Improv Resource Center Podcast

This week, I talk to Caitlin Tegart, a sketch writer and director who teaches for the UCB Theatre in NYC. We discuss how sketch writers can help themselves by not worrying about how good an idea is, that instead they need to simply get their ideas onto the page.Caitlin's work as a writer can be seen at omgoose.com and ucbcomedy.com (with her beta team Diamonds, Wow!).

Tara Defrancisco is a former member of the Second City Touring Company. She performs and teaches for iO Theater and ComedySportz in Chicago. She discusses several exercises she uses in her classes and workshops. We start by talking about What's in the Box? a short form exercise to help people make quick decisions and to yes and those decisions. Next we talk about an exercise where students initiate scenes as if they are expressing an important idea to a real person in their life. Last we discuss a couple of exercises designed to get students to make new and different character choices in their scenes.For more info on Tara, check out her website, TaraDefrancisco.com. Please leave comments about this exercise at KevinMullaney.com. And don't forget to become at fan of the podcast on Facebook.

Kevin Hines is a performer and teacher at the UCB Theatre in NYC. We begin by talking about a couple of exercises he uses to get students reacting quicker and more realistically to twists and turns in their scenes. We next talk about The Macroscene, a show that came out of his last performance class. Finally, we discuss an exercise he uses to rehearse third beats for Harolds.To take a class with Kevin, check out the classes page at UCBTheatre.com. He can be seen performing with Reubin Williams on Saturday nights and also writes videos for UCBComedy.com.

This week my guest, Matt Donnelly, shares a couple exercises that he uses in his workshops. The first he calls History, Philosophy, Metaphor and it's a way to deepen the beginning of scenes by asking students to take an underdeveloped detail of a scene and elaborate using one of three techniques. Next we talk about Bull, Matador a method of creating and playing games which asks which character is vulnerable and then puts the players in either the role of a bull or a matador.Matt, currently lives in Las Vegas where he teaches with Improv Vegas. When he is in NYC, he teaches workshops at the The PIT.If you want to discuss this podcast, you can comment it at my blog at kevinmullaney.com.

My guest this week is Jill Bernard from HUGE Theater and Comedy Sportz in Minneapolis. She shares some exercises she uses in her classes. She describes a warm up called Loser Ball which teaches students to embrace failures. Next she talks about an exercise where only one player speaks and the other remains silent. We also talk about an exercise, morphed from a Meisner exercise, where she gets her students to actually do something, rather than pretend to do something.If you are interested in taking classes with her, visit hugetheater.com.

Rich Talarico is an alumni of iO Chicago where he studied and performed for many years. He performed at Second City before moving on to Saturday Night Live where he was a writer. He now lives in LA and performs regularly in Dasariski at iO West. If you would like to take a class with Rich, contact him at losangelesimprovclass@yahoo.com Learn more about Dasariski at iO West and look for their new website at dasariski.com in the near future.