Samothrace Improv Retreat 2024

ENTER THE WORLD OF IMPROV

Ιntensive course for ABSOLUTE beginners (no experience at all, or few months of training).  Course lasts 4 days and 20hours. This course will go through very basic introductory theory and practise of simple fun games.
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: None or a few months of training

You Can Go Wild

Ιntensive course for beginners (less than two years of training and little show experience).  Course lasts 4 days. Participants perform at Show #1. This course will go through theory and practise of basic free improv principles and will prepare trainies for their performance on a free format.
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: less than 2 years of experience
* Students of this level can also register for some extras.

Pure Fun

Dive into the joy of improvisation with our Pure Fun workshop, tailored for those who are new to the improv scene and not focused on performing shows just yet. This session is all about having fun, relaxing, and enjoying the camaraderie. We'll kick off with short, engaging stage exercises designed to help everyone feel at ease, build trust, and step out of their comfort zones. In a safe and supportive environment, you'll find the freedom to play and open up to others. We'll also dive into duo scenes, transforming the principles of improvisation into tools for sparking creativity and imagination, rather than confining us to rigid rules. Here, everything is possible. Come join us, and let's embrace the fun together!

Ιntensive course for beginners (less than two years of training and little show experience).  Course lasts 2 days. 
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: less than 2 years of experience
* Students of this level can also register for some extras.

How to win as a loser - the power of honesty

We like to be right. We like to be strong and confident. Especially on stage, which is one of the scariest places. We do not want to make ourselves ridiculous, so we reach for irony and distance. Anyone who stands by and will be smarter than others once in a while feels better. These workshops aim to show that the most interesting characters are those who are not afraid to take risks, speak honestly, open up to hurt and ridicule. We follow these characters breathlessly and these characters play a key role in the story - they go through a transformation. You won't learn anything if you don't fail first. Give yourself a chance to let your guard down and find strength in losing control. It really is liberating. We will be honest, we will be hurt, we will rejoice and we will be sad - FINALLY!

Ιntensive course for beginners (less than two years of training and little show experience).  
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: less than 2 years of experience
* Students of this level can also register for extras.

Free to PLay

In this intensive, we will focus on playing together as one live organism. The main focus will be on expanding your arsenal of tools to perform in
group settings. We will go through a number of ways to play scenes, explore and heighten existing dynamics and transition from scene to scene. Group scenes will be followed by quick-witted scenes that will give way to more down to earth explorations or relationships and so on
and so forth. Overall a great way to diversify your playstyle and be a more open minded and supportive player.
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: Two to three years of experience

* Students of this level can also register for extras.

Mikrokosmos

Deep dive into multidimensional reality around us. Do your plants like you? What does your heart tell your brain? Is your guardian angel watching you right now? The whole world interacts, consciously or not. Nothing is real, everything is possible. In this format you may find a whole improv spectrum, from realistic, emotional connections, through surreal reflections of our world, to abstract quantum realm. 
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: Two to three years of experience

* Students of this level can also register for extras.

Wild at Heart 

This workshop is improviser's playground. When you start your improv adventure, you learn how to make the scene work. Then you learn different ways to do it. Now it's time to do it YOUR way. We'll gather all the tools we ever heard of, and we'll mix them. We'll experience, that a good „Free form" in not a lucky guess, but a result of spontanious, but conscious decisions along the way. If improv is freedom, this is as close we can get to reach it.
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: More than three years of experience

* Students of this level can also register for extras.

The Naked Stage – An improvised Three Act Play

If you love improvising full-length stories, you’ll be thrilled to explore The Naked Stage! This intensive focuses on the renowned Improv
Playhouse of San Francisco & Naked Stage format, as taught to me by Tim Orr, where stories unfold in a single setting, akin to a traditional stage play. Each improviser plays one character, with no built-in time jumps, transitions, or scene breaks.

Actors rely solely on the bare stage, a simple audience suggestion, and each other. This format blends narrative longform improvisation with
the challenges and surprises of traditional theater. In a way, the actors are “trapped” on stage with only each other, forced to fully engage
with the characters and situations they create, without relying on typical scene-ending techniques.
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: More than three years of experience
(Note: It’s recommended that students have significant prior experience in longform improv.)

* Students of this level can also register for extras.

Where Do I Start

desc: Building scenes is difficult. But it all begins from the moment you step on stage. Sometimes, starting a scene seems like an impossible task. Like your brain freezes. Let's change that.
Learn to start scenes with confidence. Stabilize the platform as quickly as possible and let the scene develop without worrying too much.
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: A year of experience

The Cinematic POV

Desc: Do you like movies? Do you want to create movie like shows? From storyteling, to genre specifics, to directing, in this workshop we will work on bringing some cinema magic to our theatre shows!
Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: More than two years of experience

Dialogue my day

Dialogue is the most basic way to divulge information about our improvised scene to our audience and fellow improvisers. Most times we are either stringent or morbidly verbose, disrupting the flow of information. In this workshop we will tame the basics of dialogue and bring improvised dialogue a step closer to our needs. Experience REQUIRED TO APPLY: More than two years of experience

Feel the Freedom
B1 Intensive / hosted by HoI Instructors
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I1 Intensive / hosted by Zlatin
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A1 Intensive / hosted by Gosia
fee: FREE

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I2 Intensive / Hosted by Gosia
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A2 Intensive / hosted by Zlatin
Teachers Show
All Teachers Show / hosted by Panagiotis
fee: FREE

Newbies Rock the Stage
D Intensive / Hosted by HoI Instructors
Jam
Jam night open for all practiotioners, of all levels. You will get the oppurtunity to play short form games with everyone else, try stuff, have fun and end your retreat experience / hosted by Konstadis

A1 & I2 Intensives

Gosia Różalska - improviser and director based in Poland. She's been doing improv for almost 20 years, in almost 20 countries. She graduated Film Directing, she does stand-up and hosts Kreatura podcast about comedy. Her therapist says she doesn't have two wolves inside her, she has a whole pack.  

A2 & I1 Intensives

Zlatin founded and runs for more than 10 years ShiZi Improv Theater in Sofia, Bulgaria. Has been teaching daily for 13 years, creating a one-
year curriculum that has been completed by more than 1000 people. Studied at iO Theater and The Annoyance Theater in Chicago and has
been inspired by improv festivals and teachers around the globe. With ShiZi Improv Theater he has been directing and performing multiple improv genres like Improv Shakespeare, Musical, Tarantino, The Naked Stage – an improvised there act play etc. He performs regularly at a 140 seat theater venue. He also runs Sofia International Improv Fest since 2016 where improvisers from around the world gather and celebrate improv.

B2 & B3 Courses

Karolina Pańczyk – has been doing comedy for 18 years. On a daily basis, she performs in Klub Komediowy (the biggest comedy club in Poland), in an international improv group called 7 Women of Different Ages and in Niplodram, with which she creates improvised performances, sketch shows and makes short films (some of them shown at national movie festivals). She regularly conducts theater improvisation workshops. In Warsaw, along with other comedians, she co-runs the comedy scene – Centralna Spółdzielnia Komediowa. For six years she hosted her own comedy program on national television. She wants stories to end well and she always plays bad mothers. Wears sneakers that are too big.

Masterclass 3 / TBA

Stelios is an improviser, stand up comedian, and a writer. He's been performing for more than a decade as an actor, improviser, comedian and musician. He has been teaching improv since 2014 and his main focus is characters and storytelling. He's been a part of a vast array of shows, some of them sold out, all over Greece and a founding member of House of Improv. You can find his ramblings, solo shows, music, techniques and books all over the internet, mainly on Youtube and Bandcamp.

Masterclass 1 / Where to Start

Eirini Xigaki is a professional actress and improviser. Has studied drama at “Voutsinas drama school”. Has also studied cinema at the department of Fine Arts, of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Started performing improv in 2015 when was accepted in “Felizol improve group”. Since then has performed and teach improv in Thessaloniki and Athens. Since 2020 is teaching improv at “House Of Improv”. She is also a voice actress, a singer and had worked as an animatrice. With the theatrical group “prosehos subway’’ had studied and performed physical theater based on Anne Bogart’s methond “view points”. She is also performing ‘’Stand up comedy’’ since 2016.

Masterclass 2 / The cinematic POV - Running errands

Starting training in improv in 2011. Attended workshops and intensive seminars with Greek and Foreign teachers and is still does. Created his first troupe in 2011. In 2013 starting teaching in two different cities. With some of his first students created a troupe called DeMaNaiKaiNai that played continuesly in local scenes for years, toured Greece and performed abroad from 2015 until 2018. In 2015 co-created the troupe Felizol that performed in Theaters in thessaloniki for two years and regrouped in Athens in 2019. He regurarly taught classes in 4 cities in North Greece from 2015 to 2019, and also as a guest in various other cities. He is currently living in Athens where he runs School of Improv with Eirini Xigaki and Stelios Anatolitis. He has performed in numerous improv shoes varying from theater games, to long form, duos, experimental formats. He is now one of the few improvisers in Greece with nearly ten years of experience who is still active in teaching and performing.