Workshops

New York City’s premier hip hop improv comedy team, North Coast, is a unique collaboration of improvisational comedy, hip hop, beatboxing, and music. This musical improv workshop will get even the most beginner performers comfortable and confident with freestyle rapping and will teach you how to really drill into the deal of your scene and its’ characters.

Playback Theatre is an internationally recognized improvisational theatre-making approach to honoring the feelings, experiences and stories of others. The practice of doing playback theatre engenders empathy and community in both the performers and the audience members.

“Keep it Simple, Stupid!” is an improv workshop focused on taking the moments at the very beginning of a scene and keeping things simple, playable, and fun from that point on. I look at things like emotional commitment, total yes-and acceptance, and playing close to yourself for ease and simplicity in scenework.

This workshop which is designed for POC, women and older players will focus on using your authentic life experience, beliefs and backstory as fuel for scenes. Don’t think about being different as being a handicap in improv think about it as your secret weapon for attacking stages.

What do you do when *that* audience member pipes up and shouts “French New Wave”,”Restoration Comedy” or “Bunraku” as a short-form suggestion? Even if you get the oft-requested “Shakespeare”, “Film Noir” or “Kabuki”, how comfortable are you in jumping right in without missing a beat? This workshop is a crash course developed by a recovering Theatre Major to guide you through the major elements of a multitude of genres from stage and screen.

As the Pittsburgh Comedy scene expands in terms of gender representation, we here at PCF would like to take a moment to ask, “Where are we right now? How does gender shape our experience? Who might we become as a community?