Instructors
Originally (and back) in Chicago, Shaun Landry is a known actor, producer, writer and improviser nationally and internationally. She is currently the curator of The Robinhood International Improv Festival 2025 in Nottingham England.
Other noted credit includes founder of The Ledge Theatre in Los Angeles, which did improvisation, sketch, poetry, and storytelling and was more geared specifically to diversity in theater. She was a member of The Second City Chicago, Geese Theatre Company (drama therapy in prisons and penitentiaries), and Co-Founded The San Francisco Improv Festival.
She performs with improv and life partner Hans Summers as Landry & Summers. As a SAG Actor, she can be seen in the movies Milk, Read You Like A Book, and various independent movies. She can be read in the book Whose Improv Is It Anyway? Beyond The Second City about diversity in improvisational theater.
Tony Rielage is DIF’s Festival Director and the Artistic Director/Head Instructor at Theatre Momentum. He has been performing, directing, and producing improv theatre since 1992, with the past 15 years focused entirely on dramatic/grounded improv. He has trained at iO Theater, the Annoyance Theatre, and the Playground Theater, and founded TM’s predecessor workshop, Workshop-in-Progress. His training style centers around an outside-in approach focused on neurology and psychology, leading to improv about vulnerable human beings acting naturally, bravely, and honestly.
Diana Brown is an improv artist, teaching artist, actor, producer, director and voiceover talent. She was voted Most Valuable Mentor and Teacher at the San Francisco Improv Festival. She leads the improv program at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s School of Theatre. Diana is an instructor, producer and a member of the leadership team with Leela Improv Theatre in San Francisco. She uses applied improvisation in medical settings to improve patient/provider communication.
She’s presented Improv workshops, intensives and “workshop to show” experiences at the Improv Fest Ireland 2024, 2024 Queen City Comedy Experience, 2024 Uptown Improv Festival, 2024 Vancouver Improv Festival, the 2024 Tucson Comedy Arts Festival, 2024 Ocean State Improv Festival, inaugural SAVI Fest, 2024 Gather Spring Improv Retreat 2024, Cornerstone Improv, O-Town Improv festival, Countdown Improv Festival, Camp Improv Utopia West, 2023 Queen City Comedy Experience, IMPRIDE, Unscrewed Theatre, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, Denver Improv Festival, Vintage Improv Fest, Unscrewed Theater in Tucson, AZ, All Out Comedy Theater in Oakland, CA, Sealevel, San Francisco, CA, and Phoenix Theater, San Francisco, CA. Diana enjoys helping improv artists to find and amplify their unique gifts. She genuinely believes everyone is infinitely fascinating and endeavors to instill that belief in her students.
Diana is half of the duo Bingewatch, she plays in the Tennessee Williams inspired duo Fleeting Reminiscence, Diana plays in the Shakespeare inspired trio Gamesome Frolic, the trios POPTOP, The Witches, the duos Horrible People, DJ, Secret Lives of Villains, Salt and Pepper, and Davenport & Brown, and appears with the Twilight Zone inspired ensemble But of Mind.
Diana is a guest artist with BATS Improv in San Francisco and a member of the acting pool with the San Francisco sketch comedy company Killing My Lobster. She has appeared at the Vancouver Improv Festival, Uptown Improv Festival, Improv Fest Ireland, Gather Spring Improv Retreat, Rise Comedy Fest, SF Sketchfest, The Queen City Comedy Experience, San Francisco Improv Fest, Improvaganza Hawaii Festival of Improv, San Diego Improv Fest, O-Town Improv Fest, New York Improv Festival, Vintage Improv Fest, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, New Orleans Improv Fest, Twin Cities Improv Fest, Alaska State Improv Fest, Tucson Comedy Arts Fest and others. Diana appears in scripted theater productions including Playground Solo Fest 2025, Spoleto Festival, and at theaters and theatre festivals around the country.
Heather Marie Vitale (she/they) is a Chicago-based improviser, actor, writer, and teaching artist. She has studied at the Washington Improv Theater (where she was a faculty member for seven years), Second City Conservatory, the Annoyance, Magnet Theater, WGIS, Acting Studio Chicago, and the Vagabond School. She has performed improv and sketch across the country, and can be seen on stage most weeks in Chicago. As a performer, Heather Marie embraces the joy of collaboration and connection, and as a teacher endeavors to share that joy with her students.
Matt Elwell has spent the last 25 years gallivanting across the Chicago and U.S. improv scenes. He has spent most of his artistic career with ComedySportz where he played, taught, directed, and did all sorts of leaderly things. He taught at Second City and performed with Second City Theatricals and GayCo. He also performed at places like iO, the Playground, WNEP, and in Theatre Momentum’s own Porch Play.
Jimmy Carrane has been teaching improv in Chicago for over 30 years. He has hosted the critically acclaimed podcast Improv Nerd and has written three books on the subject. He has taught everyone from beginners to experienced improvisers to employees of Fortune 500 companies. He has worked at The Second City, iO-Chicago and The Annoyance Theater. You might have see him pop up on TV shows or in movies, such as in “Shinning Girls” (Apple+), “Chicago PD,” Public Enemies, “The Playboy Club,” Natural Born Killers, The Untouchables, “ER,” and “Early Edition.”
