Instructor from Second City Chicago Added!

We now have Aimee McKay of Second City Chicago on board!  She will teach the “Heart” course.  She has taught in Second City’s training program and has been in their touring group for 3 years.  Here’s her bio:

Aimee McKay spent three years with the Second City Touring Company performing sketch and improv. She was also a member of the ensemble chosen to perform “Truth, Justice or the American Way” at the English Theatre in Vienna, Austria.  A graduate of Emerson College, some of her theatre credits include Fear with The Neo-Futurists, The Vagina Monologues at the Apollo Theatre, TheatreSports Boston, The Dirty Half Dozen, the two-woman sketch show Two-Faced and five months performing on the NCL Star.   She has trained with Keith Johnstone, Paul Sills, iO, the Annoyance Theatre, and the Second City Conservatory. Aimee has been a teacher at the Second City Training Center, workshops all over the country while on tour and taught kids improv in Vienna, Austria where they spoke English better than she did. She’s super-psyched to be part of 3rd Beat!

Our Flyer!

Third Beat

An Improv Conservatory Demonstration Project

Improv that alters you, your fellow performers, and your audience.

Third Beat is an intense training program that offers:

• Stage Time: at least 3 DC performances at Source Theater and 1 NYC performance at Magnet Theater
• Interdisciplinary Instruction: focusing on the Head, Heart, and Body
• Personal Dossiers: co-created by you and your instructors

You will go deeper, faster and explore true human connection.  All people with any performing arts experience welcome to apply.

Audition on Sundays March 28^th & April 11^th from 7-10pm

at The Children’s Studio School, 13^th & V, NW (Metro: U Street, Yellow & Green Lines)

Your $10 audition fee gets you

• Feedback on your performing style and suggestions on how to challenge yourself
• Free entry to all our DC performances
• A slot in our May jams

Classes run from Saturday May 15-Wednesday May 19, 2010

at The Children’s Studio School

• All three courses for $250
• 3 performances during class run at Source Theater: 1835 14^th Street, NW (Metro: U Street, Yellow & Green Lines)
• Performance at Magnet Theater in New York City on June 13^th
• Weekend classes run during the day
• Weekday classes run from 7-10pm

To register for an audition spot / more info email the3rdbeat@gmail.com

Instructors

Mikael Johnson is a veteran performer both on stage and in front of the camera. He received his degree in communications from Frostburg State University where he was a yearly letterman for the baseball team. Upon returning from playing professional baseball in Europe, he threw himself into acting, improvisation and comedy via the Maryland Ensemble Theater. Johnson has been performing and teaching on a regular basis with Washington Improv Theater as well as producing his own shows (Bullsh*t Politics, Blue Bunny, Haggis), festivals (Mid-Atlantic Comedy Festival, 72 Film Fest), web series (The Hill, The Ripple) and short films (“The Giving”). In 2008 he was tapped by Nike to create web-content on the basis of a character he created, “Majik”, for the Mountain Dew Action Sports Tour. Johnson most recently worked with Asteros Film Works on their web-series, “ParaAbnormal”, created by Jamie Nash (Seventh Moon) and co-directed by Eduardo Sanchez (Blairwitch Project, Seventh Moon).

Kate Clugston is an Australian performer, director and community artist. She has been dancing since she could walk and after 12 years of jazz ballet, decided theatre was more her thing. She earnt her Bachelors in Theatre/ Media from Charles Sturt University where she began directing theatre for empowerment and community development and working with acrobatics/physical theatre. Her work is influenced by her training in Butoh, Suzuki, contact improvisation, trapeze, Viewpoints, Alexander Technique and yoga. She loves smashing forms together and working across disciplines to blend theatre and dance with text, installation and multimedia in unconventional spaces. At age 25 she was awarded an emerging artist grant to work with Big Art Group in NYC, which brought her to the USA. As a facilitator Kate takes both an academic and nurturing approach; she sees the body is a rich source of inspiration and potential ready to be tapped into. Her workshops balance the wild abandon of play, a space in which we make new discoveries; and the deep focus of reflection, where we learn about ourselves are artists. Kate is thrilled to be working on The Third Beat!

Directors

Laurie Kauffman has, for 27 years, owned and operated an international entrepreneurial venture connecting value to money. She has designed and delivered a secret blend of workshops, coaching, and consulting to more than 30,000 people in 20 countries. Without improv, this would never have worked! Laurie has a Masters with Highest Honors in Finance and a BS in Education and Counseling. A veteran of many improv and acting courses , Laurie is a former Board Member of Woolly Mammoth Theatre. She consults with The Civilians, a NY-based investigative theater company, and tutors neighborhood 3rd graders.

Danielle Solof is a writer, improviser, actor, and continuing student of all of the above.  Danielle holds her BA in International Affairs and Anthropology with Special Honors from The George Washington University.  Her love of language and culture took her to London to pursue a Masters in Sociocultural Linguistics from Goldsmiths College, University of London, the UK’s leading university in creativity and innovation.  There she wrote her Masters dissertation on how American improvisers living and performing at the Boom Chicago Theater in Amsterdam used improv to address their cross-cultural experiences to a Dutch audience.  While writing Danielle realized her dissertation would be a lot better if she did improv herself, and that’s how she got started.  While not on stage, Danielle works at Ashoka, the world’s leading organization in social entrepreneurship.

The Entrepreneurial Improviser

Just over two months ago, my friend and improv classmate, Laurie Kauffman, gave me a ring.  We had just participated in an improv jam the night before and she wanted to talk about how we performed- what worked and what needed improvement.  This seamlessly turned into a series of discussions in which we explored the nature of improv comedy as we understood it to be now and where we would like to see ourselves go with it.  We knew we were good, but we also knew that we had the potential to be crazy-strong performers.  The big question for us was: how are we going to get from good to holy sh*t amazing???

We put pen-to-paper and realized that we needed to tap into something deep.  We had to explore honesty and truth at the core and seek true human connection on stage.  We had to find this within ourselves, establish it with our scene partners, and share it with the audience.  We wanted to create an experience for everyone that was simultaneously fun and altering.  We wanted this for ourselves, but we also wanted to play with others in this way.  We didn’t want people to be afraid to put the raw humanness of themselves out there- we wanted them to embrace it!  So we decided that the best way to help people get to that point, including ourselves, is to train them how to do it.

Laurie and I being only a couple of years into this artform and hungry to learn more decided to organize an experimental training program for improvisers (or really any performing artists who are interested in getting to this fun, deep place through improvised performance).  So in May we’re launching a 5-day intensive study of improvisation that gets in the individual’s head, heart, and body to figure out what’s in there and to fearlessly get it out on the stage.

It’s crazy to think that just 2 months ago we were typing up a concept paper.  Things have moved and built up so quickly since then.  We’ve got 3 instructors on board, the skeleton of our curriculum, all classroom and performance space, promotional material, and above all- the momentum and support to build more.

With all this activity and responsibility it seems crazy that I would tack on blogging about it.  But I think it’s important for me to take this time to reflect, organize my thoughts, and keep others abreast of what’s going on.  The *real* reason for me though is, I have to admit, I find the whole entrepreneurial process, especially one embedded in the arts, to be frightening.  And I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that way.  For several years I’ve been wanting to really go for it in the arts but have been afraid of failure.  And I’ve had this parasite of a thought telling me I’m not ready.  So for me this process is about getting rid of that and just throwing myself in, and since I suspect that there are many others holding themselves back, perhaps my story will help them to just jump in and go for it!

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