Clown Combat for the Improviser Too!
With Judi Lewis-Ockler
Friday, March 29, 2019, 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Studios 353
353 W 48th Street, Studio B
New York, NY 10036
"I'm not funny. What I am is brave."- Lucille Ball
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
This workshop is designed to continue exploring stage combat and clown techinques as tools for the clown/improviser who wants a fight performance of the moment, executed with safe, reliable, structured technique the performer can depend on, so as not to maim or die or scare the audience for real! Clown Combat Too! continues basic timing and rhythmic elements inherent to physical comedy and clown using high energy games, improvisation, and simple unarmed stage combat techniques.
Clown is an invaluable art form that gives special credence to live performance, to human nature, to laughter. Clown Combat Too endeavors to bring these ideas to performers in a safe, fun, and respectful environment which, with a little bravery on their part, allows for the performer's clown to come out and play with reckless abandon.
Open to performers with previous basic stage combat/clown/improv training.
Class requirements: comfortable workout clothing/shoes
Max: 16 people
JUDI LEWIS-OCKLER falls down for a living. She works as a stunt performer in NYC (visit judi's imdb page). She is a founding member of Kendall Cornell’s Clowns Ex Machina, and has performed commissioned pieces with them for Cirque du Soliel and La Mama, Etc. She is a resident variety performer in NYC, producing live events and clown spectacle with such clients as Brookfield Place, US Open, South Street Seaport Museum, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her one woman show, Rock n' Roll Mother Goose! premiered at the New York Clown Festival 2016, directed by Barry Lubin, and continues to tour the US. She teaches clown and stage combat on a regular basis at AMDA, The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Broadway Teaching Group. www.judilewisockler.com
Reserve your spot by emailing IRTEinfo@gmail.com
Cost:
Early Bird Special: $60 per person until 3/22/2019
After 3/22/2018, $70
(Refund if reservation cancelled 48 hours in advance)
Refund if reservation cancelled 48 hours in advance.
If you purchased through Coursehorse, then our Refund & Cancellation policy applies to your purchase. If you are entitled to a refund, or have any questions, please contact Coursehorse here.
Share The Scene! The Art of Give and Take
with Scotty Watson
Saturday, April 27, 2019 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Theatre Row Studios
411 West 41st Street, Studio 6
New York, NY 10036
2021/2022 Workshops
Welcome Back Workshops
The Welcome Back Workshops are a continuing series of group classes led by top IRTE company members to explore and develop performance ideas and techniques representative of IRTE's unique style. We also hope that by bringing performers together in an open, supportive environment, we help expand and nurture a diverse community of actors.
Workshops may be taken together or separately.
Improvising with Props
DATE TBA, 2022
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Studios 353
353 W 48th Street, Studio B
New York, NY 10036
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
In this workshop, we will brainstorm new and innovative ways to use simple dime-store props and found objects to heighten improvisational scenework. (e.g. red streamers to represent blood, blonde wigs as puppet rats, a blue plastic sheet to simulate a swimming pool.) We will be getting on our feet to discover new and imaginative ways to think about the physical objects we have on hand and create new and interesting stage pictures as we improvise.
Cost: $10
The IRTE-go
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Studios 353
353 W 48th Street, Studio B
New York, NY 10036
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
A continuation of IRTE's approach to Improvi-play performance, this workshop will focus on one of IRTE's unique show structures, the "IRTE-go." Past IRTE-go's have included Happy Birthday, Stupid Kid!, Tammy's Bachelorette, Go to Sleep, Stupid Kids!, vIRTE-Go-Go, and vIRTEgo Circus.
Cost: $10
Character and Emotion
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Studios 353
353 W 48th Street, Studio B
New York, NY 10036
MASTER CLASSES
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
In improvised scene work, having an emotional take on the environment, the relationships, and events helps bring life to your work, as well as give more definition to a character. This workshop will present methods and tools to better provide your characters with an emotional viewpoint.
Cost: $10
Fully-Embodied Characters:
Using Laban Movement Analysis to Power
Improvisational Acting Technique
with Sean Mulvihill
RESCHEDULED
NEW DATE: Wednesday, February 23, 2022
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Theatre Row Studios
411 West 41st Street, Studio 5
New York, NY 10036
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Ever watch back a video of your performance and it seems flat or unconvincing? Were all of your characters too similar? In this 3-hour workshop combining improv with Laban Movement Analysis, you will be inspired to create characters that are visceral and real.
You will learn to:
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Expand your range as an actor
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Make all of your characters highly distinct from one another in temperament, voice, and body
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Analyze and discuss acting using Laban movement vocabulary
The jumping-off point for this class is Laban Movement Analysis. Rudolf Laban (1879-1958) was an Austro-Hungarian dancer, choreographer and dance/movement theoretician. Read more about Rudolf Laban here: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/about-us/history/rudolf-laban/
When applying Laban work to acting, performers can play with 3 dimensions:
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Time: Sudden or Sustained
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Weight: Light or Strong
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Space: Direct or Flexible (Indirect)
The different combinations of those three dimensions create diverse qualities of movement/voice/persona that we can play with when creating characters. For example, a character that is Sudden, Light, and Indirect is "Flicking" or a character that is Sustained, Strong, and Direct is "Pressing".
The evening will begin with exercises in creating characters and will culminate in improvised scene work.
INSTRUCTOR BIO:
A theatre/film actor and director, Sean A. Mulvihill has performed professionally on stage and screen in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His work has been seen on Amazon Prime, Sony Playstation, and RAI Italia. He directed and produced the film Act Social starring Colin Mochrie of Whose Line is it, Anyway? Sean is the Artistic Director of the Exuberant Theatre Company. The group's improv comedy show ran for 2 years at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York City. In 2005, Sean's breakout project was creating and acting in Living Luminaries: On the Serious Business of Happiness, a docu-drama starring Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now. Sean has also performed onstage for the Venetian Casino Macau, the Italian National Tour of Action Theatre (Torino, Italy), and various regional theatres in the United States. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Physical Theatre from Acccademia dell’Arte in Italy and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Theatre (Acting) from the University of Southern California.
Cost: $50
Refund if reservation cancelled 48 hours in advance.
If you purchased through Coursehorse, then our Refund & Cancellation policy applies to your purchase. If you are entitled to a refund, or have any questions, please contact Coursehorse here.
Story and Structure
Date TBA, 2022
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Studios 353
353 W 48th Street, Studio B
New York, NY 10036
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Want to perform long form improvisation that tells a story, building from scene to scene, rather than a montage of separate vignettes with little to no connection? Learn how IRTE develops and structures their shows. This workshop focuses on good story structure through improvised narrative scene work.
Cost: $10
Improvi-play Performance
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Studios 353
353 W 48th Street, Studio B
New York, NY 10036
Welcome Back IRTE!
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
7:00pm - 9:00pm
The Prince Theatre
358 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
This workshop will explore IRTE's unique approach to "Improvi-play" performance. We will explore and experiment with the ideas and tools used by IRTE to create their own individual style and structure. Focus will be on character-based improvisation as it relates to a typical IRTE show.
Cost: $10
Hazard Scenes with Pat Shay
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Studios 353
353 W 48th Street, Studio B
New York, NY 10036
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
How’s about we do all the scenes that our improv teachers tell us not to do? Transaction scenes; Teaching scenes; Scenes where we ask a lot of questions; Scenes where we just talk about our object work - you name it! Thing is, we’re going to look at why these scenes so frequently suck and why they don’t have to. So by the end, we know how to take a transaction scene and make it sing: make it matter. We know that if we find ourselves stuck in a teaching scene, we can make it resonate. We’ll refocus on the How and the Why in our improv scenes, and discover that the What can truly be anything.
PAT SHAY has performed for touring companies or house teams at iO Chicago, the Second City, UCB, and the PIT. He performed for a long time in Chicago, working with Del Close and Mick Napier, before moving to New York. He’s taught at iO Chicago, the PIT, and has coached groups from all over the country. On TV, he’s been a hard-nosed reporter on The Blacklist, a concerned (and, two scenes later, grieving) dad on FBI, and once looked on in joy and relief as Jon Bon Jovi deleted his son from the timeline in a cable TV ad. He and his wife Mary Theresa Archbold cohost the funnyparents podcast, which is a storytelling show of parents who work in the comedy business.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
This workshop will be a fairly easy-going re-introduction to some of our improvisational methods and practices. We will be "shaking off the dust" and stretching our acting limbs, as we reacquaint ourselves to the stage and to each other. We are so happy to be back and to see many of our IRTE family that we have decided to offer this workshop at no charge.
Cost: Free
Cost: $45
Refund if reservation cancelled 48 hours in advance.
If you purchased through Coursehorse, then our Refund & Cancellation policy applies to your purchase. If you are entitled to a refund, or have any questions, please contact Coursehorse here.
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