Tuesday, 22 April | 10:00 - 17:00 @ ATH Theatre

Do you believe in ghosts? This workshop explores all the ways we can appear or be heard on stage, when we are not necessarily in the same dimension or timeframe as other performers on the stage, and how such characters can use each other's physical presence to their advantage in ways other than as a standard scene partner.

Play with Nick's 'Elephant in the Room' concept, where a player is nothing more than a blank physical presence that regular scene players can use as a barrier or obstacle (literally the thing that stands between characters) and why the audience will project meaning on to the 'elephant'.

What can characters like ghosts from other dimensions do within a regular scene, if they are able to see the other characters? What fun mischief can be had?

Create a physical space in a scene, and then have others honour the same spatial dimensions in a different scene to create scenes in apparently different environments that seem to connect because of the physicality, or scenes in the same environment but in different timeframes.

Play several scenes at once over the top of each other, working with the principles of split focus, and learn to play the associated show format, 'All At Once'."

⚫︎ ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Nick Byrne is Artistic Director and the creator of Improvention; Australia’s original and largest international festival and convention of unscripted theatre. He is also Artistic Director of Impro ACT, the major improvisational theatre company in Australia’s capital, Canberra.

Nick works as an actor, director, producer, and musician, in all realms of theatre and film, and has been a delegate to the Australian Theatre Forum, but improvisation is his ruling passion. He has worked in 40 countries throughout Europe, Asia, and Australasia, as an individual guest, or in festivals, including; Moment16 & Moment18 in Vienna, Mt Olymprov in Athens, FIIF in Tampere, Improfest in Gothenburg, Salento Improv Festival, Sofia Improv Festival, RIIF in St Petersburg, TILT in Tallinn, Bengaluru (India), Jo Festival in Poland, Improvember in Munich, and Singapore Improv Festival.

In 2024, he worked in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Iceland, Bulgaria, Belgium, India, and even went to Kyiv in Ukraine to donate some time to theatre practitioners keeping their arts and hearts alive.

He teaches and directs all styles of the craft, and has done so for eighteen years, producing groundbreaking shows, “The Displaced” (refugee issues), “Crescendo” (a rock band with dramas), “Drivers” (about your internal monologues), “In Person 8” (improvised impersonations), and “Parallel” (three physical stories at once), and more recently, his popular vulnerable solo show, “Inspired”.

Nick tries to make the areas of improvisation that seem difficult, easier for performers, and reduce their worry, so that they can play at their peak. He also conducts workplace sessions, helping Olympians deal with adversity, and United Nations Peacekeepers to remain culturally aware. He likes to explore.

Nick is fascinated by people, and always aims to meet as many as possible, at festivals and arranged workshop visits.

Nick writes the 220 000 word An Improviser's Learning Journal, here: https://impro.com.au/learning-journal/.