Workshops

Wade can tailor these workshops to suit any time frame, any audience.

Improv as an Art form

Live Gallery

Improv Principles 101

When you understand the principles of good improvisation, you can apply them to any format or style of improv. Learn the 5 Foundations of Collaborative Creativity and how they apply to your style of improv.

Being Present

When you are fully present you improvise from perception, not cognition. This workshop teaches you how to get out of your head and be present with yourself so you can be fully present and connect with your partner.

Play Up!

Discover (or re-discover) the joy of improvisation. Learn how to turn off the critical voice in your head and increase your playfulness. A great tonic for those improvisers who feel a little stale and need a joyful boost.

Power Plays

A workshops that looks at power within relationships on stage. There’s a focus on non-verbal communication and the dynamic energetic interplay between actors. Learn how you can build tension in the scene and enhance your physical presence on stage.

Making Better Choices

Get the most out of your scene work by learning how to connect deeper with your fellow improviser and play for higher dramatic stakes. This is a powerful workshop suited for actors and improvisers who enjoy long form and narrative form.

It's the Story Stupid

It doesn’t matter whether you do short form, long form or narrative form; it’s all about the story. Learn the 5 rules of storytelling that will take your improv performances up to the next level.

Under the Hood

Getting sick of short form and just playing for gags? Revolutionise your performance by learning the comic motor of improv games. This workshop is ideal for troupes and companies that focus on or want to up their game on short form improv.

The Idea Generator

Discover how improv is a form of active mindfulness that liberates you from yourself. When you are free you unlock your innate creativity and improve your spontaneity. After this workshop you’ll never be stuck for an idea again.

The Cinema Game

Learn Jean-Louis Barreault’s actors training exercise The Cinema Game. This workshop teaches you everything you need to know about acting (except voice). Learn to develop complementary characters, strong needs, powerful transitions, subtlety, physical awareness, team work and create wonderful stories all in silence. This workshop is not for beginners and requires a minimum of three hours.

Improv Shakespeare

Do you know your ‘thy’ from your ‘thou’? This workshop demystifies the works of William Shakespeare and makes the world, the language and the characters accessible for you as an improviser. While suitable for all, this workshop has a strong acting focus and will build your knowledge, skill and confidence to perform improvised Shakespeare.

Play Time

Want to learn how to improvise a full length play? It doesn’t matter what genre or style of play you’re doing whether it’s Chekov, Austen, Molière, a film noir or romantic comedy - learn the structure, the beats and process required to stage an unscripted play. This workshops covers narrative principles required to entertain an audience with one story arc for an hour or more.

Fists ‘n Blades

Add more impact to your improv shows by learning the basics in stage fighting and sword play. It really adds the ‘wow’ factor to your shows when you know how to safely head butt someone and throw them into the wall. Wade draws on his 30+ years of martial art training and stunt fighting experience to cover stage punches, kicks, throws, and if desired, sword fighting.

Feedback Please

Improv performers, troupes and companies can stagnant without honest feedback. There is little to no growth without knowing how you’re tracking but people can be wary about providing you with candid feedback.

This workshop gives you the structure on how to ask, give and receive feedback. It also provides the Improv Performance Inventory designed by Wade Jackson, so you can target your area of growth.

You Can Handle the Truth!

Deepen your scene work and the audience’s experience by playing the emotional truth in your improv scenes. With subtle shifts away from gag improv into playing the reality of the moment, your characters become three dimensional, you relate better to your scene partner and improv actually becomes a whole lot easier to perform.

Improv as a Business

Corporate Trainer Masterclass

This workshop is for those trainers who use or want to use improv in business. Learn how to generate an income using the art form to transform people in business. Prepare for your mind to be blown.

The Art of Production

Learn the business behind the art. Do you run a troupe, theatre or festival? Get the low down on how to successfully build a brand, develop audiences, get sponsors and create a high performance environment for your performers from someone who’s been there and done that.

Funny Business

Wade openly shares his story how he used improv to go from a poor starving actor in his 20’s to a successful entrepreneur. You’ll learn the pitfalls, the struggles and the joys of living an improv life. The presentation includes a Q&A session and can also be suitable to a panel discussion.

Improv as Personal Development

Improv Your Life

This is a workshop where Wade puts on his high performance coaching hat and shows how you can use improv to enhance your life, physically, mentally, emotionally (and depending on your beliefs) spiritually. This is not your standard improv workshop as it focuses on using improv to build resilience, cultivate mental strength and live a value-aligned life.

"Wade has a fantastic presence, is very good at creating harmony in the group and getting people’s energies lifted and in sync. He is very skilled in explaining the techniques and why we were doing things in a certain way and I loved hearing the history of improv and background to the art."

What experienced improvisers say

"I've taken part in shows and workshops with Wade Jackson and was simply amazed by his great generosity as a player and teacher. The sense of sharing and transmitting ideas and concepts, are those of a qualified teacher, efficient, full of wisdom and improv skills.
Wade masters and loves his art deeply, that’s for me, the reason why he makes his fellow players or students feel comfortable on stage and in workshops. These qualities combined with experience and open-mindedness enable him to convey his point of view with strength. He has clearly been a turning point in my conception of spontaneous theatre by bringing positivism, the feeling of togetherness and self-confidence to his partners or pupils.
One can only be grateful to have met such a character, capable of sharing rather than only giving. I’d advise having him as a pocket master in life and on stage!"

Flavien Reppert, Artistic Director, Theatre de l’oignon, Strasbourg, France

"Wade is a wonderful teacher. He knows how to get the essence of a story and is very understanding. What I like in particular is his low profile way of teaching. He is a man who finds genuine pleasure in sharing his knowledge, without expecting anything in return. He offers room for dialogue and gets people thinking. He is convincing and at the same time does not impose his ideas. I see similarities with the way he leads The Improv Bandits, a group of competent players. He himself is a very observant player with a lot of insight in stories and a playful touch. And... blessed with incredible Shakespearian poetry skills!"

Nathalie Van Renterghem, Inspinazie Theatre, Leuven, Belgium

“I attended a workshop called The Idea Generator given by Wade Jackson. Although I had quite high expectations due to the name of the workshop I got pleasantly surprised by how Wade immediately took us down to what improvisation is all about; The principles of creativity, the cycle of learning and the storytelling. He exemplified everything with different simple exercises in which all the participants were involved. I realized that this man has got some kind of special quality as a teacher that I have not experienced before.
Inspired by this I attended another workshop given by Wade Jackson called The Cinema Game. This was absolutely mind-blowing. All the essential skills you need as an improviser and even as an actor collected in one exercise, The Cinema Game, simple yet very demanding and powerful. It was about how to develop complementary characters, strong needs, transitions, subtlety, physical awareness, teamwork and to create stories without using words until it is absolutely necessary at the very end. I believe Wade is the best teacher one can get to learn how to get the most out of this exercise.”

Niklas Häggblom, Master of Theatre and Drama, The Theatre Academy of Helsinki, Finland

“Wade Jackson has a brilliant mind for the art of improv. He is a phenomenal performer and one who can elevate artists through his teaching of the art form.”

Garrick Paikai, Artistic Director, On the Spot, Hawaii

“Wade Jackson has performed and taught at Improvaganza: The Hawaii Festival of Improvisation many times. His depth of knowledge, supportive teaching style and sense of humor has made him one of the most in demand instructors we've ever had. We would have him back in a heartbeat and are envious of the people in New Zealand who have the opportunity to watch his performances and take his classes all year round!”

R. Kevin Doyle, Director, Schools of the Arts, Mid-Pacific Institute