TEACHERS
2017 WORKSHOP
ALASTAIR FORBES (CAN)
Alastair Forbes is a Second City Mainstage Alumni and a three time nominee for Canada's best male improviser. He's been improvising and teaching professionally for over a decade with the Bad Dog Theatre, Comedy Bar and The Second City.
He's attended numerous international improv festivals and was voted the top member of the International Ensemble at the Vancouver Improv Festival. He's improvised and worked numerous greats like Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, Dave Foley. He writes comedy for TV and in his spare time plays far too much disc golf.
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CONNOR THOMPSON (CAN)
Connor is an actor, writer, and improvisor from Toronto. At Second City he wrote and performed in three main-stage reviews, winning a Canadian Comedy award in the process. With his troupe Lusty Mannequins he has taught and performed improv around the world, including in festivals in London, Barcelona, Dublin - and at the inaugural MamaCity Improv Festival in 2016.
As a faculty member at the Second City Toronto training centre, he has taught hundreds of students, from beginners to veterans and everyone in between, and he's excited to return to Cape Town to meet the next batch of up-and-coming improvisors from the Mama City! Follow him on twitter @cpethompson.
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STEFAN PAGEL andersen (DEN)
Stefan is an improviser and actor and has performed in more than 8 Danish Feature films. Since 2009, Stefan has been a professional performing improviser following his studies at Improv Olympic (IO) in Chicago. In 2013 he organized the Copenhagen International Improv Festival, that facilitated more than 60 International Improvisers.
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Due to the Festival’s success, Stefan was invited back to the iO theater to shadow-teach some of the world’s best instructors by iO founder Charna Halpern. He’s performed at the iO Theater in The Armando Diaz Theatrical Experience & Hootenanny (Chicago’s longest-running improv show). Stefan has traveled in more than 35 cities in the world studying, teaching and performing, some with the world’s most celebrated improv performers TJ and Dave www.tjanddave.com – on a tour shadowing their classes and doing shows. In early 2016, he realized his dream of opening the first ever professional improv theatre in Denmark, The Improv Comedy Copenhagen (ICC) Theatre.
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The ICC Theatre was just awarded BEST STAGE IN COPENHAGEN after only 10 months in operation. Since January 2016, Stefan has taught more than 600 students in Copenhagen, 55 in Latvia and counting.
BILL BINDER (USA)
Bill began performing in 1994 in Michigan and has been performing in Phoenix, Arizona since 2000. Bill has been producing the Phoenix Improv Festival since 2002 and is a teacher and performer at The Torch Theatre.
Bill has enjoyed traveling across North America and Europe learning new styles of play and is very excited to perform and teach for the first time in South Africa.
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Improv Network: http://www.theimprovnetwork.org/members/whbinder
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MISCH WHITACKER (USA)
Misch Whitaker, the resident director at Catalyst Comedy, has been performing and teaching improv for over ten years. Past credits include TheaterSports/FaceOff at ImprovBoston (2007-2008); NXT at Improv Asylum (2007-2008); Improv Asylum Mainstage (2008-2012) and ImprovBoston Mainstage (2013-2014).
She's the smaller half of the two person musical improv show Pat and Misch Break Up, and is a member of the international touring company Big Bang. Misch coaches and teaches improv for kids of all ages at various schools and community organizations, and is an adult improvinstructor at ImprovBoston's Comedy School.
Back at Catalyst Comedy, she co-created a children's show called KERPLUNK! and directs and performs with Boston's Unscripted Musical Project (B.U.M.P.), and Dirty Disney.
kevin miller (usa)
Kevin Miller has performed, coached, and taught improv in Austin, Texas for over 15 years.
He is the dean of the Merlin Works Institute of Improvisation at the ZACH Theatre in downtown Austin. He has teaching experience around the US, and as far afield as Finland and Estonia.
Kevin owns one dog, two cats, and 12 chickens.
