Teaching Pittsburgh Comedy for over 10 years!
About our Workshops
Arcade Comedy Theater offers workshops for beginner and advanced improvisers on a variety of subjects, inspiring performers to continue their education and approach the art of improv from different directions. Workshops have been taught by nationally-known improvisers and instructors, including Kevin McDonald, Laura Hall, Rick Hall, Jimmy Carrane, Paul Grondy, Maribeth Monroe, Jaime Moyer, Rob Belushi, Tim Stoltenberg, Susan Messing, Rachel Mason and more.
VISITING ARTIST WORKSHOPS WITH BRIAN JAMES O’CONNELL
March 15 & 16
Brian James O’Connell is a filmmaker and teacher based in Los Angeles. His directing credits include: KILLER VIEW, ANGRY WHITE MAN starring Matt Berry, and BLOODSUCKING BASTARDS starring Pedro Pascal (*and was the Opening Night Premiere at Slamdance). BOC (as his friends call him) also co-wrote BLOODSUCKING BASTARDS with his comedy collective Dr. God and wrote KILLER VIEW. His other writing credits include: the SYFY animated series Hell Den (Maria Bamford, Matthew Lillard), MOCKpockalypse (Sam Richardson, Brendan Hunt) and Pitchslap (Joel McHale). With multiple projects in development, BOC is most excited about pitching a dark sci-fi comedy TV series based on THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK.
Brian is proud to be a Co-Founder of The Pack Theater, LA Weekly’s BEST OF LA Pick for “Best Theater Company” two years in a row, a Founding Board Member for Camp Improv Utopia & a current board member for Highwire Improv in Baltimore, MD.
DIRECTING IMPROV with Brian James O’Connell March 15, 3-6 PM PM, $50
The Directing Improv Workshop will train up and coming improvisers who wish to move into directing or coaching but have very few practical ideas of how to go about it.
Workshop begins at 3pm and will last approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.
This workshop will tackle:
● how to de-construct a scene mathematically
● how to approach a scene from the inside out
● how to demonstrate the lesson to the student by performing their position in the scene without embarrassing the student
● how to utilize one’s personal performing history to troubleshoot the scene at hand
● how to choose the proper curriculum for the appropriate team
● how to utilize social media tools to construct a proper rehearsal schedule
● the difference between teaching and coaching
● how to protect yourself from being taken advantage of and what are your “rights” as a coach
This workshop is not applicable for Early Bird or BOC Bundle discounts
THE IMPROVISED MOVIE with Brian James O’Connell
March 16, 2:30-5:30 PM
$100 ($75 Early Bird until 2/28)
Created by the legendary iOChicago improv team THE FAMILY under the direction of Del Close, The Improvised Movie long form structure is a fun, fast-paced stylized piece that will strengthen your understanding of story, plot, narrative structures & genre tropes through the creative use of applying cinematic language to the theatrical stage!
Brian James O’Connell has a BFA in Film Editing from the world famous UNCSA School Of Filmmaking (Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, Craig Zobel) and is a 3x feature film writer/director whose distributed films star some of the biggest names in entertainment such as Pedro Pascal and Matt Berry. Let BOC use his combined 50 years of filmmaking and improv experience to help you learn an artistically rewarding long form piece that is also a box office smash for your audiences!
Workshop begins at 2:30pm and will last approximately 3 hours.
Get the BOC Bundle BY CLICKING HERE and save on both this workshop and THE LADDER workshop at 10am
THE LADDER with Brian James O’Connell
March 16, 10 AM – 1 PM
$100 ($75 Early Bird until 2/28) SOLD OUT
3 worlds. 12 characters. 21 scenes. This is The Ladder.
Improvisers must learn to be efficient with their use of character and relationship to tell a story. Whether in use as a class/rehearsal exercise, an improvised show format or structure for a scripted one act play, The Ladder is a wonderful tool to hone an improviser’s focus to a razor sharp edge on what are the most important parts of a staged theatrical piece: character, relationship & story. No matter what form your team is doing, it is important that you learn the basics of being able to appear to be performing a piece on purpose.
3 worlds. 12 characters. 21 scenes. Thousands of possibilities.
Workshop begins at 10AM and will last approximately 3 hours.
Get the BOC Bundle BY CLICKING HERE and save on both this workshop and THE IMPROVISED MOVIE workshop at 2:30pm
