Erfahrene Trainer*innen teilen ihr Wissen in Workshops mit viel Praxis und individuellen Tipps. Ganz gleich welches Level — aus den FLIEGENDE FUNKEN Workshops nimmst Du garantiert etwas für Deine Gruppe, Dein eigenes Spiel und die Bühne mit.
We are offering Workshops in German and in English.
Bedeutung der Levels:
A‑Level: unter 2 Jahren Impropraxis
B‑Level: ab 2 Jahren Impropraxis
C‑Level: ab 5 Jahren Impropraxis
Haftung:
Für selbstverschuldete Unfälle, Garderobe, Schaden am Eigentum und abhanden gekommene Gegenstände kann keine Haftung übernommen werden.
Rücktrittsregelung:
Ein Rücktritt von der Anmeldung bis 5 Wochen vor Festivalbeginn ist ohne Verlust des Teilnehmerbetrages möglich (abzüglich 20 € Bearbeitungsgebühr), bei einem Rücktritt bis 4 Wochen vorher fallen 50 % des TN-Betrages als Ausfallhonorar an, danach ist der volle Beitrag fällig. Wird vom Teilnehmenden ein Ersatzteilnehmer für den gebuchten WS-Platz gefunden, fällt lediglich die Bearbeitungsgebühr an, ein Ausfallhonorar muss dann nicht gezahlt werden.
WIR SURFEN AUF DER FEEDBACKSCHLEIFE!
Improtheater lebt von Kontakt und Austausch, sowohl zwischen den Spielenden als auch zwischen Bühne und Zuschauenden. Die berühmte Feedbackschleife zwischen Publikum und Darstellenden ist ein Wunder und eine Möglichkeit, von der das literarische Theater nur träumen kann. Gleichzeitig ist sie aber auch die Quelle schlimmer Deformationen, wie schon unsere Gründerfiguren immer und immer wieder betont haben: Viola Spolin beklagte den „Exhibitionismus“ der Schauspielenden und Paul Sills, so wird berichtet, riss sie von der Bühne, wenn sie versuchten, witzig zu sein. Keith Johnstone warnte davor, sich in einen „sabbernden Komiker“ zu verwandeln, wenn man vom Gelächter der Zuschauenden abhängig wird. Kein Zweifel: Die Feedbackschleife kann uns auch böse unter sich begraben. Wie schützen wir uns davor, uns langfristig in ja-sagende, immer nur am billigsten Zuschauergeschmack orientierte Animationsmaschinen zu werden? Welche inneren, künstlerischen Werte müssen wir entwickeln? Gibt es ein „künstlerisches Gewissen“ und wie kann man es stärken? Haben die Spielenden eine Würde und wo wird sie durch Vorgaben des Publikums angegriffen (und warum)? Wann und wie darf ich, sollte ich, muss ich NEIN sagen? In diesem Workshop lernen die Spielenden, dass sie ihren inneren Kompass nicht verlieren müssen, um auf der Improbühne im engen Kontakt mit den Zuschauenden zu sein. Die Übungen vermitteln ein Gespür dafür, wie wir rauskommen aus dem Sog ins Seichte, ohne das Publikum zu verlieren.
Wann & Wo
Fr. 18.9.2026 — 14.00–17.00 Uhr
Sa. 19.9.2026 — 10.30–13.30 und 14.30–17.30 Uhr
So. 20.9.2026 — 11.30–14.30 Uhr
Ort: Kulturzentrum Lagerhaus, Schildstr. 12–19, 28203 Bremen
Leitung: Nicole Erichsen & Gunter Lösel
Titel: WIR SURFEN AUF DER FEEDBACKSCHLEIFE! (12 Stunden) Level B (Deustch)
Nicole Erichsen
ist Schauspielerin und Trainerin für improvisierte Theaterkunst. Sie ist Mitgründerin des Improtheater Bremens. Neben dem Einsatz im Theater sieht sie die Fähigkeit zur Improvisation als wertvolle Ressource zur Persönlichkeitsentwicklung und zur Förderung von gemeinschaftlicher Kreativität.
Gunter Lösel
ist Schauspieler, Theaterwissenschaftler und Psychologe. Neben seiner Theaterpraxis hat er starke theoretische Interessen: Er hat mehrere Bücher über Improvisation im Theater veröffentlicht und zu diesem Thema promoviert («Das Spiel mit dem Chaos. Als Theaterforscher beschäftigt er sich derzeit im Forschungsprojekt «The Answering Machine» mit sprachfähiger KI auf der Improbühne.
Gemeinsam leiten sie die 2‑jährige berufsbegleitende Improausbildung K.I.S.S.
Introduction to Musical Improv: Finding Your Voice
In this supportive and joyful workshop, we’ll establish a shared musical vocabulary while exploring common song structures, tropes, and techniques that help us build tuneful improvised songs.
This workshop is open to improvisers of all backgrounds and experience levels. Whether you’re an experienced musical improviser or someone interested in beginning to explore character work through song, this session offers an opportunity to strengthen your musical instincts and gain confidence collaborating with a musician.
No singing experience is necessary. Together we’ll learn to quiet our inner critic, support one another, and craft duets and group numbers—eventually building toward a fully improvised musical montage.
When & Where
Fr. 18.9.2026 — 14.00–17.00 Uhr
Location: Verein Vorwärts — Violenstraße 25, 28195 Bremen
Instructor: Rachel Bouton with Chris Frerichs
Title: Introduction to Musical Improv: Finding Your Voice (3 hours) Level A, B, C (English)
Rachel Bouton
is an improviser, host, and storyteller based in New York City. After completing her degree in classical voice, and appearing in operas, choirs, plays and musicals across the western United States, she moved to New York City to pursue her love of improv comedy at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. She spent four years performing improvised musicals in exotic locations like Michigan and North Carolina as a cast member of the touring musical comedy show Broadway’s Next Hit Musical. She is also a founding cast member of Vern, one of New York’s longest running musical improv companies, most recently completing a successful off-Broadway run in Vern: Off Broadway. She can also be seen weekly performing as part of the Magnet Theatre’s Musical Megawatt. She’s a Moth StorySLAM winner and GrandSLAM performer and a frequent performer as part of the Written in Brooklyn storytelling series.
She loves to share the joy of musical improv through coaching and teaching, bringing a focus on musicality, character, authenticity and storytelling to her work as a teacher. She formerly led the musical improv curriculum at The Pit in NYC and has taught musical improv throughout Europe and the United States (Hoopla; London, Whalefish; Bremen, Comedy Cafe; Berlin).
When she isn’t on stage making up musicals, she designs events and experiences for organizations that have included TED, Atlas Obscura, Grist Magazine, Science Friday, and The New York Times. As a producer she works with mission aligned organizations to craft experiences that invite audiences to collectively create a better world, rooted in equity, justice, sustainability, curiosity, and community care.
Rachel is also a big trivia and gameshow geek and has appeared as a contestant on $100,000 Pyramid and Who Wants to be a Millionaire (spoiler: she did not become a millionaire). She lives in Queens, NY with her husband Patrick (also an improviser), son George (will probably become an improviser), and two cats (both standups).
Chris Frerichs
The musical education of Christian Frerichs (*1981 in Leer, Germany) is primarily thanks to his ever growing record collection from “Amos, Tori” to “Zappa, Frank” (and the support and patience of his parents). As a teenager and young adult, improvisation and playfulness was always an integral part of him learning an instrument and writing songs. Being an improv fan years prior to “becoming an improv musician” the principles and methods of improvisation find their way into his guitar teaching, songwriting or singing in kindergarten on a daily basis. Chris is part of the german improv groups “Wat Ihr Wollt” (since 2009) and “Improtheater Bremen” (since 2015) and teaches improv music/singing since 2017.
Intermediate Musical Improv: Story and Song
In this two-part, full-day workshop, we’ll root into our own taste, identity, and experience to discover new paths toward authentic stories, lived-in characters, and compelling improvised songs. Open to improvisers of all experience levels, but newer musical improvisers are strongly encouraged to attend Introduction to Musical Improv: Finding Your Voice before joining this session.
Part 1 — SONG
A great song has the power to bring you to tears or get you on your feet. In this session, we’ll tap into our own musical tastes to identify what makes a song truly work. We’ll play with dynamics, melody, rhythm, rhyme, and texture in improvised music, to create music that sounds like something we would put on repeat in our headphones.
Part 2 — STORY
Everyone has a story to tell, including our improvised characters. We’ll draw from our lived experiences and personal identities to develop characters with histories, philosophies, and honest desires. By pairing truthful storytelling with musical authenticity, we’ll discover how songs can emerge organically within scenes, driving emotional momentum and shaping the direction of a story.
When & Where
Sa. 19.9.2026 — 10.30–13.30 and 14.30–17.30 h
Ort: Verein Vorwärts — Violenstraße 25, 28195 Bremen
Instructor: Rachel Bouton with Chris Frerichs
Title: Introduction to Musical Improv: Finding Your Voice (6 hours) Level B (English)
Rachel Bouton
is an improviser, host, and storyteller based in New York City. After completing her degree in classical voice, and appearing in operas, choirs, plays and musicals across the western United States, she moved to New York City to pursue her love of improv comedy at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. She spent four years performing improvised musicals in exotic locations like Michigan and North Carolina as a cast member of the touring musical comedy show Broadway’s Next Hit Musical. She is also a founding cast member of Vern, one of New York’s longest running musical improv companies, most recently completing a successful off-Broadway run in Vern: Off Broadway. She can also be seen weekly performing as part of the Magnet Theatre’s Musical Megawatt. She’s a Moth StorySLAM winner and GrandSLAM performer and a frequent performer as part of the Written in Brooklyn storytelling series.
She loves to share the joy of musical improv through coaching and teaching, bringing a focus on musicality, character, authenticity and storytelling to her work as a teacher. She formerly led the musical improv curriculum at The Pit in NYC and has taught musical improv throughout Europe and the United States (Hoopla; London, Whalefish; Bremen, Comedy Cafe; Berlin).
When she isn’t on stage making up musicals, she designs events and experiences for organizations that have included TED, Atlas Obscura, Grist Magazine, Science Friday, and The New York Times. As a producer she works with mission aligned organizations to craft experiences that invite audiences to collectively create a better world, rooted in equity, justice, sustainability, curiosity, and community care.
Rachel is also a big trivia and gameshow geek and has appeared as a contestant on $100,000 Pyramid and Who Wants to be a Millionaire (spoiler: she did not become a millionaire). She lives in Queens, NY with her husband Patrick (also an improviser), son George (will probably become an improviser), and two cats (both standups).
Chris Frerichs
The musical education of Christian Frerichs (*1981 in Leer, Germany) is primarily thanks to his ever growing record collection from “Amos, Tori” to “Zappa, Frank” (and the support and patience of his parents). As a teenager and young adult, improvisation and playfulness was always an integral part of him learning an instrument and writing songs. Being an improv fan years prior to “becoming an improv musician” the principles and methods of improvisation find their way into his guitar teaching, songwriting or singing in kindergarten on a daily basis. Chris is part of the german improv groups “Wat Ihr Wollt” (since 2009) and “Improtheater Bremen” (since 2015) and teaches improv music/singing since 2017.
THE ART OF COLLABORATION — ORGANIC MONTAGE
This workshop will focus on organic play as an ensemble. More being… less thinking! Hone your ability to simplify the game of a scene and blow it out to the Nth degree. All exercises are set to identify premise, celebrate a central game, and attack it as an ensemble. The organic montage is abstract, amorphous and ever changing, stirring themes, games, stories and character into a thick soup of truth and humor. This form demands group ownership, bold choices, physicality, split second agreement and attack.
When & Where
Sa. 19.9.2026 — 13:00–17:30 Uhr (incl. 30 Min. break)
Location: Verein Vorwärts — Violenstraße 25, 28195 Bremen
Instructor: Christian Capozzoli
Title: THE ART OF COLLABORATION — ORGANIC MONTAGE (4 hours) Level B (English)
Christian Capozzoli
Christian Capozzoli is an American actor, author and improviser whose improv methods are taught the world over. He has a B.F.A. in Writing, Literature and Publishing from Emerson College and a Masters in Literature and Education from Harvard University.
Christian Capozzoli has had the fortune to work with top comedic voices in TV and Film, including Stephen Colbert, Lena Dunham, Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler. Capozzoli directed the Amazon special “Something from Nothing” and has worked along side legendary comedic instructors Mick Napier, Charna Halpern and Armando Diaz.
Christian Capozzoli has been honored and recognized as one of the top improv minds and instructors in the world. His one man show Nutso Facto, toured North America and Europe, receiving rave reviews from both the New York Times and Post.
His Aerodynamics of Yes: The Improviser’s Manual provides readers with the essential tools to unlock imagination and celebrate each other and his latest Improv book “IMPROV: THE ART OF COLLABORATION” is already a staple in college acting schools.
Check out his latest book!
AERODYNAMICS OF YES
Get familiar with the Aerodynamics of Yes the fundamentals of 4TRACK created by Christian Capozzoli. This is a course designed to help performers build upon prior improv training. It sets out to create a bedrock foundation for you as a self reliant, team-playing, fun-chasing improviser. This is for improvisers that want a refreshing new slant on the way they play. Learn to advance and expand your ideas and weave them into rewarding scenes and narratives, with pronounced games.
When & Where
Sunday 20.9.2026 — 11.30–14.30 Uhr
Location: Kulturzentrum Lagerhaus
Instructor: Christian Capozzoli
Title: AERODYNAMICS OF YES (3 hours) Level A (English)
Christian Capozzoli
Christian Capozzoli is an American actor, author and improviser whose improv methods are taught the world over. He has a B.F.A. in Writing, Literature and Publishing from Emerson College and a Masters in Literature and Education from Harvard University.
Christian Capozzoli has had the fortune to work with top comedic voices in TV and Film, including Stephen Colbert, Lena Dunham, Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler. Capozzoli directed the Amazon special “Something from Nothing” and has worked along side legendary comedic instructors Mick Napier, Charna Halpern and Armando Diaz.
Christian Capozzoli has been honored and recognized as one of the top improv minds and instructors in the world. His one man show Nutso Facto, toured North America and Europe, receiving rave reviews from both the New York Times and Post.
His Aerodynamics of Yes: The Improviser’s Manual provides readers with the essential tools to unlock imagination and celebrate each other and his latest Improv book “IMPROV: THE ART OF COLLABORATION” is already a staple in college acting schools.
Check out his latest book!
Resistance: Saying Yes to the Tension, Saying Yes to Reality
“Yes, and” for Adults
Improvisation is theatre, and audiences come with expectations: they want to recognise themselves, their struggles, and their relationships on stage. In real life, people resist change. They hesitate, deny, delay, and try to remain balanced even when transformation is inevitable. That resistance—when played truthfully—is where tension lives, and where scenes gain weight, meaning, and emotional impact.
Resistance is an intensive workshop focused on developing the skills that allow performers to say yes to tension rather than bypass it. Participants learn how to stretch moments of uncertainty, reluctance, and internal conflict instead of resolving them too quickly. By resisting certain opportunities and allowing them to mature, actors create higher stakes and more satisfying breakthroughs.
The work sharpens ensemble awareness, narrative sense, and audience sensitivity, reframing “Yes, and” as an agreement with what is obvious: feelings, impulses, circumstance, and truth. The workshop includes physical and musical warm-ups to explore the bodily experience of tension, alongside focused scene work with clear, constructive feedback.
When & Where
Thursday 17.9.2026 — 13:00–17:30 Uhr (incl. 30 Min. break)
Location: 3. Etage Lagerhaus — Schildstraße 12–16, 28203 Bremen
Instructor: Andrew Hefler
Title: RESISTANCE: Saying Yes to the Tension, Saying Yes to Reality (4 hours) Level B (English)
Andrew Hefler
Andrew Hefler is a beast performer, director and trainer working in theatre, music, film and television for nearly thirty years. He’s an actor at the National Theatre of Hungary, who has performed in more than one-hundred episodes of television, over 60 commercials, more than 20 films and sold the rights of 3 TV series. He’s also the founder of Grund Theatre and a long-standing member of the improvisational trio Scallabouche. As chief trainer and training designer, Andrew is providing skillbuilding for over 100 companies and thousands of people in communication, improv and acting, including media professionals and politicians in 15 countries, as well as universities, NGOs and charitable organisations.
Part 1:
The Fight for Normalcy
Know how to perform normality.
Training that normality is a conceit and we will learn how to play it.
It is often the case that impro actors feel immense pressure to be interesting or funny or weird to make scenes watchable. This is rarely a good approach. Too often in improvised work actors get nervous or overexcited and take things way outside and get downright wacky. This, while liberating, exhilarating or otherwise has the ability to confuse or frustrate viewers and other players ultimately trivializing or leaving the scenes meaningless or worse yet senseless. This course explores and exercises our skill set as actors to dare to be normal, balanced and functional in scenes setting them up for far greater risk and reward while giving the viewer real likeable, believable characters to pull for. It works through my principle of two actor = 1 beast as the temptation for crazy actions is to magnetise or lure other players to follow suit often leading to mindless dribble. Here through authentic normalcy we are liberated to more truthfully and starkly portray truly risky or odd moments from lives of characters or offbeat people on stage.
Part 2:
Taboos, Misbehaviour and Challenging Themes on Stage
This training is about putting risqué or unsavory behavior on stage with consequence.
Do you feel like improvised shows often rehash the same types of scenes over and over again? Do you ever leave them after either playing or as an audience member without the real ability to remember what it is you saw or why you saw it? This is in the cards. It’s part of working unscripted. There is a strong argument to be made for very light entertainment. Still, the stage is a dangerous place. It should not lack consequence. It should be dangerous to the characters. This is theater’s unique, great power. The audience buys a ticket to see others struggle with things that they see and experience too. Theater has a great chance to reflect versions of realities and fantasies that the viewers know, understand and are tickled to see others suffer. This course is about making risky choices. It is a course that wants to turn up the temperature on risk and relationships. It is a course that wants to embolden actors to bring pressing questions about people and our times to the stage. There will be numerous exercises examining the skills on how to get piquant or pressing topics out in the open and examined. It will look at how to play informed characters that champion philosophies or feelings quite the opposite of your own. It will look to define technique that can put controversial or troubling content on stage while handling it sensitively and poignantly. There will be a strong mix of group and duo exercises eventually leading to focused scene work or even simple formats for plays. Very interactive workshop that will be sensitive to everyone’s views and understanding. It will be very technically driven with a lot of practical work and stage time. It will certainly include a lot of candid
constructive feedback.
When & Where
Fri 18.9.2026 — 10:30–13:30 & 14:30–17:30 Uhr
Sat 19.9.2026 — 10:30–13:30 & 14:30–17:30 Uhr
Location: 3. Etage Lagerhaus — Schildstraße 12–16, 28203 Bremen
Instructor: Andrew Hefler
Title: THE FIGHT FOR NORMALCY & TABOOS, MISBEHAVIOUR AND CHALLENGING THEMES ON STAGE (12 hours) Level C (English)
Andrew Hefler
Andrew Hefler is a beast performer, director and trainer working in theatre, music, film and television for nearly thirty years. He’s an actor at the National Theatre of Hungary, who has performed in more than one-hundred episodes of television, over 60 commercials, more than 20 films and sold the rights of 3 TV series. He’s also the founder of Grund Theatre and a long-standing member of the improvisational trio Scallabouche. As chief trainer and training designer, Andrew is providing skillbuilding for over 100 companies and thousands of people in communication, improv and acting, including media professionals and politicians in 15 countries, as well as universities, NGOs and charitable organisations.
