Time & Location

Apr 21, 2024, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM GMT+5:30

Sanskriti Kendra, Anandagram, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Rd, Anand Gram, Aya Nagar, New Delhi, Delhi 110047, India

About the event

The Make Em Ups and Kaivalya Plays invite you to

ESSENTIALS OF ACTING FOR IMPROVISERS, WITH JONAH FAZEL

A 3-hour workshop covering the ‘best bits’ from the world of professional stage acting, designed to make you more confident in expressing emotions, embodying believable characters and drawing from the most immediate of sources for spontaneous scenes: ourselves!

In improv we learn about listening, Yes And, spontaneity and more, but there is a world of skills we can borrow from professional actors that are also helpful for improvisers and often missing from our improv stages and scenes. This class aims to enable improvisers to have a truthful connection on stage and to be open and vulnerable, while keeping the dexterity and skill needed to put on a professional-looking (and often very funny) show. The class will include a selection of exercises on; physicality and use of the body, how to warm up and use your voice, stage presence and theatre blocking, theatricality, intimacy, connecting with each other on stage and feeling genuine emotions on stage instead of ‘presenting’. This workshop will offer notes on your performance and utilise side coaching to bring out your most impactful performance.

This workshop is recommended for performers, improvisers and actors who have been performing improv (or using improvisation as a devising method) for some time and are confident with the principle techniques of scene work. This class presumes some familiarity with scene work and some long-form techniques. This workshop requires physical mobility, please let us know in advance in case you require additional access support.

The workshop will be held at Sanskriti Kendra in Aya Nagar, South Delhi. Participants can sign up for the workshop for INR 1499 (regular price) or INR 1349 (early bird prices till March 31st). Participants can also sign up to this workshop and three other workshops (Introduction to Musical Improv, Harry Potter Improv, Jane Austen Improv) for a combined workshop pass at INR 5999/-. 

About The Facilitator

Jonah Fazel is an experienced comedian, theatre-maker and television presenter who trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the Webber Douglas Academy. He can currently be seen on the award-winning CBeebies show Treasure Champs and is a series regular on BAFTA winning online comedy series History Bombs. Having previously trained in comedy with Logan Murray, Keith Johnstone, and Philippe Gaulier, he is one of the UK’s best-known improv comedians. He is a regular on the circuit, and can be seen across London and the UK, most regularly as the compere of Thursday Night Lights, a weekly improv comedy variety night at The Nursery Theatre. With a background in education, he currently teaches Improvisation at The Actors Centre, Hoopla Impro and The Nursery Theatre and in addition lecturers on improv and devised theatre at University of Creative Arts. He is a veteran of the London Fringe and Edinburgh Festivals having produced and performed in over a dozen hit shows. Jonah is a co-founder of the hit genre show Bumper Blyton: The Improvised Adventure, currently on their 2019 UK tour, after a sell-out run with Underbelly and co producer of How To Date A Magical Creature

About The Organizers

About Make Em Ups Theatre Company

'The Make Em Ups' Theatre company proudly present their 5 Star show “Bumper Blyton”. The show has toured extensively across the UK and in arts festivals across Europe and is coming to India for the first time! They are winners of various UK-based theatre and comedy awards, such as the Chortle Award for best live Entertainment show and a Fringe award at the Edinburgh Festival. The company was formed in 2016 by Amy Cooke-Hodgson (founder of Edfringe and Multi-Award-winning West End hit Austentatious) and Jonah Fazel (BAFTA-winning History Bombs) with the aim to create popular and high-quality improvised theatre. The rotating cast is some of the UK's best-known comedy improvisation performers and can also be seen on stage in the West-End hits, ‘Showstoppers The Improvised Musical’, ‘Austentatious’ and the longest-running live comedy show in the UK ‘Newsreview’. Between them, they have won numerous awards for their work, including 2 Oliver Awards, 2 Chortle awards, 1 BAFTA, 2 National Television Society awards and many more!

About Kaivalya Plays

Kaivalya Plays is a performing arts and production company led by Varoon P. Anand as its Artistic Director and Gaurav Singh Nijjer as General Manager. With its roots in the cultural capital of India, New Delhi, the group has created innovative artistic experiences with a focus on community-building. Our artistic training is grounded in improvisational theatre, lying at the intersection of short-form improvisation (for performances and workshop) and applied improvisation (with a focus on mental health, business, education, and training). Our work has been featured in Telegraph, India Today, The Hindu, Indian Express, Financial Express among others.