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International Guest Teacher: First 30 Seconds

  • Spring Hill Hall 10 Love Street Spring Hill, QLD, 4000 Australia (map)

We’ll use acting skills and an awareness of psychology in order to deconstruct the first 30 seconds of a scene

About the Workshop:

In Improvisation scenes, the ending often lies in the beginning. I will show you how to begin your scenes with the kind of focus, vitality and playfulness that will help you play scenes that have a marriage of depth & humour. We’ll use acting skills and an awareness of psychology in order to deconstruct the first 30 seconds of a scene. This will show you how you can be aware of the answers to 3 initial key questions (“Who am I?”, “Who are you?” & “Who are WE?”), even before dialogue begins! This helps to raise the chances for meaningful character connection & discovery, whether you’re playing for “game of the scene” or “pattern of emotional and psychological truth’.

About the International Guest Teacher:

Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Scenic, Longform, Duo Improvisation, and Improvised Storytelling 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 and still performed a few times a year. Since then he’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 & Joe, We Slept Together) Lee White (Paradigm), Heather Urquart (Blues Hammer), Felipe Ortiz (Les Disciplinos) and David Razowsky (Razowsky & Bill), ALL in different, original formats and styles. He's touring and performing his solo scripted show, Joe Bill: Surviving Consciousness, all over the world in 2024 and will be filming it in Auckland, NZ in May and releasing it towards the end of the year. 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 & 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.