Workshops
Lee offers an abundance of workshops that you can book for your festivals, your group or your improv schools. If you are interested in booking Lee, please send an email to Marie Wellmann!
Note: All workshops can be adjusted for beginners or advanced, unless otherwise mentioned. Workshop hours range from short 3 hour workshops to 6 or 12 hour workshops or even longer Masterclass options, depending on your needs and possibilities. Individual Coaching for your group or show is available on request.
Characters you recognize
Characters should be familiar and yet new. They should remind the audience of themselves. This is not always easy to improvise. Lee White guides you through simple character creation techniques that will challenge the way you approach your scene work. Maintain and expand these characters for both long and short form. Strong characters that make your audience fall in love with them and come back over and over. Looking at the choices we make as improvisers and how to make better, stronger choices to develop great characters for the stories you want to tell.
Sweeten your Monologues
What does it take to be a great monologist? How do you capture the audience and hold them with your words? Find yourself rambling and hoping someone interrupts your monologue? Lee shares his insight to help you explore ideas and techniques for better monologues. Using systems and ideas you already know from improv (and a few you probably don’t) as well as stand up and scripted work. Applying them to inspire new and creative monologues. All to capture the audience’s heart and mind.
Listening and acceptance
Listening is one of the most important skills an improviser can have, yet too often our scene partner’s words and the meanings behind them are neglected. Can we turn down our ego and open our ears and eyes to what is really being said? Yes we can. With a focus on listening to our scene partner and accepting their offers this workshop will have you giving more and making your partner look like the star. Ask not what your partner can do for you, ask what you can do for your partner.
The Power of Silence
Improvisers all over the world have one thing in common. They all talk too much on stage. We can see the potential in building tension when we start to use silence as a tool. Silence and less words in general can not only add to the intensity of the scenes, it can activate the audiences imagination and engages them to be more invested in the scene. This workshop explores techniques to help inspire your scenes to be more efficient and effective with less words, more emotions, and the potential to spark the audiences minds.
Stage Friction
Students are taught to avoid conflict but there is a way to use it to your advantage in stories and character building. Every story needs some conflict, right?This workshop is focused on characters with conflict, how to play conflict with your scene partners and how to use conflict in character building. Students learn how to start scenes with conflict and how to avoid the tiresome arguments conflict often brings. Don’t avoid conflict – make conflict a skill to use!
Stories for Humans
This workshop shows you how to create your scenes moment by moment, helping you to develop the skills for storytelling and strong characters. The scene work is the basic building block of any show. Lee helps you to recognize bad habits in your improvisation and gives you the tools to get out of them, helping you break down storytelling to its simplest and driving you to make them as complex and colourful as your imagination lets you.
Meet Long Form
Lee will guide you through some basic long form structures to give you a taste of the complicated but exhilarating world of long form improv. This workshop covers story timing, simple story frameworks and character development. Even if you have been doing long forms for years, this is a great workshop to get new perspectives and inspiration.
Love Long Form
Most improvisers love long form but after years of doing it start to loose the thrill and get settled into the old habits. Lets shake you out of the old habits and reinvigorate your love of long form. By watching and analyze your long form shows Lee can help you tweak or reinvent the forms you love so much. Get back the old feeling of that first date with long form.
Your 15 Minutes of Fame
This workshop is for those who want to start working with the audience even more than already usual in improv. You may have heard of Lees work on stage, performing scenes with audience members in the show “Your 15 Minutes of Fame“. The results can be magical. It is a must see for any Improvisor. Working with the audience can be tricky, dangerous and even frightening. Lees approach is simple… they should be the star. Giving everything to support your public partner becomes the best practice for any improvisor. Lee takes you through his philosophy and various scenarios to condition you for entering the world of scenes with audience members. Even if you don’t desire to work with audience it is a great workout for any player.
For experienced performers.
Team Coaching
After 27 years of doing improv on stage, teaching performing and learning all over the world, Lee has been through it all. Got a new group and you need some guidance? Got a group that’s been working together for decades and feeling repetitive? What ever the situation, we all need an outside eye to to inspire and critique. Thats not always easy internally in your group, take it from a veteran in the business of improv. You are unique but the problems groups go through are often similar. From basic to expert, we all love this art form and want to grow and get better.