TBC Improv About - Invited Teacher Workshops
As part of TBC Improv's continued commitment to develop the improv performance scene in Scotland, the troupe regularly invite improv practitioners from all over the UK to come and run workshops on specific topics, imparting their unique knowledge and experience onto the next generation of improv performers (as well as actors, comedians and those without performer experience who are just curious to try something different!)
These invited teacher classes are open to the public and are often run as half-day, full-day or full-weekend classes, allowing participants to benefit as much as possible from the training, knowledge and experience of these travelling experts. Find out about some of our previous guests below.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Improv Workshop with invited teacher Tim Sniffen
Bio
Tim Sniffen began performing in Chicago in 1998. He's trained at iO and The Second City's conservatories and at The Annoyance. Tim has worked with The Second City for ten years as a performer and writer, and worked at the Boom Chicago theater in Amsterdam from 2003 - 2006. He's an ongoing company member of musical improv group Baby Wants Candy [including 3 Edinburgh Fringe festivals] and The Improvised Shakespeare Company. Tim relocated to Edinburgh in 2014 when his husband was hired by Edinburgh Airport and the idea of dividing up their DVD collection seemed insurmountable.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Improv Workshop with invited teacher Andrew Strano
Bio
Andrew is a graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts (Music Theatre), the iO Theater in Chicago, Melbourne’s Improv Conspiracy and Danceworld 301. He has performed Improv professionally for over 2 years, including appearances on the Annoyance and iO theatre stages in Chicago, and was nominated for Best Comedy as a part of the Improv Conspiracy’s touring company’s Perth Fringeworld season in 2015. He currently performs weekly in up to 4 different Improv Conspiracy shows in his hometown of Melbourne.
Improvised shows Andrew has conceived include the Quiet Achievers: completely silent improvisation, One Man Musical (in which he interactively improvises an entire musical by incorporating the audience) and Pano-Stritch (an improvised one act play with co-creator Daniel Pavatich). He coaches the Harold team AIRBLADE, teaches for The Improv Conspiracy and co-founded and co-directed Impromptunes: The Fully Improvised Musical, leading them to their acclaimed debut in the 2013 Melbourne Fringe Festival.
He has toured nationally and internationally as a Musical Theatre performer and qualified twice as one of only 30 semifinalists for the Australian National Music Theatre award, the Rob Guest Endowment.
Also an acclaimed lyricist, Andrew has been writing new musical theatre since they made their debut as the joint Melbourne winners of the YTICC 10th Annual International Cabaret Showcase in 2012. In 2014 they opened “Nailed It!” (a showcase of their work) to 5 star reviews, garnering Andrew a nomination for Theatrepeople's Best Male Cabaret Performer and winning the Green Room Award for Best Original Songs. "Nailed It!" continues its' life, crossing the pond to the Edinburgh Fringe later this year.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Improv Workshop with invited teacher Maria Peters
Bio
Maria has been performing improv since 2008. She has studied with many of the great teachers from around the world including Keith Johnstone & Charna Halpern. She is now back from a summer in Chicago, where she took classes at Improv Olympic & Second City. She has also trained with New York's UCB instructors and at the PIT.
Maria's performance history includes 4 x Edinburgh Festivals with Hoopla, The Inflatables & CannonBall Improv Troupes. She's survived numerous 30-50 hour Improvathons in Bristol & London. She's sung in 100s of improvised musicals with Music Box and is now currently in the improv duo Breaking & Entering.
As a full time improv teacher for Hoopla Impro, Maria has taught hundreds of students in London and has recently returned from teaching at the Talinn Improv Festival in Estonia.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Improv Workshop with invited teacher Jonathan Monkhouse
Bio
Bio courtesy of jonathanmonkhouse.co.uk
Jonathan watched Baby Wants Candy in 2001 and was so amazed by what he saw that he forgot impro existed for several years... years that incidentally coincided with not wanting to go on stage again after the "Great Pasta Incident" of 1998. After being badgered into a Hoopla improv workshop by some sadists, he realised improv was his true love all along.
Jonathan studied improv at The Annoyance Theatre in Chicago, and founded LondonImprov.co.uk as part of a secret vendetta, producing a weekly improv night for two years, and continuing to support the UK improv community. As a member of Music Box: The Improvised Musical he was reviewed as "Like a young Oliver Platt" (★★★★★ - Remote Goat), and he is a continuing member of Silly String Theory, an improvised musical.
His main improv focus is with science-fiction long-form group Project Two; "The best improv show I've seen outside the U.S." - Neil Curran, Laughalot Comedy, Dublin.
Jonathan has also performed in extreme theatre improv marathons "Cellblock" London (26 hours), "Back to the Studio" and "Goin' West" with Impropriety, Liverpool (both 34 hours), the "Great Bristol Bake Off" at Bristol Old Vic (30 hours) and The London 50-hour Improvathon, twice.
Jonathan co-created and performed in Andrew And The Slides Of Chaos (Edinburgh, 2010), Ghostbusters: The Musical at the Pulse Festival as part of The Campsite - a touring arts festival for which Jonathan is technical director and associate artist. The Ghostbusters musical was rewritten as Who Ya Gonna Call? for a hugely successful run at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (★★★★★ - Three Weeks).
Jonathan is one of the country's leading improviser-technicians. He improvises with full lighting rigs for multiple award winners: Showstoppers: The Improvised Musical, Chortle Award nominees Austentatious: The Improvised Jane Austen Novel, as well as regularly teching for Grand Theft Impro, Monkey Toast UK, School of Night and Newborn Comedy at the Leicester Square Theatre. He was one of only two technicians in the world to completely tech the full 50-hour Improvathon with The Sticking Place and Die-Nasty theatre companies.
Jonathan also designs and technically-supports non-improvised things, including acclaimed The Watery Journey of Nereus Pike by award-winning Laura Mugridge and Katy Schutte, the European premiere of Below The Belt by Richard Dresser, Rachel Parris: The Commission, The Freewheelin' Cariad Lloyd, Trodd En Bratt, Surname & Surname, and Sara Pascoe's Edinburgh Shows.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Improv Workshop with invited teacher Garry Dobson
Bio
Garry Dobson is a regular on the Scottish comedy circuit including a weekly residency at Edinburgh's Stand Comedy Club. Previous acting experience includes 2 award nominated Fringe plays and an appearance credit in Scottish Bafta winning film Crying With Laughter, as himself.
Garry is also one-half of Stu & Garry, who are best known from their weekly show Whose Lunch is it Anyway?.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Half-Day Workshop with invited teacher Steve Roe
Bio
Steve Roe is the co-founder of Hoopla and has been teaching improv for over eight years. He teaches improvisation full-time five days a week in London and around the UK. He has experience of teaching beginners, experienced improvisers, stand up comics, drama school students and professional actors. Steve creates a friendly, fun and supportive atmosphere in workshops where people are free to play and be themselves.
In 2010 Steve founded London's first improvised comedy club at The Miller in London Bridge, creating a vibrant community of performers and a large repeat audience. He now books, produces and promotes improvised comedy shows every Tuesday and is currently planning a new West End venue.
In 2012 Hoopla's Improv Comedy Club was recommended as the best place to see improvised comedy in London by both The Daily Telegraph AND The Londonist.
If improvisation floats your boat you should head to The Miller by London Bridge every Tuesday (and Wednesday) for Hoopla. There's fewer better ways to see what spur-of-the-moment comedy London has to offer. - The Londonist, November 2012.
Steve has studied improv with Keith Johnstone, Patti Styles from Improv Melbourne, Shawn Kinley from Loose Moose Theatre, Kevin Tomlinson, Rob Broderick from Abandoman, The Penny Dreadfuls, Jay Rhoderick from The Upright Citizens Brigade, Fooling with Jonathan Kay and Clown with Mick Barnfather.
Steve currently performs with Music Box the Improvised Musical (5 Stars - Fringe Guru, 5 Stars - Remote Goat). He has previously performed with The Maydays (5 Stars - Three Weeks) and various other shows across the UK's improv scene. He continues to support countless other shows that have popped up from Hoopla workshops and is influential in growing the UK's improv scene.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Half-Day Workshop with invited teacher James 'Lloydie' Lloyd
Bio
Courtesy of Missimp.co.uk.
Lloydie joined MissImp in January 2009 and is a self-confessed improv nerd. He's often seen in the monthly shows, runs workshop and often facilitates the weekly jam on Thursday. In 2012 Lloydie developed MissImp's three level improv program, for which he is a regular teacher.
In 2010 Lloydie started training at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and has made a couple of trips to train in longform improv there. In July 2012 he studied at The Annoyance Theatre under such improv legends as Mick Napier (author of the book Improvise) and Susan Messing. In Jan 2013 he began the sketch writing program of The Second City, Chicago.
In 2013 Lloydie has performed at the Del Close Marathon in New York, Chinese Menu Comedy in Washington DC, at the Brighton Fringe as a guest of The Maydays as well as regularly with MissImp in Nottingham.
Lloydie is a founder member of MissImp's longform improv group "Fisticuffs" and in 2013 started a two-person improv collaboration with Jenny Rowe from Brighton's improv group Maydays.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Luke Sorba Advance Improv Workshop
Bio
I have various VHS tapes including a neat TV show I piloted back in 2002 but it was panel game-style. My background is in Keith Johnstone's style of improvisation - where it is all about teamwork, accepting offers, no gagging, no blocking, good listening, building trust etc. I am familiar and adept in the Viola Spolin school too. But I am best known for pioneering long-form or narrative improvisation where keeping in character and not tripping up the story preclude pimping and gagging anyway. When I teach, even the advanced students, I still underline the basics and consider pimping to be a rather lazy way to get a laugh, and gagging to be used strictly for punch-lines since once the reality has been subverted by the gag the story is compelled to end. One of the reasons behind my style is that my peers when I first learnt improvisation were all actors who were funny but came from a theatrical background ands worked as part of ensembles. Stand-up comics with their different sensibility and experience as solo artists, came to improvisation later. I can perform "bar-prov" as my American friends call it, with the best of them, but the improvisation I teach is old school. Not least because the building of a community mentality on stage, without hierarchy, supportive of each other and consequently brave, does not just midwife engaging and innovativre work. It doubles up as a model for society and attitude to life. Although I avoid articulating this directly in workshops I like to think people pick it up by osmosis anyway. Competing with your fellow improvisers, or gaining laughs at their expense, or being judgemental are anathema to that vision.
Luke Sorba
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Solo Improv Workshop
Bio
Mike has been working as an actor/improviser/comedian for the past 9 years, and tours regularly performing his one man show The Mike Brown Solo Improv Extravaganza. He has both taught and performed on 3 continents, in 7 countries, and in over 30+ festivals. He currently teaches improvisation at The People's Improv Theater in New York.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- The Collage Workshop
Bio
Jonathan Pitts is an award winning international theatre artist from Chicago. He's a creator, director, improviser, performer, producer, and teacher. He co-founded the Chicago Improv Festival and produced it for 20 years. He also created and produced the College Improv Tournament for 10 years and he created and produced the Chicago Podcast Festival for the last 2 years. He taught improv at The Second City for 16 years and he's a contributing writer to The Second City's book on improvisation. For 3 consecutive years he was selected by New City magazine as one of "Chicago's Top 50 Theatre Players". He's performed in over 1,200 improvised shows.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Improv with Emotion
Bio
Visiting from Los Angeles, California, Keith Saltojanes has been improvising for over a decade and has been a part of every major improv theater in the United States including UCB, ImprovOlympic West, Second City, The Groundlings, The Annoyance, and also the Founder and Head Instructor of his own school, Improv-LA. Keith extensively studied with Del Close's "Warchief" and member of the seminal improv group The Family, Miles Stroth, who he performed with for over a year. In addition to recently sharing his lessons in Japan, Thailand, and China, Keith also holds the Guinness World Record for Longest Improv Show at 150 hours. He's been on a number of TV shows, his most favorite being "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Don't tell Los Angeles, but Keith has a love affair with traveling overseas and is more than excited to work with some local comedians!
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Musical Improv 2-Day Intensive
Bio
Michael has been teaching improv since 2011. He has travelled the country performing in festivals and has taught workshops in Boston and Washington, DC. He has also taught several corporate and team-building workshops. He began improvising in 2006, and was lucky to train with teachers such as Armando Diaz, Rachel Hamilton, James Eason, and Tara Copeland. Michael currently teaches at the Magnet Theater in New York, covering Level 1, Level 4: Monoscene, Musical Improv Level 1 and Musical Improv Level 3. In addition to his teaching duties, Michael is the Director of the Musical Improv Program at the Magnet.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Musical Improv 2-Day Intensive
Bio
An improviser and frequent accompanist for musical improv teams in New York City, Miles Lindahl started playing guitar to impress a girl in 7th grade. When that failed, he picked up piano, bass, and--much to the disappointment of his mother--drums.
Over the past few years, he has spent nearly every Tuesday behind a drum kit at Musical Megawatt next to Musical Director Frank Spitznagel, who helped him hone his improvisational piano playing. Miles has since provided accompaniment for PopUp Musicals, Baby Wants Candy, Running Late with Scott Rogowsky, and various Magnet, PIT, and indie teams. He also performs on a Musical Megawatt house team at the Magnet Theater, where he met his wife.
In addition to performing, Miles co-teaches Musical Level 1 and Musical Level 2 at the Magnet. His mom couldn't be happier.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Improv For Bad Bitches
Bio
Future Wives is a New York based, super-silly, comedy trio who understand that life is a balancing act between comedy and slumber parties. The group features performers Kelsey McLaughlin, Kelsey Bailey, and Sophie Yalkezian, all individually house players at Upright Citizens Brigade. Future Wives tours various cities and colleges doing shows and teaching workshops, including a class geared towards women building confidence on stage. We were headlining acts in The Boston Comedy Festival and the Women in Comedy Festival. Their writing and performing has been featured in various outlets and TV shows.
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Set Bitch Free
- The Power of Character
- Sketch Comedy - Cranking Out Material
Bio
Devin Bockrath is a New York based improviser, actor, writer and sketch comedian. As a Chicago native, she trained with the Annoyance and iO Theaters. During her time in Chicago she was lucky to perform with some amazing Harold and independent groups including The Other Other Guys, Superhuman, DMNK, The Holy Fuck Comedy Hour, Invisible World, an original sketch show directed by Mick Napier; and NBC Universal’s Sketch Showcase, directed by Mick Napier and produced by Lou Wallach (The Chappelle Show). Upon moving to New York, she continued her training as an actor with The Atlantic Theater School’s Professional Conservatory. And began teaching sketch and improv for the Annoyance Theater’s NY location, where she developed a uniquely female driven improv workshop, Set Bitch Free, inspired by the powerful women of her girl group Superhuman. She currently teaches for the Brooklyn Comedy Collective, and continues to perform as an actor and comedian in New York. Devin has appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, and has been featured in comedic shorts on IFC and Comedy Central. Most recently she was cast in a short film, To The Moon, alongside John Reynolds (Netflix’s Stranger Things, TBS Search Party, Hulu’s Four Weddings and a Funeral). And co-starred in a comedic drama, Amazing Bagel, playing opposite Tim Baltz (NBC’s Shrink, Comedy Central’s The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones).
Invited Improv Workshops Taught
- Long-Form Improv Bootcamp
- Cinema Hilarité: Film and Theatre Genres for The Improv Stage
- Directing Project: Terpsichore - All Female Identifying Physical Theater Production
Bio
Lindsay Gonzales is a stand-up comedienne and improvisor lately of Chicago, Illinois. Currently living and performing in Madrid, she also spent several years in Boston, where performed with the ImprovBoston Family Show and co-produced and hosted The Open Comedy Jam and Nightcap at IB for over five years. She has performed at theatres and clubs all over London, Chicago and Boston has also performed and taught workshops in many countries including England, France, Spain, Canada and Puerto Rico. Lindsay has performed in festivals such as Impro Mundial Chile, The Women In Comedy Festival, Geek Week, The Boston Improv Festival, The Copenhagen International Improv Festival, Madison Lady Laughs, Chicago Women’s Funny Fest and the Chicago Improv Festival. She also has several one woman shows, and she took her first one woman show "M.P.H.: A Comedy Compendium" to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013 and is currently touring her solo improv show, "Dance, Monkey!" at improv festivals across Europe.
An improv teacher yourself and interested in bringing your workshop to Edinburgh? Get in touch with us and we'll help to make it happen!