DECEMBER 7TH | 2:30PM-3:30PM
PREREQUISITE: None
 
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
In this workshop we’ll touch on techniques from The First 30 Seconds and then focus on forwarding into and through your scenes as a co-author/co-actor with your scene partner(s). We’ll build on the ideas of your character knowing HOW they are (disposition) being tied to knowing Who they are, and then Listening Strategically, Emotionally and Psychologically. I’ll show you Meisner (actors will recognize this, now you will too!) hacks to get to recognizing the Truth of the Moment, and I’ll teach you how “Listening is the Willingness to Change” is the key idea in forwarding your scenes through relationship and story as they evolve. I’ll give some general and specific individual feedback about things you can focus on in your improvisation, going forward.
 
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Improvised Storytelling and Scenic, Longform & Duo Improvisation in North America today. He is one of the founding members of Annoyance Theater Chicago where, for 12 years, he performed in and/or directed more than 60 different shows. Joe is ½ of the first touring Improv Duo in North America, BASSPROV, created in 2000 with Mark Sutton. They are still performing at Festivals and theater engagements globally 24 years later. Since then Joe’s been touring all over the world teaching, directing, and improvising with several other amazing Duo Partners like Patti Stiles (Our Play), Jill Bernard (SCRAM!), Stacey Hallal (Stacey & Joe, We Slept Together) Lee White (Paradigm), Heather Urquart (Blues Hammer), Felipe Ortiz (Les Disciplinos) and David Razowsky (Razowsky & Bill), ALL in different, original formats and styles. He's touring his solo scripted show, written as he successfully took on and survived Surgeries & chemo associated with 3 different cancers from late 2022 to early 2024, Joe Bill: Surviving Consciousness, (Lessons learned from Cancer, LSD & Michael Jordan) all over the U.S. and the world. In April 2024 he debuted it at the Auckland Imrprov Festival in Auckland, NZ. He has since preformed it at Festivals and Theaters across the USA and will record it at Curious Comedy Theater in Portland, OR in early 2025. He is the creator and host of Story Chain, a virtual (and now sometimes live!), 90-minute, international story sharing event that he developed in 2020 during the Pandemic. He was the Director of Corporate Training at iO Chicago for 15 years and started training and performing there in 1985. He was a Guest Artist in Residence at The Second City Training Center & Conservatory where he taught intensives in Duo Improvisation and Improvisation for Actors for 10 years.