Improvisation for Voice Actors

Description

It’s easy to feel stilted and unnatural with your work, even if—and sometimes, especially if—you have put in the time to be fully prepared. Sometimes it’s the pressure of “perfect” delivery, sometimes it’s merely that you can’t trust your pre-work and give yourself over to the act of performance. Well, this class is all about letting all of that go!

At the conclusion of this class students will:

•       Perform with much more ease! 
•       Take direction comfortably — even make adjustments on the fly
•       Better identify and take advantage of beats and rhythm in a scene/text
•       Use these improv skills to find characters and experiment with voices
•       Have learned a healthy, supportive mindset connected to their work

Improvisation for Voice Actors is a performance-based class, so please dress comfortably, have space to move, and be ready to play! 

More about your instructor: 

Using his background in improvisation theater, Russell Birdwell works as a leadership consultant helping teams connect, collaborate, and find purpose in their work. For the last ten years, he has taught improv and run team trainings on three continents (while having a ton of fun along the way!). Through his improv and coaching work, he strives to help people let go of perfectionism, listen fully, adapt on the fly, and give themselves over to the act of performance.

Russell was a member of both MAD Improv and Freshly Comedy in Madrid, Spain. He taught, performed, and directed shows with Teatro Lospleimovil in Santiago, Chile, and he co-founded Improv Santiago.  

Russell grew up in Knoxville, TN and holds an MFA in creative writing from California State University, Fresno. For the last 23 years he has volunteered at Camp Horizon, a summer camp for kids with cancer in Middle Tennessee. Russell is currently seeking a publisher for The Forever Camp, a memoir about his experiences at Camp Horizon.

After fifteen or so years living abroad, Russell is now happy to be back in the States (and finally a native speaker again). He lives in Larchmont, NY where he has the honor of hanging out with his wife, kiddo, and their two crazy Santiago rescue dogs. He loves to run, listen to science fiction books, and consistently drink too much coffee.