SCHEDULE | TROUPES | WORKSHOPS | TICKETS | COLDTOWNE THEATER


BEAT THE BLOCK! w/ Dave Holmes
SATURDAY, MAY 29TH, 12pm – 2pm: Register here
If you’re anything like me, you like to write, and you LOVE to avoid writing. Facing the blank page is the WORST, but the only way out of writers’ block is through. We’ll use some basic improv techniques, our innate people-watching skills and a look at the newspaper to wrestle writers’ block to the ground and make it cry uncle. Bring a notebook and leave your inhibitions at home.

Dave Holmes is a comic and writer who performs at LA’s IO West and UCB theaters, hosts “DVD on TV” on the FX network. He got his start as a VJ on MTV, and has since appeared all over the dial, in Comedy Central’s “Reno 911!,” NBC’s “The Strip,” VH1’s “Best Week Ever,” to name a few. His blog “My Year Of Everything” (myyearofeverything.tumblr.com) was just proclaimed “brilliant” by New York Magazine, and NPR called him one of their “10 favorite pop-culture humans of 2009.” He is available for birthday parties and quinceaneras.

SKETCH FROM IMPROV w/ Dave Buckman
SATURDAY, MAY 29th, 2:30pm – 4:30pm : Register Here
How do you take a really good improv scene and turn into a really good sketch? How do you take a really bad improv scene with a really good nugget of an idea into a really good sketch? How do you take 10 mediocre sketches and develop a really good show? By Listening, Collaborating, Killing the Baby, Following the Joke and Feeling the Beats, all while avoiding Screwing the Pooch.

Dave Buckman, director for Amesterdam's Boom Chicago (1999-2002), The Second City (2002-2004) and ColdTowne Theater (2006-present) will boil down "the process" of improv-into-sketch show development into just one workshop. Dave has written and directed live sketch shows with many people who are either performing or writing for TV today including: John Lutz (30 Rock, SNL), Kay Cannon (30 Rock), Seth Meyers, (SNL), Jason Sudeikis (SNL), Joe Kelly (SNL, It's Always Sunny...), Josh Meyers (MADtv, That 70's show), Ike Barinholtz (MADtv), Nicole Parker (MADtv, Wicked), Jordan Peele (MADtv), Liz Cackowski (SNL, Community), Maribeth Monroe (According to Jim), Rebecca Drysdale (Big Gay Sketch Show) and many, many more. He has recently finished directing his 2nd revue for ColdTowne Theater: Shanty Town Lake

IMPROV WITH EMOTION w/ Julia Wackenheim
SUNDAY, MAY 30th, 12pm – 2pm : Register Here
Are you finding it hard to connect to your scene partner? Are your scenes falling flat? Is everything always “plot plot plot” all the time? Julia’s “Improv with Emotion” workshop will help you develop your emotional prowess and incorporate it into your scene work. You’ll walk away ready to laugh, cry or scream your way into connected improv.

*Learn easy tricks to tap into emotions
*Instantly find the connection to your scene partner AND to the funny
*Walk away with a bunch of tricks to put in your improvisor’s back pocket

Upon getting her BFA in acting at Emerson College in Boston, Julia Wackenheim moved to Los Angeles and has been acting, improvising, writing and coaching improv for the past 7 years. She can be seen regularly on the iO West stage in the mainstage house Harold Team, DHT, and iO’s sketch comedy/current affairs/drinking game/game show The Friday Forty. Julia’s credits include FlashForward, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Derek and Simon, Askaninja.com and a handful of commercials. She has two dogs and two cats, wears a mean lip gloss and loves to brag about how much she can deadlift.

GENREPROV w/ NICK ARMSTRONG
SUNDAY, MAY 30th, 2:30pm – 4:30pm : Register Here
In this course Nick will have the improviser explore a different side of long-form improvisation. You will practice different genres and how to execute them in a serious and successful way.

Nick Armstrong is an Actor, Writer, Director and Producer based in Los Angeles. He is a member of The AV Club Productions, Inc, and online Website and community that creates Web TV, shorts and television content. As an improviser Nick is a performer and teacher at the iO West theatre in Hollywood, CA and just launched his three-day retreat for improvisers Camp ImprovUtopia (www.improvutopia.com). On Television Nick has made appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the Emmy-Award winning show The Office. You can visit his Website atwww.nickarmstrong.com for more information.