", and are happy when they think "now I'm going to do this super fun mega original thing". This is the Improv Winner mentality: not wanting to fail or hesitate, needing to impress. With this workshop, we will play with Improv Loser mentality: taking all the pressure off, bringing on stage the tiniest of offers, or even nothing; and we will see how even the smallest offer can eventually shine with beauty, if we don't think we have to "win" at all costs.

About Pierpaolo Buzza

Pierpaolo Buzza is a professional improviser, director, author and actor from Rome, Italy, currently based in Belgium where is the Artistic Director of Impro Brussels, the Improv school he founded, which has now over 100 students. He performs, teaches and directs theatre at all levels: from training beginners classes in Improv, to directing professionals in perfecting their formats. He writes and directs scripted theatre as well. His original play "When Time Stands Still" starred at Rome Fringe Festival and Scripted Toronto Festival. He has been doing this job since 2006, creating and playing shows of all kinds: from short form games to dramatic long form, and everything in between. His Master in Storytelling Techniques allows him to improvise on a number of different genres. His Improv format "Eight Worlds" has been played all around the world. He has also been a stand up comedian, sketch writer, radio author, creative writing teacher, and math teacher... but that's completely another story. When he's not in Belgium, he's teaching and performing Improv around the world: nearly all countries in Europe; outside of Europe he performed Improv in Canada, USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Venezuela. He improvises in Italian, English, Spanish and silence.

About Comedy in Improv

Explore the elements that make us laugh, using methods from ancient Greece to modern shows like 'Seinfeld' and 'The Office'. Elevate the fun and humor in every scene.

About Tal Zolty

Tal is an actress and comedian specializing in improvisation. She has acted in the National Theatre of Israel, won the improv championship of Israel with "Duda," and together they have participated in many improv festivals around the world.

She has also been teaching improv and comedy for the past seven years and has a running stand-up show in Tel Aviv.

About I, Parsley

In this workshop, one looks at how players can add a dimension of delight through walk ins, tag outs, and other devices that help elevate, isolate, and make the three-person scene a little more navigable through improved collaboration.

About Jasson Villanueva

J is a Senior High School teacher and College Instructor from Manila, Philippines teaching Physics, Earth Science, Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction, College Ethics, Science, Technology, and Society, Purposive Communication, and Professional Education Subjects. As an improv practitioner, he started improvising in 1995 when he fell in love with the artform as he watched and later joined the Bibliotheque Improvisation Group at the Philippine Normal University. He put art on a pause but later came back to it after a life-changing accident. He joined One and a Half Men in 2016 and then later graduated with the pioneering batch of Third World Improv, Is It Wednesday Yet?, and was part of the five-man group Improvijason composed of all members named Jason. He later founded Crammers Collective (the first youth improv group in Manila), Schrodinger's Act (The First High School Improv Club in the Philippines), The La Ronde Project, Graze Box, and Dumagli. During the pandemic he has attended training with Theatre Momentum, Queen City Comedy, Theatre 99, and Hoopla. As a way of giving back and keeping it together during the pandemic, he has put together safe online play spaces at the Virtual Improv Jam because there is always space in a hug.

About Platforms and Initiations

If you start your scene with strong, clear offers then you're setting yourself up for success, period. This workshop will look at the different types of initiations at your disposal and the various ways to platform your scene so you can get to the fun. Have better scenes by creating clear, playful and interesting platforms, and take a huge step back from initiating your scenes with "hey".

About Matt Folliott

I'm a comedian, actor and writer from Toronto, and a former cast member of The Second City touring company & Canadian Comedy Award winning sketch group The Sketchersons. I was nominated two years in a row for Best Male Improviser in Toronto's NOW Magazine and I currently voice characters on shows like PJ Masks, Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe and Charlie's Colorforms City.

About Scene Work: The Chicago Way

Chicago is famous for grounded, honest, relationship-based improvisation scene work that produces deep laughs and deep sighs as the audience is moved to both. This style of work requires acting, listening, openness, patience, and responding through a shared process of give and take. This workshop will feature a deep dive into this process of two-person scene work that will bring improvisers discovery upon discovery. As those shared discoveries pile up, the improvised scene becomes deep, full and funny. It's the Chicago way.

About Jonathan Pitts

Jonathan Pitts is an award-winning international improv theatre artist from Chicago with over 30 years' experience. He's a creator, director, improviser, producer, and teacher, and he's also the Founder and Executive Director of Chicago Improv Productions.

He co-founded the Chicago Improv Festival and produced it for 20 years. He created and produced the College Improv Tournament for 10 years. He was Teen Comedy Fest's executive producer for 7 years. He's also the founder and producer of Chicago Podcast Festival for the past 2 years.

He has taught and performed internationally in 12 countries, as well as all over America. He's performed in over 1,250 improvised shows. He has created the improv shows, "The Make 'Em Ups", "The Oracle", "The Silent Movie", "Solo Plus One", "Stopwatch", and "Storybox Unscripted Theatre".

He taught at The Second City for 16 years and he's a contributing writer to their book on improvisation. He taught story-based improv at Piven Theatre Workshop. He's also taught at 25+ American cities at regional improv fests and improv theatres.

For 3 consecutive years he was selected by New City magazine as one of "Chicago's Top 50 Theatre Players" and he's been interviewed about improvisation in books, newspapers, online posts, podcasts, radio, and TV.

About More the Merrier

Have you ever found yourself being butted out of a scene because there were just too many people on stage? Scenes with more than 3-4 payers are tricky to manage for, both, the director(s) and the players. In this workshop, we're going to work on finding the sweet spot in scenes with a large cast, how to not steal attention when on stage, and how to keep the story from not getting complicated. We'll also cycle through scene formats than can convincingly manage large casts.

About Arjun Mehra

Arjun Mehra is a professional theatre artist, who's performed in over 400 shows across Barcelona, Dubai, Copenhagen, Vancouver, and Bangalore. During his time as the Artistic Director at Improv Comedy Bangalore, one of India's leading improvised and spontaneous theatre companies, and his time as a facilitator in Dubai, Arjun worked with numerous organisations to help: foster a greater sense of collaboration within teams; improve communication amongst colleagues, and; build resilience in face of failure. Some of the organisations he's worked with include Uber, IBM, BEL, Google, and Hult Business School. He was also the Artistic Director at the International Theatresports Institute (ITI), and worked on making global improvised theatre more accessible and safer, through policy building and research in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion space. Presently, he is the co-Founder, and Artistic Director at Improv Lore, a freshly minted improvised theatre troupe.

About Platforms and Initiations

If you start your scene with strong, clear offers then you're setting yourself up for success, period. This workshop will look at the different types of initiations at your disposal and the various ways to platform your scene so you can get to the fun. Have better scenes by creating clear, playful and interesting platforms, and take a huge step back from initiating your scenes with "hey".

About Matt Folliott

I'm a comedian, actor and writer from Toronto, and a former cast member of The Second City touring company & Canadian Comedy Award winning sketch group The Sketchersons. I was nominated two years in a row for Best Male Improviser in Toronto's NOW Magazine and I currently voice characters on shows like PJ Masks, Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe and Charlie's Colorforms City.

About Characters²

There are so many ways to find inspiration for characters. Together, we go on a journey to find as many as we can.

About Veronika Pammer

Vero started with improvisational theater ten years ago and immediately fell in love with it. She took as many workshops as possible and finally quit her job to go to full-time acting school, which she finished in 2020. Right now, she is traveling the world. Before that, she performed with her improv group "Harri Olli" in Zurich (Switzerland) and with her improv duo "the life unscene" in Cologne (Germany). She was also one of the organizers of "IFO Impro Fest Online". When not traveling, Vero works as a freelance Improvisor and as a physiotherapist. Her biggest passion in improvisational theater is "Longform", both associative and narrative. Vero especially enjoys creating something together and the feeling of surprising the audience and oneself.

About Love Me, Catch Me: K-Love Real Variety Show

This is a long-form which Imfrog made. This is based on the K-love real variety show version, "Love me, Catch me". There are so many Love reality variety shows in Korea and they are very popular right now. Such as "I'm solo", "I'm Back, Again", "Solo Hell" and so on… And there are so many characters and stories going on. We will make a long form about Love but based on Characters. and also with their stories. Who doesn't like LOVE? And who isn't interested in a love story? even no one knows who will be together or all will not be together!!!

About Hellena Jang

Hellena Jang is an experienced improv performer and coach based in Seoul, South Korea. She started Improv 12 years ago and traveled all the way to the US and Canada in 2014, 2016 and 2019. She took all kinds of intensives everywhere such as I.O, Secondcity, Huge theater, Annoyance, Comedy Sportz, The Pack Theater, and so on. When she came back from her first improv trip in 2014, she founded the very first Korean Improv school, and she made a Korean team which is IMFROG.

About How to Talk Cock, Sing Song: Intro to Short Form Musical Improv

Musical improv games are often seen as the hardest type of improv games. FAKE NEWS. IT ISN'T. Come join ASAP as they spill all their tips and secrets to becoming an Ace at musical improv games. The workshop will cover the following basics: - Basic voice work such as projection and pitching - Rhyming scheme and structure - Key elements of how to improvise a simple song Come challenge yourself and add a new tool to your improv arsenal in the process!

About Les Musicables (Joel, Pamy, Tim)

Joel Chua

Joel is a trained jazz musician who gigs regularly and is the go-to pianist for many famous Singaporean singers. As the resident Music Director for ASAP and Les Musicables, Joel has amassed over 12 years of improv music experience and is responsible for all the musical direction in Les Musicables.

Pamy Tan

As a writer and producer for Singapore's national TV network, Pamy has worked on many TV projects most notably the long-running soap 'Kin', and the groundbreaking sketch comedy series 'The Noose'. She is also the creator and head writer of the choose-your-own-adventure series, Adulting. Having been the creative director for Les Musicables for the past eight years, Pamy combines her expertise in scriptwriting with her love of improv and has taught many improvisers in Singapore on the ins and outs of plot and story arcs.

Timothy Yeo

Fresh off his run as Mark from Rent in Singapore, Tim returns to improv armed with more ideas and anecdotes for fusing musicals and improv together. As an improv coach, Tim has worked with many improvisers globally and has been in love with the artform for the past 12 years.

About Yes-And-tidote

Do you ever want to do scenes that are COMPLETELY No-But and still make deep, meaningful and realistic connections on stage? It's more than possible. Time for the Yes-And training wheels to come off.

About Balasree Viswanathan

Bala is an improviser based in Bangalore, India. She has been performing and teaching impro since 2016, creating her own show formats, teams and impro learning journeys in India. She started learning and performing impro in the United States when she was an engineering grad student. On returning to India, Bala joined India's largest Impro Theatre Company, Improv Comedy Bangalore. She has performed in and directed 70+ shows since. She co-founded India's first and only all-women Impro group - The Adamant Eves. It is an experiment in exploring the kind of stories that emerge when a bunch of women, sans men, get on stage. They have performed across India, and during the pandemic, virtually everywhere (virtually).

About Space Tension

There is so much beauty in space work. It's not just something improvisers do to buy time, or to look good, but more importantly, it's crucial to make the environment or object work part of your characters, using it to express an offer when the words cannot. Space Tension, like its name, will help you explore the beauty and joy of crafting space work intentionally and playfully, while feeling grounded and connected.

About Kim Thanh

Kim Thanh Lê is the director of The Rotten Grapes Improv Theatre (Hanoi, Vietnam) and has trained with coaches and instructors from the US, Canada & France. Kim has taught and performed improv across Vietnam, bringing this special art form to audiences who are mostly experiencing it for the first time. She coaches and directs the multiple teams with The Rotten Grapes, and was Vietnam's first representative at Singapore Improv Festival. May 2023, Kim and her team marked Vietnam on the world improv map by organizing Vietnam Improv Festival, the first of its kind in the country, which welcomed 120 improvisers from all over the world. At the same time, Kim is finalizing her MBA thesis "Theatre-Based Business Training as an Emerging Approach for Management in Vietnam" and writing case studies for Nikkei Asia to tell stories about Asian businesses.

About Improv in Motion

Learn how to use kinesics and proxemics to level up your improv. Movements and use of space provide non-verbal cues and set the stage for your character and their relationships, before you speak a single word. Key takeaways include:

• Using physical tics
• Rhythm and pacing
• Yielding attention & space
• Effective stage compositions

About Aditya Srivastava

I am an actor, a writer, a dancer and, most happily, an improviser. I started improv in my college years, as a hobby, and soon moved on to performing and directing it professionally. I have performed in festivals across Asia and was part of The Company Players. I am now teaching improv in Mumbai, apart from being part of Medium Sized Improv. I have also established an experimental theatre group Spicy 9s, focusing on improvised and immersive theatre.

About Story Structure

Learn the classic story structures from famous movies and series and learn to apply them simply in our long forms, creating captivating stories like those on the big screen.

About Matan Goren

Matan is an improviser and a playwright. He's a part of the "Duda" improv group, which won the improv championship in Israel and has performed in many festivals all over the world.

He wrote the play "Trampoline" - a comedy that's currently running at the "Cameri Theater" in Israel.

Matan has always been interested in exploring how well-crafted written scripts and the freedom of improvisation can influence each other and create unique shows.

About Taking Care of the "Now"

If you take care of the "now" in any improv scene, the future always shows up as a great scene. If you don't take care of the "now", the future never shows up and the scene spins into quicksand. Using a deeply intuitive scenic process learned from the late Martin DeMatt, one that focuses on listening and responding, the students learn how to take care of the "now" by becoming fully invested in it. They also learn how to let go of worries about where the scene is going and instead learn to understand where the scene is right now.

About Jonathan Pitts

Jonathan Pitts is an award-winning international improv theatre artist from Chicago with over 30 years' experience. He's a creator, director, improviser, producer, and teacher, and he's also the Founder and Executive Director of Chicago Improv Productions.

He co-founded the Chicago Improv Festival and produced it for 20 years. He created and produced the College Improv Tournament for 10 years. He was Teen Comedy Fest's executive producer for 7 years. He's also the founder and producer of Chicago Podcast Festival for the past 2 years.

He has taught and performed internationally in 12 countries, as well as all over America. He's performed in over 1,250 improvised shows. He has created the improv shows, "The Make 'Em Ups", "The Oracle", "The Silent Movie", "Solo Plus One", "Stopwatch", and "Storybox Unscripted Theatre".

He taught at The Second City for 16 years and he's a contributing writer to their book on improvisation. He taught story-based improv at Piven Theatre Workshop. He's also taught at 25+ American cities at regional improv fests and improv theatres.

For 3 consecutive years he was selected by New City magazine as one of "Chicago's Top 50 Theatre Players" and he's been interviewed about improvisation in books, newspapers, online posts, podcasts, radio, and TV.

About Authentic Connections

Discover the art of authentic, slow, and satisfying improv!

Are you an improviser who aspires to go beyond simply trying to be funny? Join this immersive workshop where you'll gain valuable tools to enhance your onstage performances, especially in scenes that require deep connections with your scene partners.

Designed for improvisers seeking to create meaningful and genuine moments on stage, this workshop offers an opportunity to elevate your improv skills and explore the art of building authentic relationships within scenes.

Believable and relatable relationships are at the core of captivating and vulnerable stories. In this workshop, you'll delve into the techniques of committing to characters, supporting scene partners, reacting authentically, and embracing the art of giving and receiving "gifts of playing" that enrich every scene.

About Hon Chong

Hon Chong is a multifaceted artist with skills spanning improvisation, acting, directing, and storytelling. Over the past 15 years, he has built an international portfolio, working in North America, Europe, and Asia. In Slovakia, Hon has played a pivotal role in establishing the International Society for Arts and Culture, o.z. (ISAC), a grassroots non-profit organization based in Bratislava. He also spearheaded the creation of Funnylicious Improv Theater, a multicultural theatre renowned for its captivating and engaging performances. As the artistic director and a cast member at Funnylicious, Hon has gained recognition for delivering shows that celebrate diversity. Drawing on his extensive experience, Hon has developed comprehensive curricula and conducted enriching improv workshops for various organizations, nonprofits, and schools across Europe and Asia. When Hon is not lighting up the stage, he can be found caring for his beloved collection of houseplants.

About Entering Your Villain Era

It's time to stop playing nicey-nicey, boring characters. Enter your villain era and learn to create captivating characters that will spice up your shows. In this workshop, you will channel your inner baddie and work on what makes a villain tick: motivation. You will also learn to develop physical villainous characteristics and safe stage movements including slapping, hair-pulling, killing, and dying! Bring out the kontrabida or antagonist you always wanted to be…or really are…bwahaha!

About Janette McBride

Janette McBride is a Filipina-Australian who has been performing since she took drama classes as a kid. In the early 2000s, she had the unique experience of being on TV and films in the Philippines. Janette has been performing improv comedy since 2015 with Big Fork Theatre, Brisbane, Australia. There she is a teacher, house team coach, and regular performer. Janette introduced improvised multicultural storytelling (Wer Ya From) and co-produces Pasiones Improv, which is a sexy, dramatic, and funny telenovela that has won against other improv teams and performed internationally.

About Navarasas: The Nine Human Emotions of the Indian Aesthetic Theory

Mad, sad, glad and afraid - this is how we generally characterize everyday emotions. This is limited and skewed towards "negative" emotions. And there has to be more positive emotions out there, right?

What would it be like to embody emotions like Heroism or Wonder or Peace or Compassion? Learn the ancient Indian system of Navarasas (Nava - 9; rasas - emotions) and bring a whole new array of characters to life on stage.

About Balasree Viswanathan

Bala is an improviser based in Bangalore, India. She has been performing and teaching impro since 2016, creating her own show formats, teams and impro learning journeys in India. She started learning and performing impro in the United States when she was an engineering grad student. On returning to India, Bala joined India's largest Impro Theatre Company, Improv Comedy Bangalore. She has performed in and directed 70+ shows since. She co-founded India's first and only all-women Impro group - The Adamant Eves. It is an experiment in exploring the kind of stories that emerge when a bunch of women, sans men, get on stage. They have performed across India, and during the pandemic, virtually everywhere (virtually).

About Details

If you've found yourself in a scene where the performers, more often than not, are talking heads trying to cover up silences, then this workshop might be interesting for you. A cerebral route to improv can be appreciated, but what would happen if we took the opportunity to use all our senses in a scene, too? How would it be if we didn't just talk about things but actually experienced them, and interacted with them? In this workshop, we'll engage ourselves in a series of exercises that will allow us to imitate real life on stage. We'll work on being curious and observant about the physical space we're in, about the relationships with characters, and how these details can add crucial texture to our scenework.

About Arjun Mehra

Arjun Mehra is a professional theatre artist, who's performed in over 400 shows across Barcelona, Dubai, Copenhagen, Vancouver, and Bangalore. During his time as the Artistic Director at Improv Comedy Bangalore, one of India's leading improvised and spontaneous theatre companies, and his time as a facilitator in Dubai, Arjun worked with numerous organisations to help: foster a greater sense of collaboration within teams; improve communication amongst colleagues, and; build resilience in face of failure. Some of the organisations he's worked with include Uber, IBM, BEL, Google, and Hult Business School. He was also the Artistic Director at the International Theatresports Institute (ITI), and worked on making global improvised theatre more accessible and safer, through policy building and research in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion space. Presently, he is the co-Founder, and Artistic Director at Improv Lore, a freshly minted improvised theatre troupe.

About Character Parade

Character Parade takes a unique approach to generating memorable characters and challenges you to share every aspect of your improv scene with your fellow performer. Playing multiple characters in a scene is ambitious and exhilarating. We'll introduce you to new ways to create distinct characters & relationships and show you the joy of ghosting and sharing those choices with your fellow performers as you create vibrant energetic worlds and the weirdos that inhabit them.

About Matt Folliott

I'm a comedian, actor and writer from Toronto, and a former cast member of The Second City touring company & Canadian Comedy Award winning sketch group The Sketchersons. I was nominated two years in a row for Best Male Improviser in Toronto's NOW Magazine and I currently voice characters on shows like PJ Masks, Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe and Charlie's Colorforms City.

About Dance & Battle

The most physically demanding, yet exciting workshop in this catalogue. The name says it all, you'll learn how to move to music and you'll learn how to fight with finesse. Key takeaways include the secrets to making both of those skills stage worthy and safe. In your next improv show, wow your audiences with an improvised group dance worthy of the musical Chicago and thrill them with an improvised fight sequence worthy of an actual street fight in Chicago.

About Aditya Srivastava

I am an actor, a writer, a dancer and, most happily, an improviser. I started improv in my college years, as a hobby, and soon moved on to performing and directing it professionally. I have performed in festivals across Asia and was part of The Company Players. I am now teaching improv in Mumbai, apart from being part of Medium Sized Improv. I have also established an experimental theatre group Spicy 9s, focusing on improvised and immersive theatre.

About It's All About Relationships

The relationship between characters is the fuel that drives most improv scenes. In this workshop, duo partners on and off stage Stephen Gillikin & Wendy Natividad (aka Power Sauce) will explore all the other necessary relationships beyond the surface of the scene to create a complete performance, from how we relate to our individual selves to how we relate with our scene partners, and ultimately how we relate and connect with the audience.

About Wendy Natividad and Stephen Gillikin

Stephen is an actor, improviser, and teaching artist who has been actively practicing improv since taking his first class at Upright Citizens Brigade in 2011. He has performed in live shows at UCB, Second City Hollywood, The Pack Theater, iO West, The Clubhouse, The Ledge Theatre, the LA Indie Improv Festival, the LA Improv Festival, and a wide array of other venues, theaters, and events. In 2020, Stephen created Community Improv, which offers affordable and accessible workshops online and in-person where players can build skills that can also be applied offstage for enriching the rest of one's life and community.

Wendy earned a Bachelor's in English with a minor in Radio-TV-Film from California State University, Fullerton. Ever the avid learner, she has continually studied writing and performance through organizations such as Community Improv, Rogue Improv, the ColdTowne Conservatory, the World's Greatest Improv School, The Pack Theater, The Ledge Theater, and Upright Citizens Brigade. She hosts The Pack Theater's monthly Inclusivity Jam, which is free and open to all experience levels with the goal of making a safe space for improvisers from BIPOC, LGBTQ, non-binary, woman-identifying, and other marginalized communities.