RISE Comedy is excited to announce that we’re holding a summer improv intensive. We’ve brought some of the best teachers and performers in improvisation together for a 4 day intensive. You’ll get 6 hours from each of our visiting instructors for a total of 24 hours of improv training. Intensive students will also form an ensemble team that will get a performance slot in the RISE Comedy Festival taking place that same week.
Classes sessions will start at 10am and conclude at 5pm, with an hour long break at 1pm from Monday thru Thursday. Wednesday night we will be holding an improv jam for our community where you’ll get a chance to play with our intensive teachers.
2024 Summer Intensive Instructors
John Gebretatose - Characters
John Gebretatose has been performing stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy in Minnesota's Twin Cities for over 10 years. He is an instructor, Co-Executive Director, and Director of Diversity and Inclusion at HUGE Theater in Minneapolis, MN, and has taught improv workshops in theaters, hospitals, corporate workspaces, K-12 schools, and colleges. He has also led and facilitated diversity and inclusion programming for improv theaters worldwide through his mission to uplift all voices. John trained and worked at the Brave New Workshop and is a founding member of Blackout Improv, Late Nights Minneapolis (a sketch comedy show), and co-founder of the Black and Funny Improv Festival. He has traveled the world performing, teaching, and directing improv.
Shulie Cowen - Listening
Shulie Cowen teaches improv to kids, senior citizens, and everyone in between. She previously spent 12 years teaching at The Second City Hollywood and iO West, and now travels the USA and the world teaching acting and improv at festivals and schools. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, a former member of The Second City National Touring Company, and an original cast member of Schoolhouse Rock Live!. Shulie studied improv in Chicago at The Second City Training Center, The Annoyance Theatre, and at iO with Del Close. She currently directs and performs in Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!® and with the improv team EST. Film and television credits include Mr. Mayor, 2 Broke Girls, Liza on Demand, and How I Met Your Mother.
Kristen Schier - Mischief
Kristen Schier is an actor, improviser, teacher, and clown. She has extensive improv teaching, directing, and performing experience. She holds a BFA in Theater Arts from the University of the Arts where she also taught Acting for Non-Majors, Improvisation for the Actor, and first-year Acting Studio. She has toured all over the country teaching and performing at various festivals such as the Seattle Festival of Improvised Theater, Chicago Improv Festival, Vancouver International Improv Festival, Boom Chicago Comedy Festival in Amsterdam, and more. Kristen is the current Educational Programs Manager at Kickstand Comedy theater in Portland Oregon and former Improv Producer at the Philly Improv Theater. She has studied improv at Second City, Magnet Theater, and Annoyance. Kristen has also studied Physical Theater, clown, extensively with Pig Iron Theater company and Movement Theater Studio.
Elana Fishbein - Status
Elana Fishbein is an improv teacher, performer, educational consultant, and executive coach based in New York City. She has designed curricula and facilitated improv workshops for corporations, non-profits, and educational institutions all over the United States and beyond. Elana’s targeted, experiential sessions aim to help students expand their ability to communicate, collaborate, empathize, and lead through radical respect and elevation of each other’s ideas. Elana teaches improv at Magnet Theater and American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. She can be seen performing with the Armando Diaz Experience, Magnet Theater TourCo, and her solo improv show, Pepita (Best of the Fest, San Diego Improv Festival). She has been featured at the Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Eau Claire, Edmonton, Omaha, Philadelphia, and Women in Comedy Festivals, among others. Her two-woman play, Sisters Three, was a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Elana has written and performed for The Truth Podcast (Radiotopia), Story Pirates Podcast (Gimlet), and appeared on BBC America’s Almost Royal, as well as in the original musical comedies Girl Camp and Nightfall on Miranga Island. She is a member of Story Pirates, a non-profit arts-in-education organization that takes stories written by kids and adapts them into hilarious sketches and songs. She is the co-creator of two professional development workshop series for teachers: “Beyond Winging It: Improv in the Classroom” and “Play.” Elana is featured in the documentary short, LMAO, about the therapeutic potential of laughter and comedy. Elana holds an M.A. in Educational Theater from NYU and B.A. in Drama from Vassar College. Her favorite succulent is jade. More info at elanafishbein.com.
We offer payment plans of half upfront and the rest a few weeks out from the intensive email [email protected]