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WORKSHOPS
laugh, play, and learn all weekend
Introducing Premiere Workshop Instructor and Festivus Headliner Instructor
Michelle Gilliam
Michelle Gilliam, is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and lives between Los Angeles, CA and Milwaukee, WI. Michelle has over 25 years of expertise and experience in improv, that started at age 15 right at ComedySportz Milwaukee, and is the Owner and Artistic Director of Improv MKE. Michelle also currently works with The World’s Greatest Improv School founded and run by, Will Hines, of UCB Fame.
Michelle specializes in leading corporate and medical teams, as well as various university departments to success by helping them to harness the power of improv as a tool and resource for DEIB, creativity, empowerment, communication, fun, and much more.
Michelle has had the opportunity to facilitate all over the world in Improv. She has worked with teams from: Scotland, Liverpool, Nottingham, Chester, London, India, Africa, Singapore, The Philippines, Norway, Copenhagen, Canada, Lithuania, New Zealand, and the list goes on.
Michelle headlined the 2022 Edinburgh improv festival in Scotland and taught intensives all over the UK in 2022 as well.
A few companies and universities Michelle has worked with recently:
Marywood University
Marquette University
Concordia University
US BANK, Wealth Management
ComedySportz Manchester, UK
SoftWareOne
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Fri Dec 9, 3-5PM
Sat Dec 10, 2:30-4:30PM
Premier Workshop
Flock Doc and Roll
with Michelle Gilliam
Premier Workshop
The Confidence Builder
with Michelle Gilliam
In this workshop we are going to learn and practice 3 of Michelle’s FAVORITE openings that all foster fun character work, ensemble work, and practicing listening with our whole bodies. Flocking, The Documentary and The Confession will allow us to strengthen many improv muscles including but not limited to having fun, being funny, and supporting each other as we then pull inspiration from what is created up top to build and say yes to worlds we love playing in.
What do you do when it’s just you and your partner on stage? When all of the focus and time and attention is just on the two of you? How do you sustain your base reality your games and not die from drowning in your own sweat when there’s no clean up crew? Oh and you’re supposed to have fun too!?!?!
Sat Dec 10, 11am-1PM
Musical Theatricality for Improv Workshop
with Heather Scholl
Do you love musical theater or simply wish you had a better understanding of the genres and musical styles to implement into your improvisation? In this workshop, we'll explore the elements that make up a musical and how these tropes can be created on the improv stage - from song types, to dance breaks, to big Broadway energy. The goal of the workshop is for participants to walk away with an understanding of how to tackle a long-form narrative improvised musical, but along the way, we'll break down how these skills can be applied in short-form games. Everyone should be prepared to sing, and Robert Torrance will accompany us on keys.
Workshop Full
Sat Dec 10, 11-1PM
Sat Dec 10, 11-1PM
Sat Dec 10, 2:30-4:30PM
Get to the Meat
Workshop
with Jenn Bianchi
This workshop focuses on the little details that open the door of possibilities. Small choices lead to big reactions and we'll use these reactions to discover the deeper meaning of a character's wants.
Sat Dec 10, 11am-1PM
DO SOMETHING, NOW!
-- A DYNAMIC SCENIC DEEP DIVE
with Chris Barry
Heavily interactive and light on lecture, this workshop emphasizes activity: an active mind; an active body; and an active vocabulary.
If you’ve ever found yourself in a scene where you weren’t sure what to do, this workshop will remind you that taking an action will jump start your own mind and provide a surplus of options for your scene partners to act upon.
Through warmups, exercises and collaborative scene analysis, together we’ll remind ourselves that doing something and doing it now helps move our stories along and makes our scene work more interesting for us and our audiences.
After this workshop, you will have the tools to be more confident, decisive, spontaneous and fun to play with!