WORKSHOPS
The 2025 Miami Improv Festival is thrilled to offer 7 fantastic masterclass level improv workshops from some of the leading instructors in the industry, including Joe Bill, Mark Sutton, Tara DeFrancisco, Rance Rizzutto, Anděl Sudik and Jon Colby! All workshops are 2-6 hours long and are very limited in size. Learn from the best at MIF 2025! For more information go to WORKSHOPS!
Friday, January 17
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Be Here Now: Joy and Presence in Scenework (Special 2-hour workshop)
$65 - $75 [BUY NOW]
*Purchase MIF 2025 workshops, morning and afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday and get this workshop for FREE!
Instructors: Tara DeFrancisco and Rance Rizzutto
Presence is the name of the game. Come do two-person scenework, actively listen, and find the fun - It’s all right there in front of you. Part bohemian methodology and exercises, part scenework, this practice is both invigorating and full of meaningful conversation in this highly requested workshop with Tara & Rance.
Saturday, January 18
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Musical Improv Clinic
$125 - $150 [BUY NOW]
Instructors: Tara DeFrancisco and Rance Rizzutto
Improvising music is a freeing, empowering, and joyful space - and you can start right here! Tara & Rance will teach you all proper warmups, short musical theory, committing to the moment, and leaning into emotions so you can earn the song right in front of you. We'll do vocal work, scenes into songs first playing in pairs, and possibly play with beginning side-support of your clinic ensemble.
The First 30 Seconds
$100 - $120 [BUY NOW]
*Pair this with The Next 3 Minutes for an ALL-DAY Masterclass experience!
Instructor: Joe Bill
In Improvisation scenes, the ending often lies in the beginning. I will show you how to begin your scenes with focus & playfulness and how to begin to bring your inner Engineer & Jazz Musician into Harmony through the way that you listen. We’ll focus on the first 30 seconds of a scene to discover your characters (How you do, What you do, is Who you are) evolving from the recognition of “How am I?”, “How are you?” & “How are WE?” I’ll help increase your awareness of the 2 types of dialogue, (Circumstantial & Interpersonal) to give you the best chance to play an honest grounded scene, rooted in depth and discovery AND how comedy & story happen as a consequence of connection, rather than goals that you’re desperately chasing.
Saturday, January 18
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Make Choices Not Faces
$100 - $120 [BUY NOW]
Instructor: Mark Sutton
This workshop will explore how to create characters that are not only funny but have depth and substance. Characters you – the improviser – can really sink your teeth into. We will practice ways to find strong points of view, connections to the environment and a clear physical presence. And we will show how – with conviction – we can play even the wildest characters with truth and believability.
The Next 3 Minutes
$100 - $120 [BUY NOW]
*Pair this with The First 30 Seconds for an ALL-DAY Masterclass experience!
Instructor: Joe Bill
In this workshop we’ll touch on techniques from The First 30 Seconds and then focus on forwarding into and through your scenes as a co-author/co-actor with your scene partner(s). We’ll build on the ideas of your character knowing HOW they are (disposition) being tied to knowing Who they are, and then Listening Strategically, Emotionally and Psychologically. I’ll show you Meisner (actors will recognize this, now you will too!) hacks to get to recognizing the Truth of the Moment, and I’ll teach you how “Listening is the Willingness to Change” is the key idea in forwarding your scenes through relationship and story as they evolve. I’ll also tie all of this into “Game of the Scene” AND I’ll give some general and specific individual feedback about things you can focus on in your improvisation, going forward.
Sunday, January 19
10:00 am - 6:00 pm*
Presence, Play and Pivot Masterclass
$200 - $240 [BUY NOW]
*This is a 6-hour ALL-DAY Masterclass, with a 1-hour break for lunch!
Instructor: Anděl Sudik
In this masterclass Anděl will take her 21 years of experience improvising professionally and work. you. out. She will focus on who you are, what you bring to the table and how you can be flexible without losing yourself. She’ll use her well of experience in both short and long form, theatre, sketch, solo character and clown work to allow you to step outside your comfort zone while resting in your abilities and solidifying your point of view. Playing with the rules and structures you’ll leave this workshop with a few new tools, the ability to be playful and even more a grasp of what it is that makes YOU special as an improviser and an artist. It will be a mix of mind/body connection, movement/mischief and improvisation. Bring Water. There will be Sweat.
Sunday, January 19
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Can You Take Me Higher
$100 - $120 [BUY NOW]
Instructor: Mark Sutton
Improvisers have been told to explore and heighten for years. But what does that mean? Here’s what it doesn’t mean: “Let’s talk about more stuff and produce information” In this workshop, we will dig deep into ways to explore and heighten choices through things like repetition, physical commitment, and true discovery. You’ll see how heightening isn’t about being louder and faster and you’ll get more comfortable with going to strange and unusual places in scenes.
Sunday, January 19
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Understanding Gimmicks (Shortform Success)
$100 - $120 [BUY NOW]
Instructor: Jon Colby
This workshop will allow improvisors, new and old, to focus on some classic short form games along with some newer ones. The goal is to not just look at the structure of games, but what the performers can do to help ensure success. You'll see that it's not about being "funny". It's just about trusting the gimmick of the game.
Instructor Bios
Joe Bill
Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Scenic and Comedic Improvisation in America today. He currently teaches, performs and is the Senior Facilitator & Designer of Corporate Training at iO Chicago. He is also on the faculty at The Second City Training Center where he teaches intensives in Duo Improvisation and Improvisation for Actors. He is one of the founding members of Annoyance Theater Chicago where, for 12 years, he performed in and/or directed more than 60 different shows. Joe first learned Improvisation and in 1977 studied and worked with Del Close from 1985 through the mid 90’s.
Joe tours internationally with innovative Long Form shows including SCRAM! with Jill Bernard (Huge Improv Theater – Mpls.) and the NY Times acclaimed BASSPROV with Mark Sutton (Annoyance Theater/The Second City).
Joe headlines with Chicago Improv Goddess Susan Messing in Messing With a Friend, with Lee White (CRUMBS – Winnipeg/Berlin) in their show PARADIGM, with International Improv Legend Patti Stiles (AD – Impro Melbourne) and their show Our Play, with Georgie Caldwell (The P.I.T. NYC/iO Chicago) in the (Sutton-Hallal) show In Every Life and with David Razowsky (Host A.D.D. Comedy Podcast) in Razowsky & Bill.
Joe performs in The Del Tones, The Armando Diaz Theatrical Experience and Musical Armando at iO Chicago. He has played as a guest in The Scene and Chica GO-GO at The PIT in NYC, with Let’s Have A Ball and ASSSSCAT 3000 at UCB Theater in NYC & L.A and with Kornfeld & Andrews at Magnet Theater in NYC.
He has performed, directed, taught and served as an Artistic Adviser for a number of Improvisation/Comedy Theaters & Festivals all over North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa and at every major Improv Festival in The United States.
Mark Sutton
Mark Sutton is one of the most respected and sought-after teachers in improvisation today. He is a founding member of Chicago’s legendary Annoyance Theatre and, for 10 years, was the Theatre’s managing director. Mark is on the faculty of The Annoyance, and he is a former faculty member of The Second City and has been a featured instructor at comedy festivals across the United States and Canada for the last 25 years where he often performs with Joe Bill in the two-man comedy BASSPROV. He helped develop the aggressive, personal power style of improvisation pioneered by Mick Napier at The Annoyance. Mark’s direct, personal style of teaching has inspired and enlightened thousands of students during his nearly 40-year career. In addition to acting and teaching, Mark has served eight times as the Artistic Director of the Chicago Improv Festival.
Tara DeFrancisco
Tara DeFrancisco believes in the power of connection & collaboration of improvisation on a cellular level. She is a veteran performer of 6000+ shows on multiple world-renowned stages, including The Second City, ComedySportz, and iO Chicago (on beloved house team Chaos Theory, The DelTones, Armando, HERE). Tara is internationally known for her performances in “HERE the (improvised) Musical” – a two person improvisational show called “Nothing Short of Genius” from NPR; HERE is continuously touring and has been brought to 24 countries and 80+ cities worldwide to headline. One of the best things she’s ever made is The Improv Retreat, an event gathering hundreds of US/international improvisers each year for a sleepaway conference with teachers from multiple cities to celebrate their craft, brainstormed and founded in 2012, now many years running. Additionally – She is the Co-Founder, Artistic Director, instructor & mainstage performer for revered and beloved The Nest Theatre (CBus, OH), a leading performance & educational community in Ohio, producing 25 mainstage shows year-round, a space with active COE & "no-paperwork" scholarships for those underamplified in the arts (LGBTIQ, BIPOC, persons with disabilities, vets, and those over 65). She is an esteemed educator who has created curriculum for theatres all over the world, including all four mentioned above. She is so pleased to be a Guest Professor to the Ohio University School of Performance (Athens), as well as an Adjunct Professor of Acting for Animation at Columbus College of Art & Design. As an artist, you may also hear her in voiceovers (Sirius, Rocky Rococo, Crocs, 7 Little Johnstons), in commercials or industrials (Sheetz, Dish TV, Vegas.com, US Cellular, Sears, SunTrust), in movies (The Life + Times of An Unhappily Married Man), on Internet Game Show (One Hot Dollar), and here and there in television (ABC Family, L
OGO TV). She believes in that the tenets of improvisation & vulnerability of comedy are transformational and life-changing, and hopes she gets to share the joy it has brought her with you.
Rance Rizzutto
Rance Rizzutto has been professionally improvising since 1999 on stages all around the world. Starting in Portland, OR with ComedySportz, Rance soon found his calling as a mainstage performer at two theatres in Chicago after the big move, then sustained multiple tours with Second City Theatricals aboard Norweigian Cruise Lines. In Chicago, he most connected with iO Theatre where he became an adored performer and host featured on such beloved teams Chaos Theory, The Deltones – and later, lauded two-person touring duo, “HERE, the (improvised) Musical” which tours globally as invited headliners at festivals, schools, and performing arts centers. Incredible host, teammate, and curriculum designer, his improv and prior work experience have enabled him to help businesses grow utilizing improvisation principles for their communication and team unity needs. He is the Co-Founder, Training Center Director, instructor & mainstage performer at revered The Nest Theatre in CBus, OH. In addition to his hosting hundreds of live industrials, you can catch him on an internet game show (One Hot Dollar), and you may have seen Rance in television commercials for Hewlitt Packard or Sears or hear his voice in animated commercials for Sears as well (as a bear, in case you’re wondering). His life has completely transformed due to enrichment from improvisation, and finds great passion in the potential energy and fun in the comedic arts he is fortunate to have as a career.
Anděl Sudik
Anděl Sudik is a director, improviser, actor and writer based in L.A. and Chicago known for her explosive energy onstage and in the classroom as well as her experiential teaching style.
As an actor/writer she is an alum of Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, the Second City Touring Company and the Jeff Award award-winning Second City ETC revue “We’re All in this Room Together.” She has also produced countless successful two-man shows as Arch&Anděl (The Public House, Annoyance, OoB Festival) and improvisational experiences(Obits, a theatrical experience exploring the lives of those that have passed) as well as directed in Chicago at Second City, iO and the Annoyance.
She is a faculty member of the Second City Training Center programs (A-E, Conservatory, Health and Wellness, Advanced and Teen/Youth programs) the iO summer intensives and has taught her workshops and performed all over the states as well as across Europe, the UK and New Zealand in festivals and privately.
Anděl’s deep well of performance experience and her hands on, in depth work within the disciplines of long form improvisation, shortform, sketch and theater make her a thoroughly well-rounded and open minded conduit for art, creation, polish or playfulness. She values time efficiency, and recognizes that the most powerful thing we bring to the table is us. Whatever we are. She does not update her website enough. YesAndel.com
Jon Colby
Jon Colby has been teaching, performing, and directing improv professionally since 1998. He began his career at ComedySportz Indianapolis, where he once served as Assistant Artistic Director and remains an active member. In Indianapolis, Jon founded the short-form troupe Fun Monkey, co-founded the long-form troupe Fun Dumpster, and formed the musical improv duo Dudesical. He completed the prestigious Conservatory Program at Second City in Chicago and has taken workshops with several improv gurus, including Mick Napier, Norm Holly, and Michael Gelman. He is proud to say that he has performed and taught improv in over 20 states. Jon has turned his passion for improv into a full-time job as a keynote speaker, teaching muggles how to use improv to be better at work. For more information, check him out at JonColby.com.