2025 Festival Workshops
Seven Workshops to Develop Your Musical Improv Skills
We are excited to announce that the 2025 Bay Area Musical Improv Festival will feature seven workshops taught entirely by visiting teachers. Each workshop provides the opportunity for musical improvisers to learn new skills and receive feedback from seasoned instructors. The workshops are tailored to a range of experience levels, from newer musical improvisers to advanced. Each workshop is 2.5 hours in length.
All workshop sales open on Tuesday, September 2nd at 12:00pm Pacific Time.
Learn more about each workshop and the instructors below, and get ready to register to save your spot!
Friday, Oct 24 at 1:30PM
Game in Musical Improv
How to Follow the Fun to Funny
Instructor: Tara Copeland (Los Angeles)
Never get lost in a song again with this workshop focused on finding and playing the game in longform musical improv. UCB veteran teacher and performer Tara Copeland will help demystify the idea of “game” to allow you to find organic games within your scenes that extend to your songs. The result is the funniest songs that emerge from listening, reacting and following the fun, rather than planning.
In this workshop, you’ll learn how to let laughter guide you to creating the satisfying patterns that make up organic gameplay, starting in your scenes and extending into your songs. If you’re looking to make your scenes and songs the sharpest and funniest they can be, this workshop is for you.
Student Information
Advanced: This workshop is open to those who have studied or performed musical improv at the intermediate or advanced level.
About the Instructor
Tara Copeland (actor, comedian, improv instructor, writer) has been teaching improv for over fifteen years in New York and Los Angeles. She has traveled the world teaching improv and has taught for such companies as GE, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Chase, Citigroup, and the Walton Arts Center.
Tara created the musical improv programs at the Magnet Theater in NYC and at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, where she teaches and performs in Los Angeles. You can also see her work in CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, COLLEGE ROAD TRIP, GLOW, and the upcoming film GLOW. She lives in Los Angeles with her brilliant writer husband, Andrew Eastwick, Maggie, the best eleven-year-old daughter ever, and a kind of weird cat named Ozmo.
Saturday, Oct 25 at 10:00AM
Amping Up Your Feels
Elevate Songs by Singing Like You Mean It
Instructors: Sydney Clinton & Heather Scholl (Chicago)
Do you find it challenging to play big emotions? Can you remember what brought your character to song in the first place? In this workshop you'll learn how to root your songs in emotion and get out of your head.
ANARCHY: The Improvised Rock Opera’s Sydney Clinton and Heather Scholl will help you learn to amplify your character's feelings to create stronger, more interesting scenes and songs.
Through focused exercises and advanced scenework, players will learn to navigate the inevitable awkwardness of transforming emotions into songs. Learn how to feel more and think less.
Student Information
Advanced: This workshop is open to those who have studied or performed musical improv at the intermediate or advanced level.
About the Instructors
Sydney Clinton is a Chicago-based performer and graduate of the Second City Conservatory, Second City Musical Improv Conservatory, and the Annoyance Improv Program. Catch her performing at the iO Theater each week with ANARCHY: The Improvised Rock Opera and Voila! iO's Improvised Musical.
Outside of Chicago, Sydney has taught music improv workshops at festivals around the world, including Seattle, Denver, Nashville, and Reykjavik. Former producer/performer credits include After Party, Music Improv Night (MINT), and Buzzed Broadway ensembles.
Heather Scholl is a Chicago-based improviser, actor, and singer. In addition to ANARCHY: The Improvised Rock Opera, she also performs in Voila: The Improvised Musical and Phony Award Winning Musical at the iO Theater. Heather is a member of the ComedySportz Chicago (CSz) ensemble and co-directs and performs in CSz's Trapped in a Musical. IG for travel pics and sometimes bits: @heathermscholl
Saturday, Oct 25 at 10:00AM
What Do I Do With My Hands?
Choreography for Musical Improvisers
Instructor: Philip Geurin (Seattle)
Get out of the chorus line trap and learn how to dazzle your audience with simple but effective movement and dancing that feels authentic to the moment.
In this workshop, Philip Geurin will help take the stress out of improvised choreography—or as he likes to call it, “joyful movement”—without sacrificing spectacle. Students will learn simplified approaches to creating physicalities that are both rooted in the conceptual ideas of the song and deeply satisfying for audiences.
Sure, on a Broadway budget the hunchback can sing while parcouring the church rafters and Elsa can build an ice castle, but there’s no reason why our improvised musicals can’t also look like a million bucks.
Student Information
All Levels: This workshop is open to students with some improv performance experience.
About the Instructor
Philip Geurin is a theatrical improviser and trainer who has toured nationally, teaching thousands of people across the country at medical schools, universities, anime conventions, and more. He has performed over 500 shows reaching over 400,000 viewers. Phil is best known on TV and Radio as Ada Ford's comedic relief and spokesman. He's even on a billboard somewhere in Oklahoma - as a six inch tall character towering fifty feet above the skyline. Phil has played and workshopped with world famous improvisers including Keith Johnstone (Impro), Jill Bernard, Matt Hill ("Badger" from Breaking Bad), Jimmy Carrane (Improv Nerd), Craig Cackowski (30 Rock), and the Second City West Touring Company.
Saturday, Oct 25 at 1:30PM
Pretend You’re in a Musical
Musical Theatre Skills for Improvisers
Instructors: Aden Nepom & Eric Nepom (Portland, OR)
In musicals characters don't just spontaneously burst into song for no reason, they exist in a heightened universe where everything is BIGGER! People's facial expressions, their movement, the pacing of their words and emotion all work together to create whole worlds where needing to sing about something just makes perfect sense.
Focusing on cadence of speech, style of movement, and most importantly the thoughts and feelings that help you to successfully pull out the "Broadway" feel, Aden & Eric will guide your inner musical theater star to inspire characters, stage pictures and songs.
If you’ve struggled to make big musical theater moves that heighten your character and the world around you, then this workshop is for you!
Student Information
All Levels: This workshop is open to students with some improv performance experience.
About the Instructors
Real life couple Aden Nepom and Eric Nepom have been improvising for over 65 years between the two of them. They have been playing together for roughly twelve years, and have only been married for ten blissful years. Recognized for outstanding skills in theatre, speech, communication and development, these two share a passion for committed character work, grounded platform building and that moment where one realizes that anything can happen in improv! Individually they’ve created programming, won awards and traveled the world as improv teachers, stage performers and educators. Together, they’ve taught and performed on stages from as close as 20 minutes from their house, to as far away as Tel Aviv. Their festival appearances include the Fertile Ground Festival in Portland, OR, the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin, TX, the Alaska State Improv Festival in Juneau, AK, the Seattle Festival of Improvised Theatre in Seattle, WA, New York Musical Improv Fest in NY, and Mount Olymprov Greek International Improv Festival in Athens, Greece, IMPROAmsterdam in Amsterdam Netherlands, and many more.
Sunday, Oct 26 at 10:00AM
Making Brave Choices
How to Trust Your Instincts and Embrace the Unexpected
Instructors: Sean-Joseph Choo & Jose Ver (Honolulu, HI)
Do you struggle to flex with unexpected moments? Do you find it hard to make strong choices when you’re unsure on stage? Does it sometimes feel like you’re making all right turns and your scene partner is making all lefts? If so, then this workshop is for you!
Hawaii’s inimitable musical improv duo Sean-Joseph Choo and Jose Ver will help you shift from a perfectionist mindset to one rooted in trusting in yourself and your scene partner. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to not just accept any offer thrown your way, but to react in ways that will make such unexpected moments feel natural and cohesive.
Get ready to put your brain into improv hyperdrive, to let go of the need to be clever or “correct” and to trust your own instincts. Get ready to be brave.
Student Information
All Levels: This workshop is open to students with some improv performance experience.
About the Instructors
Sean-Joseph Choo is a queer, multi-ethnic, multi-hyphenate artist, born and raised in Hawaiʻi. He is the Lead Steward and Head Jester of Kamamo House, an artist and new works cultivation group, theatre advocacy organization, and podcast, named after his fierce grandmother, Eloise Tsuru Matsuno Choo. He’s excited to be back at the Bay Area Musical Improv Festival!
His sketch, improv, and musical comedy work has been featured with On the Spot Improv, Improvaganza, improvhi, and Polynesian AF at the Hawaii Comedy Festival. Sean has been making up silly songs since he was small, sometimes with a piano (and sometimes with audiences) for over a decade. He also occasionally clowns around and has taken very silly workshops about it with Aitor Basauri, Noah Bremer, Virginia Scott, and Amrita Dhaliwal. His most recent clowning around was done for Robert Farid Karimi’s Game Night at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design, where he was also a featured artist at the museum’s 8x8: Source exhibition.
Jose Ver is an actor, comedian, and all around performer based in Honolulu, HI. He is also an original player and instructor with Improv Hawaii. Other creative credits include: Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-0, and the award winning web-series Waikiki PD. He is a regular cast member of The Hawaii Comedy Festival, The Original Jams Improv Show, and has done various theatre productions in Honolulu. His latest credit is Video Game Voice Actor for the game Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Jose is a member of the musical improv comedy troupe Thoroughly Modern Biggie. He produces and hosts the popular, monthly Improv Nerd Nite, and also watches A LOT of “Star Wars.”
Sunday, Oct 26 at 10:00AM
Metaphor, Simile and Symbolism
Using Figurative Language to Shape Melodies
Instructor: Ralph Krumins (Naples, FL)
In this creative and hands-on session, you’ll explore how figurative language can elevate your lyrics, adding depth, resonance, and emotional impact to your improvised songs.
Ralph Krumins will help you learn to transform abstract ideas into vivid imagery through guided exercises and collaborative improvisation, turning ordinary lyrics into poetic and unforgettable moments, rich with metaphor, simile, and symbolism.
Whether you’re a seasoned musical improviser or a budding lyricist, this workshop will empower you to infuse your songs with powerful metaphors and symbols that speak to the heart.
Student Information
Advanced: This workshop is open to those who have studied or performed musical improv at the intermediate or advanced level.
About the Instructor
Ralph Krumins is a lecturer in Theatre for Social Change and Theatre for Young Audiences at the University of Central Florida, with over 20 years of experience in improvisation. A seasoned music director for the past 12 years and a solo musical improviser for the last 5, Ralph brings a unique blend of musicality, spontaneity, and narrative depth to his teaching.
His work has been featured at renowned festivals such as Countdown, Sarasota Improv Festival, Palm Beach Improv Festival, and IMPRO Amsterdam. Ralph’s approach centers on authentic storytelling, often weaving in principles from Playback Theatre to foster meaningful connections in both performance and pedagogy. He is also a multi-award-winning artist recognized for his innovative contributions to musical improv and ensemble work.
Sunday, Oct 26 at 1:30PM
Next-Level Narrative Musicals
The Top 5 Mistakes & Easy Fixes
Instructor: Conor Hanney (Los Angeles)
Learn how to make your improvised musicals feel written, in this workshop taught by Thee Improvised Musical's Conor Hanney.
Throughout this workshop, Conor will guide you through the solutions to the top five mistakes in every improvised narrative musical. Learn how to understand the beats of a narrative musical, how to use character needs to drive your story, how to slow down and create narrative tension, and how to adjust your show’s pacing to match that of actual musicals.
This workshop is perfect for any advanced musical improviser looking to take their narrative chops to the next level.
Student Information
Advanced: This workshop is open to advanced students with at least basic knowledge of narrative musical structure.
About the Instructor
Conor Hanney is the founder & director of Thee Improvised Musical, featured in Variety, LA Weekly, & Broadway World. He writes and composes for the screen and stage, worked as a creative executive at DreamWorks Animation, an adjunct professor for the University of Notre Dame, and has written scripts and songs for Disney, Netflix, and Paramount. Hanney also writes and ghostwrites novels, with the subrights to his first manuscript acquired by Disney.
The Bay Area Musical Improv Festival is run by Bay Area Musical Improv, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is create opportunities for musical improvisers in the San Francisco Bay Area.