Improv Interviews

Jeff Michalski is an actor, director, improvisor, teacher, mentor and so much more. He worked in comedy clubs across the country with the Original Comedy Ranger and was a member of the Groundling in Los Angeles before settling with the Chicago Second City in 1980. During his years with the Second City, Jeff studied with Paul Sills and his historic Story Theatre. While traveling the country with Second City’s National Touring Company he continued training with Second City founder Paul Sills, and artistic directors Del Close, Fred Kaz and Bernie Sahlins. In 1984 Michalski and his wife, Jane Morris, founded theSecond City ETC. His directorial debut , “Cows on Ice” made the ETC an instant hit and was followed by the even larger success of “Mirrors at the Border”. His achievements brought him to the Second City Toronto where he was nominated for a Dora Award for his direction of “Who’s Tory Now?” Michalski continued as director and Artistic Director of the ETC until 1988 when his success in Chicago led him to be chosen as director of the premiere production of the Second City in Santa Monica, also a critical success. While still in Chicago with the ETC, Michalski also helped found the Second City Training Center, a comprehensive training program from which the next generation of Second City players are chosen. He also founded the Second City Training Program in Santa Monica. Mr. Michalski and Ms. Morris founded the Upfront Comedy Showcase in 1990, and The Comedy Underground in Santa Monica in 1998. He is currently teaching people from all walks of life to improvise at the fanaticSalon in Culver City. As a producer, director and performer, he has worked with Dan Castellaneta, Chris Farley, Amy Sedaris, Mike Meyer, Steven Colbert, Ryan Stiles, and many more. Jeff can be seen in the upcoming film The Laundromat with Meryl Streep.

Meet the wonderful Nathan Keats who has a Master's Degree in Autism from the Tizard Centre. He is currently involved in a research project on using improvisation to support individuals with Autism. Nathan began teaching improvisation in the UK in 2006 and quickly expanding his teaching to the United States. In 2007, he found a love for applied improvisation for autistic people and his enthusiasm continues to this day in his practice, teaching and his research. Nathan’s classes have been taught in festivals, schools, colleges, community centers and theatres to students from seven years old to students who are now retired. As a qualified teacher in the UK, Nathan brings a spontaneous and rationalizable approach to his teaching and now offers consulting services on using applied improvisation with individuals on the autism spectrum. Nathan's motto: Be kind, be honest and be improvising. #findthefunnytogether Learn more about Nathan and his work: www.NathanImprov.com info@nathanimprov.com

Part 1 - Howard Jerome & Michael Golding by Margot Escott

Part 2 - Howard Jerome and Michael Golding by Margot Escott

Jane Morris has improvised, written, performed, and directed shows around the world. Beginning in Chicago, where she helped found the Second City ETC with her husband Jeff Michalski, and later from her own theaters in Los Angeles, no one has done more to advance the art of improvisation than Jane. As an actress with over 58 credits to her name she is best known for her roles in Raising Helen, True Lies, Frankie and Johnny and recently in Veep. As a director Jane was nominated for a 1988 Joseph Jefferson Award for Director of a Revue for "Channel This" at the Second City Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Jane conducts a solo performance workshop that takes original work from idea to staging, to performing. The class works with actors and writers at any level of the process, whether they are just getting started, or almost ready to mount a whole solo show. Her workshop has produced 9 original shows and every participant has finished work. http://scholarsy.blogspot.com/2017/04/jane-morris-explains-improvisation-and.html https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0606623/ http://janemorriswritework.blogspot.com/

Kay Ross – Imagining Possibilities Kay Ross was born in Scotland, grew up in Australia, and has lived in Hong Kong for 25 years. She has been acting since she was a teenager, did stand-up comedy for a while, has been performing with short-form improv team People’s Liberation Improv in Hong Kong for 11 years, is a member of the Applied Improvisation Network, and leads Applied Improvisation workshops in Hong Kong and around Asia for companies, universities and community organizations. Weaving together her interest and experience in improv, Applied Improvisation, personal development and healing (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual), Kay has created a card deck called “The Playground of Possibilities”. It has 52 questions for people to ask themselves, all starting with “What would be possible for me if I…?”, so they let go of their old, limiting thoughts, beliefs and stories about themselves and the world, choose more useful ones, take inspired action, and improvise more resourceful, joyful ways of being. She leads public workshops using the card deck, some mindfulness exercises and some improv games, and has done a TEDx talk about how life is both an improvisation game and a playground of possibilities. She’s also an editor/copywriter and a corporate trainer about marketing. The common thread in all of that is storytelling – the stories we tell ourselves and each other, about ourselves and the world. Discover more about Kay at www.kayross.com Visit The Playground of Possibilities at https://playgroundofpossibilities.com And see Kay’s TEDx talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4yibOcDfQc Kay also loves finding, curating and sharing useful information, so she has compiled a 4-part series of blog posts titled “All About Improv, Applied Improv, Creativity, Play, Innovation…” – each one includes a link to a different list of resources (articles, videos, podcasts and books) by many people. Here’s Part 4 – it includes links to Parts 1-3. http://www.kayross.com/blog/2017/04/26/all-about-improv-applied-improv-creativity-play-innovation-part-4/

Over the course of his seventy plus year career, Ed Asner has simultaneously established himself as one of the most legendary actors alive while championing social and charitable causes. Ed was born in Kansas City, Missouri, attended the University of Chicago, and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, appearing in plays put on for the troops as they toured around Europe. After the war, Asner joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago, but left for New York City before members of that company regrouped as the Compass Players in the mid-1950s, a company that included Mike Nichols, Elaine May and Del Close and eventually developed into The Second City. Asner came back to guest star frequently on Second City’s stage, but also developed his acting career by appearing in plays and later unforgettable characters in influential television shows that include The Untouchables, playing Lou Grant in both the long running Mary Tyler Moore show and Lou Grant, as slave-ship captain Thomas Davies in Roots, Santa Clause in Elf, Carl Fredrickson in the animated film Up and most recently he can be seen in Netflix new series Dead to Me. Among Asner’s numerous awards and nominations were five Golden Globe Awards, Seven Emmys and a SAG Life Achievement Award. His legacy of service includes two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and The Ed Asner Family Center whose mission is to promote self-confidence in differently abled individuals and bring balance and wellness to those individuals and their families.

Carol Bleackley Sills, director of Sills/Spolin Theater Works has been an influential force behind improvisational theatre since 1960. Carol studied with Viola Spolin, acting as her editor since 1983. In collaboration with her husband Paul Sills, they went on to create innovative theatres that included The Compass, Playwrights Theatre, Second City, The Game Theater, Story Theater, The Body Politic, Century Hall, The Learning Theater and Sills & Co. Carol presents workshops annually at the Wisconsin Theater Game Center and directed The Tao of Chuang Chou at New Actors Workshop in New York. She is also a painter and educator. You can learn more about Carol Sills at: https://www.paulsills.com/sillsspolin-theater-works/

Sean A. Mulvihill is currently directing the documentary feature film, “Act Social” featuring Colin Mochrie (Whose Line is it, Anyway?). The film follows Sean and his team on a mission to bring improvisation-based peacemaking skills to world leaders and communities in need. Sean resides in New York City and is the Artistic Director of the Exuberants Improv Comedy Team which performs in Times Square New York City at the Broadway Comedy Club every Sunday at 6pm. The troupe also tours the greater NYC area. Sean is well known around the globe for creating and starring in the 2007 docu/drama feature film, Living Luminaries: On the Serious Business of Happiness. The film stars Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now), Marianne Williamson, don Miguel Ruiz (The Four Agreements), and Michael Bernard Beckwith. He is also recognized as the voice of the main character, Prometheus, in the Sony Playstation Virtual Reality game, “Loading Human.” The game is written and directed by Italian actor/director Flavio Parenti, star of Woody Allen’s “To Rome with Love.” Sean also appeared in an upcoming episode of RAI Italy’s “Questo Nostro Amore” with Neri Marcore’. You can learn more about Sean and how to support his film and work at seanamulvihill.com.

Aretha Sills is the granddaughter of Viola Spolin. She studied theater games for many years with her father, director Paul Sills (creator/director of The Second City and Story Theater), and has conducted workshops for Paul Sills’ Wisconsin Theater Game Center, Bard College, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Stockholm International School, Sarah Lawrence College, and Northwestern University. She has worked with Tony- and Emmy-Award winning actors and has trained faculty from Northwestern, DePaul, Columbia College, The Second City, The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, LAUSD, CETA, and many other institutions and schools. She is the Associate Director of Sills/Spolin Theater Works and she directs The Predicament Players. Learn more about Aretha Sills: Sills/Spolin Theater Works, Associate Director www.ViolaSpolin.org www.PaulSills.com www.facebook.com/sillsspolin www.instagram.com/sillsspolintheater/ aretha.sills@violaspolin.org Spolin Improvisation Sidecoach * Acting & Writing Coach "My vision is a world of accessible intuition." -Viola Spolin