Double Deep Dive into: Beautiful Humans
Beautiful Humans is a workshop for women and men (cis and trans) that want to explore the topic of gender in improv. What does it mean to be a woman? What is manhood today?
Laura and Gael will lead this workshop first separately and then together. After working in-depth with only same gendered people, we come together to share our insights and explore our differences and similarities. By making space for each other we will learn to improvise maybe differently, but definitely better.
For the female improvisers Laura will teach ‘Lionesses – Women in Improv’. In this the part we explore, share and practice the craft of improvised theatre through the lens of being a woman. It will be a workshop filled with bad-ass character work, practicing boldness and vulnerability and using our body to express and take action. Wonderful things can happen in an all-female environment. This workshop always has a high level of support, playfulness and empowerment, which inspires the improv in new ways.
For male improvisers Gael will teach ‘Man is a wolf to man’. As young boys men are often told: Stop crying like a pussy! You have to be strong! Be a man! Unsurprisingly, as adults we forget how to cry, how to be soft, how to be a man. This workshop will explore modern masculinity, and create a safe space to experiment and share experiences. We will explore the whole range of emotions, situations and relationships between men. This will take us to a way of improvising: with depth, care and variation.
For the last part we will come together and focus on learning from the other gender and re-discovering possibilities for our improv. What are our patterns? How can we best support? And challenge? The goal is to celebrate all our beautiful variations and make our improv more empowered, more interesting and just more awesome.
Practical requirements
Two rooms to be able to separate the groups, with at least one of the two spacious enough to host both groups in the same time.
Possible durations
- 3h – Separate classes and conclusion together.
- 6h – Exploration in groups and practice for an hour at the end of the day with both groups together.
- 9h to 18h – Deep work around the topics, and practice back and forth together with both groups.
Number of participants
- 3 to 6h – Maximum 8 participants per group (total of 16).
- 9 to 18h – Maximum 10 participants per group (total of 20).
Level of the workshop
- All durations – All levels.
It was one of the most important experiences of my life. Not only improv life – life in general. Speaking emotionally – it was a cathartic experience that helped me to understand my soul and finally get along with myself, to fully embrace my view on masculinity and stand firmly on both feet. Speaking practically – it was truly well thought out, using 3 hours time to its full potential, proving that even this short festival workshops format can be a real deal, that even in such tiny moment of improv life you can drastically improve your game and broaden your actors abilities and range. I recommend it to everybody – from narrow-minded bigots to true friends of all life in the universe. Each and every one of us will find something new about ourselves here. Mind-blowing, incredible, should be mandatory. I could go like that on and on!