FST Improv Workshops
Improv Festival Workshops
2025 Sarasota Improv FestivalImprov Festival Workshops
Improv Festival Workshops
2025 Sarasota Improv FestivalOur offerings allow you to learn from the experts with intimate trainings led by Festival artists from across the country and around the world. Featuring workshops in a wide range of improvisational styles and techniques, there is something for improvisers of all experience levels at the 2025 Sarasota Improv Festival. All workshops take place Saturday, July 19.
Running Time
Festival Workshops
Act 1: Intro to Improvised Musical Theatre
Taught by S@!#zprobe at 9AM
Learn the basics of improvised musical theater from the creators of S@!#zprobe. Let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) with opening numbers!
Get Better at Improv Fast
Taught by Swan City at 9AM
A lot of workshops focus on telling you what you are not good at and how to improve to become a better improviser. This workshop won't do that. This workshop is designed to find what you are great at and build you up like you have never been built up before. The power of positivity is infectious in such a fun art form. Let's help you unleash that happy kid within.
Story, Story, Die
Taught by Available Cupholders at 9AM
How does our foundational use and play with short form games inform our long form success? We'll work some classic structures and link these to longer games that lead to improvising entire plays, building off these smaller blocks.
Finding Characters Physically
Taught by Sand at 9AM
Based in the Jacques Lecoq physical theater and mime work, learn to explore your body and create a vocabulary to generate unique characters from.
The Scenic Connection
Taught by Dad's Garage at 9AM
‘The Scenic Connection ’ is designed to help improvisers connect with their scene partners. Improv is based on collective storytelling, and there are no offers better than the ones based on what your scene partner is already giving you! Learn how to focus on your scene partner, create meaningful relationships, and get ‘unstuck’ in scenes!
Spontaneous Character Express
Taught by UnAuthorized at 9AM
By taking this workshop you will develop the ability to find characters quickly through improvised scenes & acting techniques. You will also collaborate with other participants to cultivate the world that these characters live in. These characters found through spontaneity can be utilized within solo work, scenic work, and/or written material. You should be able to walk out of this workshop with at least 2 - 3 new characters.
ClownProv
Taught by 2-Man, No Show at 9AM
Act 2: Advanced Improvised Musical Theatre
Taught by S@!$zprobe at 11:30AM
Learn about what goes into S@!#zprobe's special sauce, focusing on a satisfying narrative arc and character work.
How to Make Money In Improv
Taught by Anthony Francis at 11:30AM
Learn everything you need to sell, facilitate, and follow up with corporate clients and produce teambuilding workshops. You will learn how to sell it, build it, and facilitate it! If you can run a drop-in improv class, you can put on a great team building workshop for companies and get paid real money. Anthony Francis will answer all your questions, share every technique and strategy to make money from this amazing skill you already have!
Intuition and the Group
Taught by SAND at 11:30AM
Exploring the Unknown through the Games of Viola Spolin-
In this workshop we’ll explore the role of intuition in theatrical improvisation. We’ll look at the relationship between the individual and the group, and experience the pleasure of venturing into the unknown in a non-authoritarian context.
Show Polish
Taught by Parallelogramophonograph at 11:30AM
Improvising a show on stage is quite a feat on its own. But with that as our base we can do so much more. This workshop is a grab bag of tricks and techniques for adding shine to your show and taking your work to the next level. We'll touch on audience engagement, specificity, scene transitions, split-screen techniques, monologues, when to incorporate flashbacks, different ways to play multiple characters, and how to remember character names in a show.
Movement from the Inside Out
Taught by Available Cupholders at 11:30AM
Movement From the Inside Out: In this movement-based workshop you will learn to upgrade your awareness, listen with your whole body, and learn to make interesting relationships and magic in any space with anyone. Physicality is the key to character and connection!
The Absurdity of Improv
Taught by Sounds Funny at 11:30AM
This workshop invites improvisers to reconnect with the wild, unpredictable heart of improv. Students will abandon the idea of “getting it right” as we tackle unwinnable challenges, experiment with nonsense, and embrace failure in new and refreshing ways. Expect to walk away with some new improv philosophies and practical tools to help you navigate chaos, confusion, and moments on stage when everything SEEMS to fall apart!
Hip Hop Improv
Head and the Heart: Unlocking Vulnerability through Musical Improv
Taught by Ralph Krumins at 2PM
In this transformative workshop, improvisers will dive deep into two key elements of musical improv: the head (verses) and the heart (choruses). Using stories and experiences shared by themselves and classmates, participants will learn to craft authentic, emotionally resonant songs that connect with both the performer and the audience. The workshop builds confidence in song structure, metaphorical imagery, and even the power of silence, inspiring improvisers to create truthful and vulnerable musical moments on stage.
It's Already There: Dynamic Scene Starts & Scenebuilding
Taught by Here at 2PM
Experience: Beginner/Intermediate
It's a wild artform, improv - we spend so much time considering and intellectualizing the need for presence and collaboration, but then miss opportunities to connect most authentically by getting in our own ways. We've all been in an improv scene that has felt like work - rather than allowing relationship to develop and content to arise, you've wasted the moments feeling lost about plot going on trying to force an agenda to happen. In this workshop through listening work, group exercises, and two person scenework with side-coaching, we'll find that everything you need was in the scene from the impetus as long as you lean into what makes the artform beautiful - creating with each other and listening to each moment along the way.
Using Improv In The Real World
Taught by Applied Improv Network at 2PM
You love the craft of improv, let us share how it can be more integral in your life and even become a means through which we make the world a better place.
In this interactive and experiential workshop, participants will be introduced to the core principles and practices of applied improvisation—using improv techniques as tools for professional and personal development. Designed for facilitators, educators, leaders, and creatives, this session explores how the fundamentals of improvisational theatre—like "Yes, And," active listening, presence, and adaptability—can be applied outside of performance contexts to foster collaboration, innovation, and resilience.
Whether you're new to improv or looking to translate your performance experience into facilitation or organizational work, this workshop provides a solid grounding in what it means to work as an applied improviser and how to start building your toolkit.
