BIF Week 1 - Six-pack

Six teachers, six countries, six improv principles

Felipe Ortiz (Colombia): To Be In The Present

The most important and sometimes the most difficult thing for an improviser is to really connect with his or her partners, with the audience, with the music and with the space - in a few words: to be present. As performers our body is our main tool, so it’s important to develop a way of deep listening - listening with our mind, heart and body. 

Felipe Ortiz is a performer and director, founding member of La Gata Cirko and Picnic. He has been working as a performer in improvisational theater, in the contemporary circus and as a clown with the emphasis on physical approach since 1995. He is interested in directing, exploring the body and its possibilities and sharing experiences with artists around the world!

Rama Nicholas (Australia): Emotion, Reaction and Empathy

Performers are empathy machines, creating stories that our scene partners and audience can connect to. By building trust and being in the moment we can allow ourselves to make bold, risky emotional offers and reactions. Using empathy, we can affect our audience and each other in a meaningful way. 

Rama Nicholas is a multi-award-winning comedian, actor, improviser, writer and director. She is known for her critically acclaimed, one woman solo shows and as a creator of three highly sought after improv formats - Close To You, The Wishing Tree and Gypsyprov. Rama travels the world performing, directing and teaching improvisation with numerous international theatre companies and festivals.

Audrius Bružas (Lithuania): Making Connections

Improvisational theatre is a perfect boost for life - it helps you develop great attentiveness skills, reduces stress, makes you more creative, spontaneous and generally puts you in a good mood. The center of all these positive traits are - connections. Through gaming exercises and creative tasks we will try to find ways to make connections - not only on stage, but also in life. 

Audrius Bružas is a theatre, film and television actor. He is an alumni of the Lithuanian Academy of Theatre and Music and he earned a Master’s degree in 2009. He has been improvising since 2001 and is a proud founder and actor in the biggest Lithuanian improv theatre Kitas Kampas.

Juš Milčinski (Slovenia): Playfulness

One of the most important traits of any improviser is to be ready to play. Play the scene, play the character, play the game, play with your partners and your audience. Through this workshop we’ll explore ways to dive into our onstage partnerships without thinking too much, recognize patterns and amp our spontaneity to the max in funny, sad, realistic and plain old silly scenes. 

Juš Milčinski has been performing in the art of improvisational theatre since 1999, first as a member of the Slovenian High School Improvisational League and later as a member of different improv short-form and long-form troupes. He is a cofounder and a member of IGLU - Improvisational Theatre of Ljubljana, a group of three silly friends who all fell in love with improv, where he regularly performs, teaches and travels the globe.

Gilly Alfeo (Germany): Storytelling

One very important aspect of improv is entertainment, which is at its best, when it happens on different levels. Being funny or showing skills as an actor one layer, but we can achieve much more, if we can create incredible stories. Through this workshop we’ll see ways to tell stories and make them stick. We will be inspired by authors and screenwriters with creating a clear protagonist and developing her or his adventure into three steps of outer, personal and inner conflict. 

Gilly Alfeo leaped into the world of arts as a jazz-piano student at the Conservatory of Enschede in the Netherlands. He was later recruited as a pianist by Springmaus, Germany’s oldest commercial improv group. What started as a liaison, became a lifelong passion - he soon became an improv actor and is now also the artistic director of the company.

Gosia Różalska (Poland): If you want to be an artist, you can't be a copy of someone else

In this workshop we'll walk in a filmmaker's shoes to see improv from a different perspective. On stage we are actors, directors and screenwriters at the same time. Off stage we all watch films and we have our favourites. Let's use that knowledge and love of film to play out original improv on stage. 

Gosia Różalska has been improvising for half of her life. She is a graduate of Photography, Cultural Studies and Film Directing and she's using all of it while traveling the improv world. She's a member of the board of the Ohana group and recently you could see her at Improvention in Canberra, Seattle International Improv Festival, IMPRO Amsterdam, BIG IF in Barcelona, Mt. Olymprov in Athens and other festivals. She is "the girl who came out of nowhere and is doing whatever the hell she wants!"

BIF Week 2 - Masterclass: Lessons On Essence

Level up your scene work with three improv masters

It sounds simpler than it is: How do you play an improv scene? Of course, we can all do it, easily. But what do we have to do to turn it into a »good scene«? This Masterclass concentrates on the essence of our work: the creation of theatre scenes, arising in that moment. It is the base of everything that comes next, all the specialty skills, all the different styles and philosophies of improv. We will focus on the core of theatre: the scene as the basic building block of any improv theatre performance.

Mia Møller, Lee White and Billa Christe (in this order) will teach you how to listen to each other carefully, to be honest, to discover what the scene is about, to search for the answer in your partner, to be quick, to be slow, to be quiet, to find a beginning and an end. Train your skills with three extremely experienced teachers in an intensive class with three connected units on scene work for advanced improvisers.

Mia Møller

Mia Møller earned a Master’s degree in Drama and Media Science in 2005 from University in Aarhus, DK. Her main interest in art is improv, forum theatre and to develop and teach theatrical tools to use for business, companies and everyday life. She has been doing several improv courses with Keith Johnstone and performed at different international improv festivals all over Europe.

Lee White

Lee White is Canadian born but now living in Berlin. He started acting at ten years old and by his mid twenties was one of the leading improvisers in the world. Being one half of the infamous CRUMBS he traveled the world teaching and performing. He is accomplished also as a stand up and actor in various films and television.

Billa Christe

Billa Christe studied acting in Berlin and joined Die Gorillas in 1997. She has been performing and teaching improvisation ever since, has developed and directed theatre plays and applies improvisation as a trainer and as an MC in the corporate world. She coaches improv ensembles, teaches at acting schools and regularly performs in Die Gorillas' several weekly shows in Berlin.

Costs

Six-pack

Masterclass

Contact

Die Gorillas/Culturalis

Conditions for participation in the BIF week workshops

IMPRO – International Festival for Improvisational Theatre Berlin Code of Conduct

Our festival has always been a place designated for the meeting, exchange and interaction of people from all over the world, enjoying improvised theatre together. We wish to continue making it a space, where everyone feels safe and has the opportunity to freely experience our art form.

We hope people of all genders, abilities, ages, cultures and sexualities feel welcome here. As such, any form of discrimination will not be tolerated. This can include, but is not limited to: racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic or ableist comments, sexual harassment, bullying.

We trust that everyone participating in our festival, from staff members to performers, workshop participants, audience members to anyone else joining the festival in whatever manner, does so with respect and appreciation for their fellow human beings and surroundings..

We encourage you to communicate and respect boundaries - while being aware that they can differ from person to person - and do so with good will and understanding for one another.

If at any point you feel made uncomfortable or unsafe at our festival, please let us know. You can speak to a staff member directly or contact our festival representative trustees Marie Wellmann or Juš Milčinski. Reports will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and handled with care and confidentiality..

Contact details:
Marie Wellmann
+49-(0)177 6222596
marie@culturalis.de

Juš Milčinski
+386 31 427 846
jus@improfestival.de