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Friday 12th May | 11:00 – 17:00
What makes some improv scenes ‘Meh’ And others ‘Wow’?
What is the difference between an audience ‘watching people improvise’ and being truly invested in the world you create?
When improvising a scene, making the audience laugh is one thing, but transfixing them so that they can’t look away is quite another. The goal of this workshop is to explore exactly those compelling moments when we can’t pull our eyes away.
We’ll look at:
– How to elongate tension for impactful moments of hilarity, joy and pain.
– How to gift your scene partners with compelling offers
– How to turn any offer from your scene partner into meaningful and gripping responses
About the Instructor
When not improvising in London, Maria performs and teaches at improv festivals internationally, most recently in Estonia, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal & The United States.
A lot of her expertise has also been gathered from world-class instructors over the years as Maria studied with: Charna Halpern, the founder of iO Chicago and author of Truth in Comedy, who originally developed The Harold with Del Close; Keith Johnstone; New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade; and The Second City in Chicago.
Maria Peters is one of the Yes Queens, the West End’s first female lead improv comedy group. She also performs in Breaking & Entering, a hugely popular improv duo and creators of The Playground which has grown to be one of London’s most iconic improv nights.
Her solo show, The Science of Cringe, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and played to sell-out audiences. She also writes for BBC Radio Comedy, appeared on BBC One, and is a regular on the improvised podcast Destination.
On top of over a decade of professional improvising, Maria is also a professional educator. Her varied career encompasses Museum Learning and Personal Professional Development Training which means she’s an expert in passing on knowledge in interactive & engaging ways.
Maria creates friendly and relaxed environments to learn in and believes in giving her students all the tools possible to find the JOY of improv for players and the audience alike.