Now that I’m rested and have had time to reflect on Thursday and Friday teaching teens improv from across the state, I have to say it was one of the best teaching festivals I’ve ever done. It’s neck and neck with all the times I taught and directed at the Teen Comedy Festival in Chicago. Which makes sense, because they are closely aligned. Both feature young actors from different locations, both had professional instructors eager to pass knowledge on to the next generation of talent, and both were wonderfully exhausting.

I did four workshops a day for two days.

Of course, I did my Shakespeare workshop, the genesis of which came from my need to teach teens improv as an experience rather than a collection of lessons. The proof came from one student who couldn’t get into the other workshops they wanted and ended up walking into mine.

“I’m a stage manager, and I don’t do a lot of acting. I don’t like improv because I can’t think that fast, and I have only seen one Shakespeare play. Is that OK?”

I told them, you don’t need anything for this workshop other than a willingness to try.

And this player kicked a** at it. Afterwards, they were all smiles and questions.

“How do I do more of this? I’m going to go to another improv workshop. Which one should I do?”

I’ll always be proud of my subversive little Shakespeare workshop (now three workshops). Because it’s not only about teaching someone to improvise in the style of Shakespeare, it also teaches the value of listening and responding to the last thing that was said. To respond with your character’s heart and to use emotions to drive that character, all wrapped up in a huge Elizabethan burrito of Shakespeare.

Then I did my Creating Characters from Movement and Object Work workshop, which uses David Razowsky’s method combining the Meisner technique and Viewpoints to create character shapes, find their voices, and discover their point of view. It was a big hit with the teens.

I even had some drama teachers do the workshops with their students and got some great compliments.

I also got to see my oldest teen do their first theater festival. And even though they found it cringe that their own dad was teaching workshops there, she had an absolute blast. Her school’s drama department came home with Gold and Excellent honors.

I hope to never stop teaching improv at the high school level. It is by far one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in theater.

I also gave away about a dozen books to teachers who were interested, so they can take my lessons and exercises back into their classrooms.

Now I just need to figure out how to do more festivals like this. If you have any ideas, hit me!