Improv Your Podcasts (Factual or Fictional)

This two-part workshop by relational therapist Neil Jones and award-winning writer, Peter Reynolds, will look at the ways theatrical improv games and techniques can be used to bring spontaneous storytelling to your work, be it an interview-based podcast, or a fictional podcast (single narrator or full-cast audio drama).

Lots of interview questions get you factual answers, but are you missing the questions you could be asking that would prompt your guests to tell a far more compelling story? Learn how combining proper preparation with curiosity and a willingness to go off-script can lead to far more memorable interviews. No more start and stop. No more dead-ends. Go deeper and co-create something unexpected with your guests.

For fictional podcast creators: Do you ever feel stuck? Writing feeling “flat”? If you need a creative nudge, this workshop is for you. Using easy-to-learn improv games and very short writing sprints during the workshop you’ll learn how to:
• Start at the beginning (No, it’s not obvious)
• Give your characters character
• Favour imagination over research (at least on the first draft)
• Give your dialogue life by focusing on emotion and intent
• Trust in tangents to find out “what’s next?” in your story
• Generate ideas, plots, and scenarios fast! Silence your Inner Critic and bust through writer’s block.

Both halves of this workshop will give you lots of ideas, whatever form of podcast you work on. Audience participation is encouraged. ABSOLUTELY NO IMPROV EXPERIENCE IS NEEDED. Resources and writing exercises you can do on your own time will be provided