Learn one of the most popular formats performed all over the world today, the Armando, from master teacher, Joe Bill
From Joe: “We will work on skills that help you to be successful in the 3 elements of the format, Personal stories (Source material), identifying different themes, elements and inspiration for scenes in the personal stories. Then playing, dynamically different scenes that use the stories as inspiration for a bigger piece of theater. We will look at the Armando as a form of both Organic AND Narrative Longform, where the scenes spring forth from the monologues in obvious and non-obvious ways, and as we bring them back we discover the themes and stories that harmonize them into a bigger theatrical picture.”There will be a performance at the end of the workshop for those that wish to play, but the performance is not a requirement to take the workshop.
About Joe,
Joe Bill is widely regarded as one of the best teachers of Improvised Storytelling andScenic, Longform & Duo Improvisation 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 Duoin North America, BASSPROV, created in 2000 with Mark Sutton. They are still performing at Festivals and theater engagements globally 25 years later. Since thenJoe’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.Over the last 2 years, Joe has been touring his solo show, Surviving Consciousness:Lessons learned from Cancer, LSD & Michael Jordan, both in the USA & abroad. 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 has created or co-created many Longform formats that he teaches and directs at theaters and festivals all over the world, most notably The BAT, The SCRAMBLE and variations of Armando and other classic formats. Joe was the Director of CorporateTraining 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.