All the way from Dad’s Garage in Atlanta, GA, Kevin Gillese (Artistic Director) and Amber Nash (Education Director) are coming to Austin to teach a weekend of workshops and star in a special Battle of the Sexes Theatresports Showdown at the Long Center.

Improv According to Dad’s Garage
with Amber Nash
Sunday, July 18, 3:15-6:15pm, Upstairs Theater
$40

Who is the most popular, toured, and generally beloved improv company in Atlanta? Dad’s Garage Theatre! Why? Well it’s not for our looks, over the past 15 years the company has been performing weekly improv shows and developing its own unique style and approach. In this workshop Amber Nash will focus on the pillars of improvisation from the Dad’s Garage perspective. This includes an emphasis on narrative-based short form scenes, large character choices, and game playing. Come peek behind the curtain, and understand what philosophy is behind our quick-paced, high energy make-em-ups.

Amber Nash graduated from Georgia State University with a B.S. in Psychology. For 3 years, she worked as a youth counselor for the State of Georgia with children experiencing emotional and behavioral challenges. Amber has been acting and improvising in Atlanta for 10 years. She is a part of the Improv Ensemble at Dad’s Garage Theatre; fulfilling roles as a performer, teacher, creator and director. Amber works with Laughing Matters as an improviser, actor and team-building facilitator. She works with Young Audiences bringing improv programming to elementary schools, with Kid Komedy, teaching improv to children that learn differently and has also served on the design team for VSA Arts of Georgia’s Summer Institute. She is currently working with Communities in Schools, ARCH program as their lead improv instructor and as a teacher for Creative Circus. Amber has lead workshops at Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY as well as in Gainesville, FL at the Hippodrome State Theatre of Florida and at Georgia Technical Institute. In 2005, Amber spent 2 months in Chicago training with IO. Since becoming the Education Director at Dad’s Garage, she has revamped the class system, developed a Summer Kid’s Camp, serves as the Intern Coordinator and is revitalizing our outreach efforts. Amber is passionate about the role that improv and the arts play in education for both children and adults.

Longform Narrative Structure
with Kevin Gillese
Sunday, July 18, 3:15-6:15pm, Upstairs Classroom
$40

This workshop is all about Gillese’s personal approach to improvised longform narrative structure, inspired largely from the work of screenwriting legend Robert McKee, with also a touch of Stanislavski acting technique mixed in. The emphasis is on identifying and becoming comfortable with key structural points like the inciting incident, objectives and super objectives, conflict, and climax, all within a three act structure. This is a workout for your linear storytelling muscles that should leave you more confident approaching longform improv work.

In his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Kevin Gillese joined Rapid Fire Theatre as a junior member in 1996. He would eventually rise to the rank of Artistic Director at RFT in 2007, but we’ll get to that in a second. After graduating high school Kevin studied Theatre and Creative Writing at the University of Alberta, and went on to complete the Post-Graduate Comedy Writing and Performance program at Humber College in Toronto. Attending university in his home town allowed Kevin to pay his way through school by performing corporate improv with Rapid Fire, and The Atomic Improv Co., as well as by performing at local comedy clubs. While he was in Toronto he spent time studying with various Second City instructors, as well as performing regularly with the weekly show Catch 23. He returned back to Edmonton in 2005 to become the Associate Artistic Director at RFT, within months of returning he would form an improv duo show called Scratch (along with fellow Rapid Fire performer Arlen Konopaki). Scratch began with a run at the Edmonton Fringe Festival and that’s when the rave reviews started, and they never really stopped, which is why Scratch smashed out four tours across other Canadian Fringe Festivals, three tours across Europe (including stops in: Germany, Austria, Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and the UK) and two tours across Australia and New Zealand (including stops at the prestigious Melbourne International Comedy Festival). In 2010 Kevin moved down to Atlanta to become the Artistic Director of Dad’s Garage Theatre.

Theatresports Workshop
with Amber Nash and Kevin Gillese
Saturday, July 17, 3-6pm, Upstairs Theater
$40

The Hideout began its life in 1999 as Austin Theatresports.  This summer and fall we’re returning to our roots with a special Battleof the Sexes at the Long Center on July 17 and a Saturday 8pm run in September and October.  Looking to get in on the action?  This workshop is a great place to start.

Amber and Kevin have performed more Theatresports than anything else, and in this workshop they will be bringing all their favourite games and structures to play around with. You will brush up on some games that you have forgotten about, and learn some new ones too. In addition to this the instructors will share their personal tips and tricks for strong short form scenes. As we all know, having strong improv skills is only half the work, the other half is knowing how to play the format that you’re in, and that’s what this workshop is all about: mastering the art of short, improvised comedy scenes in a Theatresports environment.