A workshop dedicated to techniques that forge a fierce and stable connection with your scene partner. Work on emotional listening, making clear choices, building a scene together and having an emotional point of view. We’ll also play with ideas that allow you to be vulnerable, fearless and effortlessly collaborative.
Duration: 3 hrs, 6 hrs, 2 day intensive Capacity: 8 - 16 people Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Veteran Atomic skills: Listening, emotional intelligence, connection
This workshop is entirely about ways to support your scene partner and make them look awesome. We often talk about treating our fellow improvisers like artists, geniuses and poets but what are the actual, practical steps in making that happen? We’ll explore techniques drawn from all over the improv map with the ultimate aim of making you so effortlessly supportive that everyone will want you on stage with them.
Duration: 3 hrs Capacity: 8 - 16 people Level: Beginner, Intermediate Atomic skills: Support, accepting, building
Good improv looks like magic to an audience.
Building on the idea of the ordinary in the extraordinary, this workshop explores how we can fold the fantastical into the everyday and imbue even the most outlandish creations with depth and humanity. So, whether you want to play a unicorn who dreams of becoming an accountant or a pair of curtains which have fallen in love - you’ll learn a wide range of exercises and techniques to anchor a sense of reality in the weird and the wonderful.
We’ll learn to build characters starting with authenticity and truth, how to create incredible worlds from nothing and why there’s magic in the simplest of moments.
Duration: 3 hrs Capacity: 8 - 16 people Level: Intermediate, Advanced Atomic skills: Having fun, feeling wonder, delighting yourself
Narrative play - telling a good story with a beginning, middle and an end - can be some of the most satisfying improv you'll ever do. But when it goes wrong, it goes HORRIBLY wrong. You can find yourself trapped playing characters that are there purely as a function of the narrative, watching the plot spiral off into crazy town as everything that makes improv fun - the freedom to go anywhere and do anything - is ruthlessly stripped away by the demands of telling a coherent story.
But there is another way.
This workshop will teach you how to keep the PLOT MONSTER at bay - using techniques around relationship, emotional connection, genre tropes and identifying individual playing styles. So you can tell epic, sweeping stories, full of power, intrigue and mystery while still actually having a good time. Relax, connect to your partner and bring whole worlds to life effortlessly.
Duration: 3 hrs, 6hrs, full intensive weekend Capacity: 8 - 16 people Level: Intermediate, Advanced, Veteran Atomic skills: Narrative, relationships, genre
In the 90s, developer LucasArts had an unprecedented run of hit games which asked players to solve puzzles and outtalk opponents in worlds where a quick mind was a much greater asset than a quick trigger finger.
Games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Sam and Max Hit The Road showcased a fantastic sense of humour, intricate storytelling techniques and strange worlds full of indelible characters. Now, with a new Monkey Island game on the horizon, it seems like a great opportunity to revisit those classic games and see what they can teach us about improv.