VIF 2024 Faculty Members
Lucky seven! This year’s VIF faculty hails from seven different countries and seven different states.
JESSICA ARJET
An improvisor, actor, director, teacher and producer, Jessica is a co-owner of the Hideout Theatre in Austin, Texas. The Hideout performs many of the standard types of improv, but they specialize in delightfully improvise full length plays.
Jessica performs The Arjet Universe every Thursday in the Free Fringe at the Hideout. In the Arjet Universe she invites different people to play with her in duos or larger groups, creating delightfully devised new formats and genres. She is also part of Fabarjet, a duo with Andreas Fabis improvising silly fairy tales, space stories and everything in-between. Their signature style is fast and absurd, but grounded in real relationships. Strangely, she is also a member of J Names, a troupe based in Portland full of amazingly smart and talented improvisors whose names all start with J. She often guests with other improv troupes and is a frequent performer in the Hideout’s improvised plays such as Sexy Future Space Lady, The Black Vault, Live Nude Improv, and Next Week…on Game of Thrones. And while it may not have been a wise decision to do them, she has performed in 3 different improv marathons performing continuously for between 41 and 47 hours at a time.
Jessica has directed improv shows and scripted work for children as well as adults. She is known for providing delightful challenges for her cast so that they can rise to their potential and fully realize the artistic vision of the show.
Jessica teaches at the Hideout in the regular series classes as well as in workshop series and one offs. She also frequently travels to teach at festivals and other theaters around the US. Her teaching style is challenging, irreverent and joyful. She prefers to set up exercises and situations where people can find their way to their own unique voice. Her classes are a journey of guided discovery.
REMY BERTRAND
Remy is in the small club of improvisation teachers with more than 10,000 hours of experience. Currently based in London, UK, he has been teaching improvisation internationally since 2006 with imprology, in drama schools and other institutions. He has directed several large scale improvised performances with Zootrophic, a multi-discipline ensemble, co-directed a few improvised short films with Peter Snowdon and is hosting Love Explosion, an improvised open-stage show currently online.
Remy has trained most recently with John Write (Impro, Clown) Kate Hilder and Sten Rudstrom (Action Theatre) Mary Overlie (Six Viewpoints), Lee Simpson (Open Space, Impro), Lucy Hopkins (Clown) and Punch Drunk (Immersive Theatre).
He has learned most from his students and teaches improvisation as a transformational process focusing on pleasure, curiosity and courage.
DIANA BROWN
Diana’s an improv artist, actor, voice actor, playwright, producer, and teaching artist. Diana is a teacher, director, and member of the leadership team at Leela in San Francisco. She leads the improv program at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s School of Theatre. Diana was voted most valuable Mentor and Teacher in 2018 at the San Francisco Improv Festival.
Independently, she’s a communications consultant and acting coach. She’s led Master Classes in San Francisco, Salt Lake City DuoFest, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, Camp Improv Utopia West, New Orleans Improv Festival, Denver Improv Festival, 2020 Virtual Improv Festival, and with the Global Improv Project online.
Diana has studied with master teachers Jonathan Pitts, Jill Bernard, Brian James O’Connell (BOC), Joe Bill, Tracy Burns, Carla Cackowski, Tara De Francisco, Rance Rizzuto, Peter Rogers and Lindsey McGowen, Jane Morris, Dee Ryan, Jay Sukow, The Cast of Shrew: Improvised Shakespeare.
Diana studied acting with The Arizona Theatre Company Conservatory, and she performs as half of the nationally touring improv duo Bingewatch.
DEANA CRIESS
Deana Criess has been a professional improviser for more than 20 years. A master instructor, director, and performer, Deana has done shows and workshops at festivals, theaters, colleges, and Fortune 500 companies all over the country. Deana’s work has been featured on PBS, NPR, KBS (the Korean Broadcasting System), The Boston Globe, CNN, and Slate.com. She is the founder and former Director of IBCreative, where she created training programs for corporate and academic settings. She has worked with hundreds of corporate clients including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Intel, Novartis, Moderna, Procter & Gamble, Ocean Spray, and many more. Her academic work ranges from pre-K through post-grad programs including work at Harvard School of Business, MIT Sloan, Northeastern, Emerson, Berklee School of Music, Boston University, Boston College, and others. She also has extensive nonprofit experience including her wellness workshops at Childrens’ Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, her programs for dementia patients and their caregivers, and her current work at Perkins School for the Blind.
During her years in comedy, she has worked with some amazing artists including Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons), Laura Hall (Whose Line Is It Anyway), Kevin McDonald (The Kids In The Hall), Shantira Jackson (SNL), Lauren Ash (Superstore), Ryan Stiles (Whose Line Is It Anyway), Eric Drysdale (Full Frontal), Jen Kirkman (Drunk History), Janeane Garofalo (Wet Hot American Summer), Dave Razowsky (The Second City), Faith Soloway (Transparent), Josh Gondelman (Desus & Mero), Richie Moriarty (Ghosts), Anthony Atamanuik (What We Do in the Shadows) and many more.
Deana is currently the Associate Director of Recruitment & Admissions and Applied Improvisation Specialist for Career Launch@Perkins, an innovative job training program she helped to develop at Perkins School for the Blind. There, she uses improvisation to teach job readiness and job acquisition skills to adults who are blind and visually impaired.
RANDY DIXON
Randy is regarded as one of the most experienced improvisational artists in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. In 1983, he was a founding member of Unexpected Productions (Seattle) and has served as the company’s Artistic Director since 1988. Randy also founded and directs The Orcas Island Project, an international performance group consisting of 15 performers from 12 countries. He has taught, directed and performed improvisational theater in Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Italy, Germany, Austria, Holland, and all over the U.S. and Canada. Outside of his improvisational work, Randy served on the editorial board for The Salt Journal a journal of Myth, Religion, Psychology and Ideas. His book, Being Present: Spontaneous Storytelling and the Art of Improvisation has been published in German, Slovene, soon in Swedish, and Japanese. Randy has B.F.A. in Drama from Seattle University and a Master’s Degree in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Jungian Depth Psychology.
MICHAEL GELLMAN
Michael J Gellman now resides in Ontario Canada and is Artistic Director of The Process Theatre. He teaches at Loyalist College as well as Master Workshops for Second City International and Artistic New Directions NYC.
Michael is an alumnus of the Second City mainstage and was a resident director for Second City in Canada and the USA for 25 years. He was Artistic Director of the Second City Toronto where his shows were nominated for 7 Dora Mavor Moore Awards including twice for Outstanding Direction, nominated for Best Director for Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, and won a Chalmers Award for Best Director. Michael was a senior faculty and founding member of the Second City Training Center where he was a Program Head and also Director of the New York Training Center.
Michael was an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago teaching Acting For Directors in the Film Directing department and he designed and taught Improvisation and Acting III for the Comedy Studies department. In addition to Second City and Columbia College Michael has taught and designed classes and workshops in directing, acting, and improvisation since 1976 at such notable institutions as Actors Centre London, The Audition Centre, Victory Gardens Training Centre, Act One Conservatory and Loyola Law School, as well as master workshops for hundreds of Universities, festivals, theatre companies and improv groups around the world.
Michael is credited with originating long-form improvisation and his book Process: An Improvisers Journey (Northwestern University Press), co-authored with Mary Scruggs, is a summary of his workshops on improvisational training.
BETSE GREEN
Betse Green has been a very active member of the Portland Improv scene since 2002. Currently, she is an ensemble member and teacher at Curious Comedy Theater and ComedySportz Portland. She also performs regularly with the indie teams B&B, B.A.B.E., Broad Selection, and Unbreakable Chain.
Betse has directed festival ensembles at the San Diego Improv Festival, Impride Festival (San Diego), Laugh Riot Festival (Phoenix), and directed the first-ever festival ensemble at the San Francisco Improv Festival.
She currently teaches classes and performs using Zoom and has adapted her style of teaching and performing to accommodate this new medium.
Betse has studied with ComedySportz and IO Chicago. She has also been taught by Master Class instructors including Coco Galore, Jill Bernard, Susan Messing, Joe Bill, David Razowsky, and Tracy Burns. As a Certified Applied Improvisation Architect/Teacher Betse has created and facilitated applied improv curricula in classrooms and corporate business.
With more than two decades of improv experience, Betse Green knows a thing or two about yes-and, while still finding a way to address barriers both nervously personal and inherently societal. As a player & instructor, she has performed all over North America and Europe.
Betse focuses on creating strong, grounded characters, whose honest relationships form the heart of the scene. She likes to play for the “others”—people and situations that can otherwise be forgotten on the improv stage. This is apparent in her work with people possessing a wide range of abilities and experience.
Betse’s workshops explore a variety of topics-from improv basics, to guiding experienced players through complex territories such as race and gender, and how artists can incite and continue these conversations from the stage. Yet paramount to any ideology is FUN! Betse’s lust for life has made her a staple of the Oregon improv community and continues to propel her imagination and dedication to Portland’s improv stages and beyond.
CHRISTOPHE LE CHEVILLER
Christophe is an actor and improviser, trained in the visual arts, having dreamed of becoming a cartoonist. He came to improvisation in the 1990s, where he met Samuel Doux (actor, author, director, screenwriter), with whom he founded the company L’Oeil Ecoute in Paris in 1998. Within this company, they created several youth theater shows and performed plays for all audiences, as well as improvisation shows.
In Rennes since 2005, he joined the ranks of La Puzzle Compagnie , a professional improvisation company, where he created with Julien Gigault the site “Impro-Bretagne.” During these years, he explored the space existing between the text, dramaturgy and improvisation, seeking to create a simple form, direct and sensitive of his work. But it was in 2015 that he saw a different way of approaching theatrical improvisation by meeting Marie Parent and embarking on the creation of “We Are Family.” In 2016, they created La Morsure together. He has since devoted himself to directing theater and videos, occasionally acting in certain company shows.
INBAL LORI
In 2015 Inbal moved to Berlin and since then she has taught and performed all over the world in places like: USA, Canada, Australia and Europe. Her performances include her solo show Fragments of Life and duo shows such as CLICK with Tim Orr (San Fransisco), The Lorilees with Lee White (Canada), The Fun Fatales with Paula Galimberti (Spain) and Playing with the Enemy with Arab improviser Zaki Zikani.
TIM ORR
Tim Orr has improvised since 1988 with many San Francisco-based groups, including BATS Improv, Rafe Chase’s groundbreaking long-form troupe Improv Theatre, the renowned True Fiction Magazine, and the acclaimed troupe 3 FOR ALL.
In 2009, he founded the Improv Playhouse of San Francisco with the goal of touring and teaching nationally and internationally in improv formats such as The Naked Stage (in the style of stage plays), Shakespeare, and others.
Tim has appeared in numerous plays in the San Francisco Bay Area and received critical acclaim for his leading roles in the improvised feature films, Suckerfish and Security. With Stephen Kearin, Tim co-wrote and originated the role of Dirk Manly in An Evening with Dirk & Blaine.
Tim has served for many years as the director of many BATS Improv long-form courses in San Francisco. He has performed and taught improvisation at the American Conservatory Theatre, BATS Improv, Stanford University, and many other venues nationally (Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Austin, Louisville, Atlanta, Minneapolis, etc.) and internationally (Amsterdam, Beirut, Belgium, Helsinki, London, Paris, Saudi Arabia, Stockholm, and Tel Aviv).
Tim cried when the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2010, and many times afterward just thinking about it. He cried some more when the Giants, improbably, won another title in his lifetime in 2012.
MARNIE CHAISSAC (A.K.A., MARIE PARENT)
Actress, improviser, singer, performer, trainer, Marie has been consuming and practicing multiple artistic expressions since childhood. After having working for many popular and artistic education projects for 12 years, she joined La Puzzle Compagnie where she plays with and trains all ages.
In 2015, she decided to get involved in the “We Are Family” project, led by Christophe Le Cheviller. Building on this first exploratory experience, they decide to start a company together, La Morsure. They co-lead creations at the border between improvisation and established dramaturgy, with visual artists, musicians, performers and psychoanalysts. She leads and develops and also in parallel a poetic work, virtual, performative and plastic. She publishes in specialized journals. She has worked since 2019 as a dancer-actress on the pro- creation chain of the Zutano Bazar company directed by Florence Loison: “Human Scale” creation supported by the CCNN of Nantes and Paperie et Yvan Alexandre’s Vasse theater.
CAROL FOX PRESCOTT
Master teacher Carol Fox Prescott is renowned for her transformative, physical approach to acting, performance, and presentation. Based on breathing, awareness, and joy, it is designed to open hearts, craft deeply human characters, and encourage outrageous bouts of imagination while happily re-channeling performance anxiety into free-flowing, intuitive, genuine self-expression.
She brings 50 years of experience in professional theater to individuals from all walks of life, enabling breakthroughs in authenticity, personal growth, and creativity. Carol’s clients include professional actors, comedians, improvisers, dancers, singers, clergy, attorneys, doctors, artists, writers, public speakers, life coaches, and educators, anyone for whom presentation and self-discovery are essential for success.
She is one of fifty teachers in The United States chosen to be included in the book Acting: A Vital Tradition, by Ronald Rand, and is one of four master teachers in New York recommended byThe Actor’s Pocket Guide to NYC. She studied acting with Joshua Shelley, Robert Lewis, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Michael Moriarty, and has played leading roles in New York, National Touring Companies, and Regional Theaters throughout the United States, playing opposite such luminaries as Zero Mostel, Mickey Rooney, Hal Holbrook, Luther Adler, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Guillaume.
Carol’s teaching career began at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City after which she created Carol Fox Prescott: Acting Classes, a studio of her own. From New York, she brought her work to many cities including Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Seattle, and countries including Australia, Canada, France, and Switzerland.
Now, having taught throughout the globe, her virtual classes are filled with people from many different places enjoying an amazing blend of personalities and nationalities.
Carol is the author of Breathing Awareness and Joy: An Approach to Acting for the 21st Century; Some of These Days, a one-woman show, about vaudeville star Sophie Tucker, which was performed both in the United States and Canada; and In The Voice of Our Mothers, a 90-minute, five-character play taking us deep inside the lives of our biblical matriarchs. She spent two years working with incarcerated men in a program called Exodus at The Shawngunk Correctional Facility, a men’s maximum-security prison in upstate NY. where she introduced the men to her breathing techniques and helped to facilitate their journey in becoming good citizens in or out of prison.
LUANA PROENÇA
PATTI STILES
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Patti is an actor, improviser, director, teacher, author and playwright who’s been working professionally in theatre since 1983. She served her theatre apprenticeship at the world-renowned Loose Moose Theatre and was trained by Keith Johnstone. She has an infectious enthusiasm for improvisation. Mix this with her insightful improvisation technique, strong narrative skill and her spirit of play, and it is no wonder she is responsible for inspiring many hundreds of people to improvise. Her understanding of Johnstone’s work and philosophy, combined with her own discoveries and her wealth of experience on the world impro stage, has made her a “must have” teacher for performers and companies wishing to create spontaneous theatre with fine skill, strong narrative, heart and elegant style.
Patti is a former Artistic Director of Rapid Fire Theatre (CA), Dream Kitchen Theatre (CA), Impro Melbourne (AU) and the International Theatresports Institute (CA), and a founding member of the award winning Die Nasty – the live improvised soap opera (CA). In 2021 she released her first book Improvise Freely. It has received an enthusiastic response from improvisors, teachers and impro companies around the globe. Patti has taught and performed in North and South America, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, UAE and the Oceania region for numerous improvisation companies, festivals, and theatre schools and in the corporate arena.
TOM TOLLENAERE
Tom Tollenaere was introduced to improv in 1997 and was instantly hooked.
Tom is the founder and artistic director of RIOT, the Royal Improphonic Orchestra & Theatre, specializing in musical long-form improv theatre, and now celebrating its 13th year. Prior to that, between 1999 and 2005 he was artistic director for The Lunatics, one of Belgium’s oldest short-form collectives. He also performed with them as an improv actor from 1997 until 2006.
Tom has been training and coaching improvisers since 1999. He likes to teach and theorize about narrative long-form and long- and short-form musical improv.
As an improv musician, Tom can sometimes be seen outside of his home country of Belgium, at festivals in Europe and North America. He loves to travel to teach, or to showcase his solo performance “Cookbook.”
Tom is a guest blogger for the Dutch improblog.nl, and several of his articles have appeared—in English and Spanish—in the international improv magazine Status. He is one of the producers of the “Improovelicious” international improv festival in Leuven, Belgium. Tom has been editing and maintaining ImprovEncylopedia.org, a reference site devoted to improv, since 1999, and he has been the Music Director of Vintage Improv since 2019.