IMPROFEST workshop: The First 30 Seconds-The Next 3 minutes & Now What? - Joe Bill

In Improvisation scenes, the ending often lies in the beginning. I will show you how to begin your scenes with focus and playfulness and how to begin to bring your inner Engineer and 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 they do, What they do, is Who they are) evolving from the recognition of “How am I?”, “How are you?” and “How are WE?” I’ll help increase your awareness of the 2 types of dialogue, (Circumstantial and Interpersonal) to give you the best chance to play an honest grounded scene,
rooted in depth and discovery AND how comedy and story can come as a consequence of connection, rather than goals that you’re desperately chasing.

Bio:
Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Improvised Storytelling and Scenic, Longform and Duo Improvisation in North America today. 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 is ½ of the first touring Improv Duo in North America, BASSPROV, created in 2000 with Mark Sutton. They are still performing at Festivals and theater engagements globally 24 years later. Since then Joe’s been touring all over the world teaching, directing, and improvising with several other amazing Duo Partners like Patti Stiles (Our Play), Jill Bernard (SCRAM!),
Stacey Hallal (Stacey and Joe, We Slept Together) Lee White (Paradigm), Heather Urquart (Blues Hammer), Felipe Ortiz (Les Disciplinos) and David Razowsky (Razowsky and Bill), ALL in different, original formats and styles.

He's touring his solo scripted show, written as he successfully took on and survived surgeries and chemo associated with 3 different cancers from late 2022 to early 2024, Joe Bill: Surviving Consciousness, (Lessons learned from Cancer, LSD and Michael Jordan) all over the U.S. and the world. In April 2024 he debuted it at the Auckland Imrprov Festival in Auckland, NZ. He has since performed it at Festivals and Theaters across the USA and made his first recording of it at Unexpected Productions in Seattle in January 2025.

He is the creator and host of Story Chain, a virtual (and now sometimes live!), 90- minute, international story sharing event that he developed in 2020 during the Pandemic. He was the Director of Corporate Training at iO Chicago for 15 years and started training and performing there in 1985. He was a Guest Artist in Residence at The Second City Training Center and Conservatory where he taught intensives in Duo Improvisation and Improvisation for Actors for 10 years.

Joe has taught and performed on every continent on earth, except for Antarctica which remains on his bucket list.

The workshop is a part of Improfest 2025, a theatre festival focusing on improvisational theatre. The festival invites improvisers from Sweden and the rest of the world to give performances and offer workshops in various locations in Sweden during the period May to August 2025

(Workshopen kommer att hållas på engelska då Improfest är en internationell improvisationsteater-festival med inbjudna improvisatörer från hela världen.)