WORKSHOPS

The Space Between...

Sustaining your choices in the spaces between the words. 

In this workshop we'll be mining the silence for the specificity of your intention.

• Come and explore the rich inner life of your characters.

• Play with the complexities of emotions that inform the human experience.

• Learn ways to extend the dynamic tension between players without sacrificing brevity.

You’ll leave this workshop with tools for and appreciation of staying in the golden moment.

All experience levels are welcome

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LOVE & WILL: A romantic romp through three key tropes of William Shakespeare's perspective on love.

(The love triangle, forbidden love, and love unrequited, while exploring improvised Shakespeare.)

Join Diana Brown for this workshop that requires no knowledge of Shakespeare, just the willingness to explore love in an eloquent way

We'll focus on love through the lens of the six levels of Elizabethan Social Classes: Monarchy, Nobility, Gentry, Merchants, Yeomen, and Laborers. These classes are determined by their fame, wealth, skills, and even birth.

This workshop will:

-Help to demystify the world of Shakespeare

-Provide an opportunity to explore the slings and arrows of Elizabethan romance.

-Help you find your inner Shakespearean character.

You'll leave this workshop with an understanding of the social and cultural and romantic traditions of the period. And the confidence to further explore the world of Shakespeare after the workshop.

"For you, in my respect, are all the world."

-William Shakespeare

"For thou art fascinating in ways most infinite!"

- Diana Brown

Experience needed for the workshop:
All experience levels are welcome.

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Emotion is the Engine of Your Scene Work with Diana Brown

In this workshop, we’ll explore how emotion will inspire your choices, inform your character and ignite your scene work.

• We’ll explore gradients of emotion, adding to your emotional vocabulary. 

• While expanding your range of character expression with greater authenticity. 

• And letting emotion fuel your character's point of view.

• All experience levels are welcome

WORKSHOP TO SHOW

ROGUES, RUFFIANS & WILY WITS

Join Diana Brown for this workshop/rehearsal to show that requires no knowledge of Shakespeare, just the willingness to explore the bawdier side of Elizabethan life. A ribald romp inspired by the bawdy, and in truth, a bit naughty side of Shakespeare.

We’ll adventure to the pubs and inns and alleyways populated with scurrilous rogues and ladies lively, quick. Delightful characters, deliciously flawed with aspirations of greatness. And we’ll explore the way Shakespeare used rhythm and rhyme, metaphor and imagery to tempting effect.

Our efforts will culminate in an improvised performance at the festival!

Experience needed for the workshop:
A minimum of one year of Improv experience..

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The Apartment Building with Diana Brown

The ensemble will rehearse and present a new form, The Apartment Building.

Exploring how location - spaces both public and private, impact our relationships and inform our communities.

We'll discover unique private apartments, shared common areas and good places to gather.

And we'll allow them to inform our characters and shape their stories.

Minimum one year of improv experience.

About Diana:
Diana Brown is an improv artist, teaching artist, actor, producer, director and voiceover talent.

She was voted Most Valuable Mentor and Teacher at the San Francisco Improv Festival.

She leads the improv program at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s School of Theatre.

Diana is  an instructor, producer and a member of the leadership team with Leela Improv Theatre in San Francisco.

Diana’s had the privilege of leading Improv workshops, intensives/master classes at: Improv Utopia's Camp West, 2023 Queen City Comedy Experience, IMPRIDE San Diego, in San Francisco, at Salt Lake City DuoFest, Queen City Comedy, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, Improv MKE, New Orleans Improv Festival, Denver Improv Festival, Tucson Comedy Arts Festival, 2022 & 2023 Vintage Improv Festival (with Jane Morris, Jeff Michalski, Greg Tavares, Lisa Lynn).

Diana is half of the nationally touring improv comedy duo Bingewatch. Bingewatch was awarded "Best Improv" at the Fringe Festival of Pittsburgh.

She also plays in the improvised Shakespeare trio Gamesome Frolic,  with The Witches…,and with the duo Horrible People. She appears with BATS Improv in San Francisco as a guest artist. and online with Queen City Comedy's Close Distance.  

Diana has appeared with Speechless Live in San Francisco at Club Fugazi as both a presenter and on the judges panel. And serves as part of FLS+ (FreeStyle Love Supreme's) corporate coaching division. She serves as director for the improv ensemble The Professionals. 

Diana has appeared in theatre festivals and productions in New York, Los Angeles, Charleston, Washington, D.C., & San Francisco. Diana delights in creating and performing memorable characters.

Diana’s Teaching Philosophy:

Diana enjoys helping improv artists find and amplify their unique gifts! She genuinely believes everyone is infinitely fascinating and endeavors to instill that belief in her students. And invites her students to stay in true discovery vs. invention, which can take the player out of the moment. She believes the truth is the most compelling thing we can offer up on the stage and encourages her students to bring their truth to their characters whether they’re naturalistic or fantastical.