Improvising in the Style of Shakespeare with Diana Brown
In this improv intensive we'll enter a world of wit, passion, and poetic play as we explore the art of improvising in the style of William Shakespeare.
In this one-day intensive, you’ll learn to create bold characters, heightened language, and sweeping stories that feel at home in the Elizabethan theatre.
Through a mix of exercises and scene work, you’ll discover how to speak in verse with confidence, craft dialogue rich with imagery and rhythm, and embody characters driven by love, ambition, and folly.
Along the way, you’ll practice Shakespeare’s favorite theatrical devices—disguise, mistaken identity, lovers’ quarrels, comic misunderstandings, and duels of wit or steel.
The day culminates in an ensemble performance, where you’ll weave these tools into improvised tales of romance, rivalry, and revelry.
No Shakespeare experience is required—only a playful spirit and a willingness to dive headfirst into the poetry of imagination.
Details
Date: Tuesdays, 7:00pm-9:30pm, August 11-September 8
Registration: $228
Location: All Out Comedy Theater, 2550 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612
*Please check your maps says Oakland. There's a duplicate address in Berkeley.
About the Instructor:
Diana is an acclaimed improvisational theatre artist, actor, producer, director, and voiceover talent. As a performer, Diana performs with the Shakespearean Gamesome Frolic. She is half of the duo Bingewatch and the Tennessee Williams-inspired Fleeting Reminiscence. She also performs with the trios POPTOP, and Slumber Party, as well as the Twilight Zone-inspired ensemble But of Mind. Additionally, she is a member of the Killing My Lobster acting pool and a guest artist with BATS Improv.
Globally recognised, Diana has showcased her talents at numerous festivals, including Impro Amsterdam, Liverpool Improv Festival, Vancouver Improv Festival, SF Sketchfest, Improv Fest Ireland, and the New York Improv Festival, among many others.
In addition to presenting Shakespearean improvisation at All Out Comedy Theatre, Diana leads the Advanced Improv Performance Lab at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s School of Theatre, is an instructor and corporate facilitator with Leela Improv Theatre, and is a guest instructor with BATS Improv.
She's appearing at ImprovCon, with Jonathan Pitts in his form Time Piece. Currently, Diana is in rehearsals on a new a new transatlantic offering conceived and directed by Mark Smith (UK)