So many classes, so many choices!
Want to save big? Click here and grab
yourself a FESTIVAL PASS!
All classes will take place at All performances and workshops will take place at
The Edge Theater at 5451 N. Broadway (directions here).
Refunds/cancellation policy
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21ST WORKSHOPS
Process – Improvisation From The Heart with Michael Gellman
Improvisation is The Jazz of Theatre
Michael Gellman will lead a full day workshop to explore the work described in his book – Process: An Improviser’s Journey. We will focus on specific tools necessary for powerful performance and explore methods used to create unique and truthful improvised theatre.
YOUR CHARACTERS – YOUR STORIES _ YOUR TRUTH
This workshop will encourage us to expand our potential for creating inspired improvisation as we explore:
· The Freedom to react and make discoveries in performance.
· Playing and being truly present in the moment.
· Trusting ourselves and our characters in performance.
· Ways to be a truly great ensemble member.
· Getting out of our own way.
· Courage to work outside of our comfort zones.
· The Joy in our performances.
FIND THE PLAY WITHIN THE PLAY
Fear is the invisible monster that lives on stage with us. Fear causes us to lose confidence, stop supporting our partners, go for the joke and a load of other bad Improv issues. All improvisation is ultimately about focusing out. We will understand: the difference between reacting and responding, the power of improvising in the here and now and staying truly grounded for our fellow players. We will explore specific techniques to overcome fear in the morning and application in the afternoon.
TOOLS TO KEEP THE PERFORMANCE GOING AND GROWING
Friday, August 21st, 9 AM-5:30 PM
$125
Group Scenes Made Easy with Asaf Ronen
Group scenes can feel overwhelming, unless you know what you're actually looking for. Learn how to tap into the meat of the group scene, regardless of how big the group is. This class will focus on patterns, developing the group dynamic over the group context and learning how to build a group scene instead of trying to nail it all down at the top.
Friday, August 21, 9 AM-12 PM
$45
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 one day! 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!
Work with Festival Director and Theatre Momentum head instructor, Tony Rielage, and explore the TM dramatic improv style.
Friday, August 21st 9 AM-5 PM
$75
Death in Improv with Blake Wanger
In this highly interactive workshop, participants will explore death as a choice in improv, including ways to die safely onstage, yes-anding death, and how choosing to die can be a gift for your scene partner(s). This workshop includes some physicality and movement, but can easily be adapted to meet the needs and abilities of participants. Despite the morbid subject of this workshop, it is designed to be enjoyable and insightful.
Friday, August 21st, 1-3 PM
$40
Exploring Movement Quality in Dramatic Improv with Stephanie Kilper
This workshop will utilize Laban Movement Analysis- specifically the effort elements of space, pressure, flow, and time- to better understand our automatic, ingrained movement qualities. Participants will gain an understanding of some of the possible psychological implications of various movement preferences and tendencies. With this knowledge, participants will explore how accessing different effort elements in dramatic improv can enhance or shift a scene. Participants will engage in movement exploration of the effort elements, then engage in short dramatic improv scenes, layering the knowledge of effort elements into the scene, and investigate results. Participants will collaborate to apply this knowledge to their improv work and day to day life.
Friday, August 21, 3:30-5:30 PM
$40
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22ND WORKSHOPS
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, August 22nd, 9 AM-12 PM
$40
The Beauty Within the Stage Picture with David Christopher
Create rich and authentic characters and their worlds by physically exploring beyond their words and intentions, and instead being lead by their actions and feelings. In The Beauty Within the Stage Picture, explore physical choices and spatial relationships, whether bold or nuanced, or anything in between, to challenge, provoke, and inspire you as an artist to bring your three-dimensional characters to life!
Saturday, August 22nd, 9-11 AM
$50
Living Emotions: Let Go and Be with Megan Sherrod
Wearing emotions on our sleeves is difficult, especially while juggling the other details of a scene or narrative. In this workshop, we will focus on allowing our characters to listen and respond with natural emotions and open hearts. When we allow ourselves to deeply connect, the result is a more organic, impactful scene.
Saturday, August 22nd, 1-3 PM
$60
Improvised Stage Combat with Eric Nepom
Stage combat is traditionally well rehearsed and choreographed, spending hours if not days on technique and action. In the world of improvised theatre, there are only split seconds and multiple minds working against that very essence of safety with combat. This workshop will take those techniques and create an overall language and skill foundation that can give you and your ensemble the ability to execute successful combat on stage while not executing each other. Starting with “hand to hand” style combat, we will focus on the theatricality and specificity of combat techniques in a fashion that can be repeated safely in the moment of an improvised scene. Depending on the location, tools available and skill of the participants; the advanced skills of sword/weapon based combat will also be covered.
Saturday, August 22nd, 3:30-5:30 PM
$50
Dramatic LaRonde with Collin Miller
This workshop puts you in the deep end: no script, no safety net, just you and the scene in front of you. Using the LaRonde format, each participant moves through a chain of two-person scenes, carrying their character forward as partners rotate in and out. Original monologues crack each character open from the inside, and the full ensemble converges for a closing scene that weaves every thread together.
Saturday, August 22nd, 3:30-5:30 PM
$30
Safe Performance of Traumatic Material on the Improv Stage with Roni Alperin
Roni Alperin offers an experiential workshop exploring how to engage real-life traumatic stories with depth, responsibility, and care in improvised performance. Grounded in trauma-informed principles, participants will learn how to build safety through resourcing, attunement, and pacing, before moving into expressive performance. We will practice titration, aesthetic distance, and embodied storytelling—supporting performers to stay connected, regulated, and responsive while working with meaningful material. This workshop invites you to deepen your capacity to listen, witness, and transform stories with care—creating performances that are not only artistically alive, but also emotionally grounded and humanizing.
Saturday, August 22nd, 9 AM-12 PM
$55
The Moment Before with Debra Schifrin
Improvisers often assume their character begins the moment they step onstage. But to create relatable, three-dimensional characters, they need to make key choices before they emerge from the wings. Where did they just come from? (We always come from somewhere.) How are they carrying themselves? What do they want? And most importantly, what emotion are they carrying into the scene? Making these choices in advance allows improvisers to enter the scene with specificity and depth, giving both themselves and their scene partner something meaningful to build on before a single line is spoken. In this workshop, students will learn how to step onstage as real characters and sustain those characters throughout a scene—and even across an entire show.
Saturday, August 22nd, 1-3 PM
$35
Sense it! Use all your senses to improvise with Michalis Panagiotakis
In this workshop, participants will discover the magic of using one’s senses on stage to forge a powerful connection with the scenes you bring to life. The entire workshop is designed to evoke memories and create deep emotional connections through our senses and "sensory memory". Participants will immerse themselves in a hands-on journey, using every sense to draw inspiration for scenes, situations, and characters, making each moment on stage more captivating.
Saturday, August 22nd, 1-3 PM
$50
Playing Fast and Slow with Michael J. Astrauskas
Fast-paced scenes with a lot of dialogue can be joyous and funny, but there is a lot of power in patience and silence. In everyday life, there are moments that may be slow and rife with expression, and moments that are frantic. Sometimes people listen, ponder, and respond while other times people excitedly interrupt or overtalk. This workshop focuses on playing with tempo of movement and speech to create more realistic and relatable characters, scenarios, and interactions.
Saturday, August 22nd, 3:30-5:30 PM
$30
From Moment to Meaning: Playing Subtext in Improvisation with Maria Kolovou
This workshop focuses on subtext as a central element in improvisation (the underlying intentions, emotions, and tensions that shape human interaction beyond spoken dialogue).
Through a series of focused exercises, participants will explore the relationship between text and subtext, learning how to play what is not said rather than what is explicitly stated. The work begins with simple explorations of shifting intention and gradually moves into scene work, where subtext drives action, rhythm, and connection.
Using repetition and variation, performers will revisit moments to uncover deeper layers of meaning, allowing scenes to evolve beyond initial ideas. The workshop also introduces ways of recognizing emerging themes, helping participants experience how meaning can arise organically in real time.
Designed as a concentrated exploration, this session offers practical tools and embodied understanding that can immediately deepen improvisational work.
Saturday, August 22nd, 3:30-5:30 PM
$50
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23RD WORKSHOPS
Let's get intimate! with Chara Kanta
This workshop explores the subtle, powerful world of intimacy in improvisation, not just romantic or physical, but emotional, energetic, and human. Through guided exercises, playful scenes, and reflective moments, we’ll dive into what it means to truly connect on stage: to listen deeply, to be vulnerable, to build trust, and to allow silence, eye contact, and breath to do as much as words.
We'll explore themes like boundaries and consent, emotional safety, and how to create authentic, compelling relationships in scenes, whether they’re tender, tense, or transformative. This is a space for curiosity, not performance; a place to practice being real, being seen, and holding space for others.
Open to all levels. Especially welcoming to those interested in grounding their improv in truth, presence, and care.
Sunday, August 23rd, 9 AM-12 PM
$50
Magic of Minimal with Ben Zolno
No matter our experience level, hurried questions pop into our brains – where it this going? What is this about? Why isn't anyone laughing yet? Are these characters creating the right moral here? We quickly forget that as soon as we enter the stage, the audience believes our world. With almost no effort, we can find that world too. It is enough. Often, it's more magical and fascinating – to the players and the audience – than anything we could "create" in the moment. It's hard work to do this little work! But once we do, it's so powerful and freeing. By the end of this workshop, we'll walk away with the tools to truly be in the moment, calm that inner panic voice, resist "saving" the scene, discover rather than invent, and play with people of any level of experience – by being true to the moment. These shows result in the audience being blown away by dramatic, comedic, tragic, and heroic experiences that they'll find as surprising as the players do.
Sunday, August 23rd, 1-3 PM
$40
Scenic Super Senses with Tony Rielage
Read Minds! See right through your scene partners! Super Hearing! Learn to develop your hyper-focus and connection to your scene partners. Read their every intention and turn that into forward movement in your scenes. Never miss a clue or gift. This workshop will turn you into a superhero actor/improvisor, guaranteed.
Sunday, August 23rd, 3:30-5:30 PM
$40
Finding The Courage: Vulnerability on Stage with Estevan J (Chuy) Zárate
We are going to work on being honest about the feelings of your character. If you are a strong personality in life, how does that translate to characters that are more timid, soft and loving? If you are a personality that likes being lower status, how do we translate that to characters without going too dark? Separating your vulnerability from the vulnerability of a character you are playing can sometimes be difficult. We will try to discover a balance between both worlds.
Sunday, August 23rd, 9 AM-12 PM
$45
StageCrafting Series - Focus, Concentration and a Childlike Spirit with Sarah-Marie Curry
Do you consider yourself an improviser but not an actor? This class will teach you the very simple and basic tools needed to become a deeper, emotionally present improv actor and how to look precise and polished and inspired while you do it. Increase and adjust your focus and concentration to better serve you in the scene, by understanding how to play like a child, with an adult's abilities and discipline! Improvisors who take this class will discover new and surprising depths to their work instantly with the power of theatrical stagecraft and human vulnerability.
Sunday, August 23rd, 1-3 PM
$40
Character Psychology: The "Why" Behind Your Choices with Jill Eickmann
We are often taught the importance of the “WHO, WHAT, and WHERE” in our improvised scenes. The “W” that is often neglected is the “WHY.” Create believable and captivating characters when you flush out the “why” behind your choices. Play to the top of your intelligence by grounding your characters and relationships with strong motivations and wants. Explore the psyche of your cast of long-form characters through time-dashes and relationship expansions which ultimately fuel your FUN.
Sunday, August 23rd, 3:30-5:30 PM
$55
Questions? Email us at dif@theatremomentum.com