We all know  the “inner judge” that sits on our shoulder. While making a serious face, it constantly tells us we aren’t smart, funny or original. It makes us doubt ourselves and feel that we are not good enough. A thing that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

During my years as an improviser, I have found out that one of my greatest tasks is to understand how to handle my inner judge. I have developed a set of tools for different kinds of situations that tend to wake my inner judge up. These are tools that help me turn my inner judge into an ally rather than an obstacle.                                                                          

In this workshop we will get to know more about our inner judge, where it comes from and why it is so loud.   Using highly practical tools, we will learn how to silence our inner judge when needed – and when it is important to pay attention to what they have to say.

The purpose of  this workshop is to help you get out of your head, trust yourself and be more free in your improv.

The workshop is suitable for all levels.

Workshop length: 3 hours.   

Research shows that an average woman speaks approximately 20,000 words a day, while a man speaks only 7000.

Since childhood, we are programmed by society to think of gender in a certain way – boys should wear blue and be powerful, while girls should wear pink and be gentle. As we progress in time, we start breaking these patterns. But they are more profound than we think.

In order to break them completely, we must know the history of gender roles and challenge ourselves not to take the beliefs we were raised on for granted. This workshop aims to do exactly that.

We will dive into gender theory and history before challenging ourselves to play the opposite sex on stage without judgment. We will then challenge ourselves to play scenes without ANY gender presumptions at all.

The laboratory’s goal is to make us see the world through different gender glasses.

*The workshop is suitable for improvisers of all levels.

*Workshop length: 4-5 hours.

**The workshop works best with an equal number of men and women (all genders are invited).

This workshop is for improvisers who find themselves playing the main character (or any character) in a long form, and are unsure of how to develop the character’s arc and move the story forward.

When improvising longforms, we often focus much of our attention on the plot, trying to create the story from without. Another way of telling a story is from within, by following character arcs: What is happening to the character? What are their choices, actions, highs and lows, strengths and flaws? Stories told from the perspective of the character arc have a strong internal driving force and shine a light on human nature, in all its splendor and imperfection. For us as improvisers, this is both a great challenge and an exhilarating ride.

In this workshop, we will learn how to create compelling character arcs that will move and surprise our audiences, empower us to dare into stronger and more interesting characters and choices and leave everyone asking for more.

*The workshop is suitable for advanced and professional level students and can also be modified to suit intermediate students.

*Workshop length: 6-12 hours.

**It can also be offered as a 2-3 day intensive, followed by a performance of a unique format based on this approach (45-60 minutes with a cast of 6-8 players).

We can only truly cheer for a powerful, high-status character – hero or villain – once we see their weakness, complexity, and humanity. The moments when these bigger-than-life characters are revealed to be flawed are when the magic happens.

In a longform, a strong, high-status character is someone with power and control. Nothing can hurt them; they are undefeatable. As an audience, we can admire or fear this character, we might even want to be them. But we won’t feel soft, nuanced feelings towards them: we will not love them, become attached or feel compassion. That is, unless we see them in their vulnerable moments, when their weaknesses are revealed. We need to see their humanity in order to identify with them. If we ask the character, these moments are their lowest points – the moments that they will never want us to see. For the audience, those moments are precisely when a tough or evil character steals our hearts!

In this workshop, we will practice five different low points a high-status character can have and learn how to incorporate these into our longform narrative – from a writer’s perspective. From an actor’s perspective, we will learn how to truthfully portray these moments – while treading a fine line: showing the character’s weakness, vulnerability and humanity while still maintaining their high status.

workshop length: 4-5 hours.

The workshop is suitable for: intermediate- advanced level students.

Put the essence of acting into your improv. 

Two of the fundamental principles of professional acting (which we tend to forget when we are improvising) are action and reaction: 

Action means how we affect and move our partner emotionally;

 reaction means how we become emotionally affected and changed by our partners. 

By focusing on attentive, intentional action and emotional reaction, the relationship between characters immediately deepens and we automatically create compelling, deep and surprising scenes that are absolutely fascinating to watch and super-fun to play.

In this workshop we will learn the meaning of affective actions, the keys for authentically portraying every emotion (big or small) and what happens when we combine the two.

This workshop is a ticket to the wild and fun roller-coaster of re/acting that will get you creating the most vital scenes you have ever played.  

workshop length: 6 hours

The workshop is suitable for: intermediate- advanced level students

This workshop is all about creating honest, close, intimate, loving, passionate, truthful and heartbreaking moments in our scene work.

For me, intimacy is the ability to be truly myself, guard-down and fully authentic with someone else. This means that there are two levels of intimacy on stage– between the improvisers and between the characters. In order to achieve the second, we must establish the first.

In this workshop, we will slowly dive into the intimacy zone. We will start by getting to know our partners and open the door for them to know us as well. As we learn how to trust ourselves and our partners with our physical and emotional boundaries on stage, we will find the way and learn tools to feel completely comfortable and safe with our partners on stage. Then, we will bring this work into our scenes and discover the full range of intimate situations that can happen between characters while also exploring how far and deep we can and want to go. 

This type of work is not about touch (although touch can happen, if it is comfortable for both sides). It is about creating those scenes where you can cut the tension with a knife while the audience is mesmerized, holding their breath.

workshop length : 6h

The workshop is suitable for advanced level students.

As improvisers we invent and create stories and worlds that are sometimes bigger than life, it is the seed of our own life story and our own world that makes everything much more interesting, unique and compeling.

It is who we are, the way we think and feel, and our prism for seeing the world, along with our personal life experiences, that make us unique and mesmerizing. However, we tend to not believe it, hide these aspects, letting our inner judge tell us that we are not good enough as we are and that our personal experiences are too mundane and boring.
The fact is that Who we are is our greatest superpower, plain and simple.
When we dare to expose ourselves and fully trust our personal voice, our characters, scene choices and stories will be surprising, powerful and unique; we will shine, be super funny, touch and inspire our audience and partners.
In this workshop (with close personal coaching), we will discover how to tap into and trust this personal superpower. We will train the muscle of self-exposure (with control) while minimizing the voice of our inner judge and increasing the voice of our inner guidance. We will learn how to use our personal voice to create strong surprising choices in our characters and scenes. We will learn how and when to use our own life experience on the stage while celebrating all that we are.

workshop length: 6 hours

level: all levels

technical needs: sound system, chairs.

“Be present with your presence.”

Do you feel like you’re moving around too much on stage? Do you not move enough and feel stiff? Have you even felt that you don’t know what to do with your body on stage at all? 

Moving onstage is like moving in a force field. Every movement creates something. Every little change affects everything. A strong stage presence is like a magnet for the audience and for your partners.

Using techniques from acting, Butoh (dance theatre developed in Japan) and other forms of motion, this workshop strives to get rid of your fears and uncertainties so that you become powerful and comfortable with your stage presence. Once you’re comfortable, you’ll start enjoying yourself and feeling free to play with your diverse skills.

The workshop is suitable for beginner and intermediate level students.

Workshop length: 3 hours.

I love those moments when my character suddenly comes to life and I feel like it’s the character, not me, in the scene.

There are two main approaches to creating improvised characters: Outside In focuses on the character’s physical attributes and uses these to understand who they are on the inside; Inside Out focuses on personality traits, wishes, hopes and fears as the foundation for the character’s appearance, voice and physicality.

Since we are creating characters in a split second, most of the time we end up starting on the outside and stopping there – or we simply act as ourselves in each and every scene, without changing anything on the outside. This means we are missing out on the fun and the impact of playing round, layered characters, who are rich and interesting both inside and outside.

In this workshop, we will learn how we can use the outside to quickly dive deep and find the inside of the character as well as practice key internal elements that are so compelling, we do not have to actively change our voice, body, face or accent in order to achieve different and unique characters.

Workshop length: 3 hours.

This workshop is suitable for: beginner and advanced level students.

It is never about the teacher, yet the teacher enables everything.

Our job as teachers is beautiful and complicated. Our duty as teachers (in my eyes) is to show our students the way, inspire them, get them from point A to point B, empower them and pushing their boundaries. 

I have been teaching for the past eight years and I believe that a teacher needs to be an expert in people. In my eyes, an amazing teacher is one who, in addition to being super professional, can see their students with X-ray vision and know how to empower and motivate each one in their own special way. 

In this workshop, we will take a closer look at our teacher’s persona: what is our individual superpower and how to leverage it, what our obstacles and fears are and how we can approach and overcome them. We will also address the technicalities: how to approach and build a class/workshop/course, what we need to ask ourselves as teachers before approaching any teaching task and how (the hell) do we give effective feedback.

What makes this workshop special is that it provides a safe, fun and supportive space for sharing and learning from each other’s experience on how to handle the tough situations and the tough students that we encounter.

The teachers’ lounge is our place for really exploring our teaching role, sharpen our teacher persona and expand our toolkit as teachers.  

*This workshop is suitable for 6-14 teachers with at least one year of teaching experience.

*Workshop length: 6-9 hours.

Even the best improvisers occasionally need an external eye for professional evaluation.

We are always excited to develop our skill-sets. Especially when it takes place in a professional and super-fun atmosphere, with lots of laughter and freedom of expression.

The coaching workshop helps individual improvisers and improv groups expand and perfect their skills. I tailor the workshop to specific needs, creating an empowering space for mutual professional analysis. My goal is to blend precision and playfulness that creates onstage truth.

This workshop is suitable for beginner and advanced improvisers. Materials can be sent in advance for coach preparation.

Coaching session is 3 hours minimum. Sessions can be ordered individually or as a coaching series.