I reveal: the workshops and my celeb story. 🫠
Hey there,
I am not really one for namedropping celebrities. But for the September workshop we reveal below, I tell the story of how I played with improv TV star Ryan Styles. (Though it sounds like a brag, it really isn’t 🫠)
But if you ask me… The more interesting improv celebrity is the one teaching the November workshop (See that reveal at the bottom 👇)
How to play with anyone
1-day workshop & show with Laura Doorneweerd-Perry
Sunday 22 September 2024
Workshop: 10:00 - 16:00
Showcase: 18:00 - 21:00
Teacher: Laura Doorneweerd-Perry (NL)
Flock Studio, T.T. Neveritaweg 55-57 in Amsterdam
€ 120,- (0r €102/108/114 if you are a member*)
Let’s be honest: not everyone is easy to play with. Wouldn’t you want to be able to play with anyone? And become everyone’s favorite scene partner in the process?
How I played with a celebrity
“We never know if Ryan will play. It is his theatre, he just shows up… But you are here on a Thursday. If he comes, it is on Thursdays.”
I was at the theatre of Whose Line Is It Anyway-tv star Ryan Stiles. My improv tour brought me there to teach and perform. That night I was a guest in the Upfront Theatre’s shortform show.
It is a challenge: guesting at someone else’s show in a different culture than your own. Performing with an improv celebrity even more. The audience loves them no matter what they do: you’re there basically as decoration.
On top of that, I soon learned that the local cast was loud, quick-witted and dominant. Not a style close to mine. But I was in luck. On that same night there was another guest: the magnificent Kaisa from Finland.
And though Ryan did show up that night, and though we were regularly interrupted and ‘othered’, we found support with each other. Adding a tad of physical, emotional and metaphorical improv to the show.
Kaisa and I looked back on that performance happy and a little proud. We weren’t steamrolled and we felt we brought something fresh. Back then we thought that was a good score.
It was only afterwards that we learned from someone sitting backstage, that Ryan passed by midway through the show. According to the retelling, he came into the green room, shook his head and sighed: “Those European girls…”, before he went back out again to join us on stage.
It was one of the few times I shared the stage with a tv celebrity, and I didn’t impress him or became friendly with him. Maybe even the opposite.
I did learn that in these cases: it is not about you. Even more next to fame. And that should set you free. With big names, audiences come to see the star. So even annoying them, will bring out a side of them that the audience loves to watch.
So if you were to join the workshop, I might teach you how to happily play a bunny despite your world-renowned improviser hating the offer.
Details: Create narrative from causality
2-day workshop & show
Saturday & Sunday 9 + 10 November 2024
Workshop (Sat + Sun): 10:00 - 16:00
Showcase (Sun): 18:00 - 21:00
Teacher: Dan O’Connor (Los Angeles, USA)
Flock Studio, T.T. Neveritaweg 55-57 in Amsterdam
€230,- (0r €195,50/207/218,50 if you are a member*)
How to create specific and detailed stories on your feet. We will look at narrative not from a plot or theme but from engagement and causality. We will learn how to create structure without thinking about it. We will experiment and investigate a diverse canon of work in order to see how it intersects and supports narrative improvisation.
*Flock Members get extra discounts, including on workshops. Already a member? Log in to have the discount automatically applied. Not a member? It is not too late.
I am so excited that we have Dan coming over from LA. He has been on our wish list for a while, because he goes deep into narrative improv.
Thanks again for reading this. I am looking forward to seeing you soon in a workshop, or course!
Laura
Flock Theatre
☀️
P.S.
In case you are like planning, here are the dates of our upcoming workshops:
11-12 January 2025 Unrevealed opens 4 Oct
22-23 March 2025 (musical edition) Unrevealed opens 15 Dec
18 May 2025 Unrevealed opens 11 Feb
23-29 June 2025 (Flock Festival) Unrevealed opens 16 March
