What If Theatre

In recent years in the United States, improv teachers such as Joe Bill and TJ Jagadowski from Chicago, David Razowsky from Los Angeles, Greg Tavares from South Carolina, and Jill Bernard from Minneapolis have begun working with the idea that improv can contain realistic characters who are vulnerable. Having the ability to create improv that is honest and vulnerable adds another layer to your work, a little bit of cake underneath your frosting to take your work from light entertainment to something with resonance. In this workshop, we start with your true self as a completely valid and powerful launchpad to creating original improvisation. We will explore emotion as a driver. We will practice letting your relationship, and how your partner sees you, define your character. We will learn to trust assumptions in place of inventions.

JILL BERNARD (she/her) has been performing with ComedySportz-Twin Cities since 1993, and was a founding member of HUGE Theater in Minneapolis. Her one-woman improv piece, Drum Machine, has been featured in over forty improv festivals. She has taught and performed improv in Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and in over forty of the United States; and also on an episode of MTV “Made.”