Master Teachers

Originally from Michigan, Suzi Barret got her degree in theatre at Western Michigan University, then moved to Chicago where she studied improv at The Second City and iO. From there, she headed to Amsterdam, and spent 3 years performing with Boom Chicago– or as the Dutch often call it– “De Chicago Boom Boom”. A member of the UCBTLA community since 2006, Suzi has studied with Matt Besser and Ian Roberts, and makes frequent appearances in Worst Laid Plans, Soundtrack, and “the line in the bathroom at Birds”. She also tours the country with the UCB tourco, and plays weekly with the greatest improv team in the universe: Sentimental Lady.

Mark Beltzman has been acting, writing and directing since 1981. He was a founding member of Improv Olympic in Chicago and of the legendary group, Barons Barracudas. Mark has worked and directed at the famed Second City in Chicago. He directed many improvisational and theatrical productions at Second City in Chicago and Los Angeles, including the Second City Alumni Jam. He was also instructor/director at The Second City Training Center, Improv Olympic West and the Upfront Comedy Showcase as well as all over the UK, London, Brighton and Bristol. Mark has also acquired a great deal of knowledge about the creative process of producing, writing and directing while performing in such notable proudctions as: “Mo Money, ” “Billy Madison,” “The Wedding Singer, “Seinfeld,” “Rosanne,” “House,” and “Pretty Little Liars” to name a few.

Jill Bernard has been performing with ComedySportz-Twin Cities since 1993, and is a founding member of HUGE Theater in Uptown Minneapolis. Her one-woman improv piece, Drum Machine, has been featured in over forty improv festivals. She has taught and performed improv in Norway, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Peru, Italy, Germany and over thirty-five of the United States; and also on an episode of MTV “Made.” She is one-half of the duo SCRAM with Joe Bill of the Annoyance Theater. An Artistic Associate of the Chicago Improv Festival, she has studied at the Annoyance Theater, Improv Olympic, the Brave New Workshop and other organizations; and is the recipient of the 2005 Chicago Improv Festival Avery Schreiber Ambassador of Improv Award, and the 2007 Miami Improv Festival award for Best Solo Show. She was also the winner, in January 2000, of the Executive Vice President Award for outstanding contribution to Human Resources, the highest award in the American Express Human Resources function. She’s also the voice of God, the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mary and other religious figures in a series of confirmation videos for Sparkhouse.

Eugene Cordero is an improv and sketch instructor at Upright Citizens Brigade in Hollywood. He performs every Monday night as a member of The Smokes and every Friday night in DIAMOND LION. He can also be seen performing in ASSSSCAT and QUICK & FUNNY MUSICALS. Credits include Key & Peele, Kroll Show and Arrested Development. Eugene is currently recurring on Showtime’s House of Lies.

Jimmy Carrane  has been teaching and performing improv in Chicago for more than 25 years. He is the host of the Improv Nerd podcast and co-author of “Improvising Better: A Guide to the Working Improviser.” He is the former host of Studio 312 on Chicago Public Radio. His class, the Art of Slow Comedy, won the 2012 INNY Award for Best Comedy Class/Workshop. An original member of The Annoyance Theater and Armando at The IO-Chicago, Jimmy has performed in some of Chicago most innovative and ground-breaking long-form improv shows, such as “Jazz Freddy” and “Naked” with MAD TV’s Stephanie Weir.

Rachel Hamilton is an accomplished Improvisational Actor, Storyteller and is widely regarded as one of the best Improv teachers working today. A former Mainstage cast member at The Second City, Chicago, Rachel learned her craft from and with the best, having shared the stage with geniuses like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Scott Adsit, Nia Vardalos and many more incredible artists.Rachel began teaching almost twenty years ago and she feels passionately that Improv skills are great training for both theater and for life. Her teaching style is upbeat and nurturing – she creates a safe space where everyone can feel safe and supported, and where everyone can do their best work. Rachel designs and implements improv workshops all over the country for both actors and non-actors, offering Improv as a tool for training in performance as well as for personal development. Rachel is also an Emmy-nominated writer and worked as part of the production team for the hit documentary,Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.

Brian Lohmann is the Associate Artistic Director for the award-winning Impro Theatre. He was the Theatre Games consultant for Francis Ford Coppola on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (working with Gary Oldman, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Tom Waits) and dialogue coach on Mr. Coppola’s 1996 feature Jack, with Robin Williams, Diane Lane and Jennifer Lopez. He teaches personal presentation skills for the private sector and has been the program director for public persona development in SEIU’s BOLD Institute since 2003. Brian was casting director and composer for BOO! at New York New York Hotel and Casino, a Las Vegas improv-sketch revue in which he starred from 2002-2003. Brian was the creator and Artistic Director of Pulp Playhouse, which was in residency at San Francisco’s Eureka Theater and was the first improvisation group to be invited to HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. He has written three solo shows, Johnny Lonely’s Unhappy Hour, Seasonal Help and Captaining Titanic Leadership. He was a fringe finalist at the Adelaide Fringe in Australia for Johnny Lonely, opened for Tenacious D at Largo in Los Angeles and headlined the Seattle Film Festival. International tours include London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Melbourne AUS, Seattle and San Francisco. Regional theater credits include A.C.T., The Old Globe San Diego, The Laguna Playhouse, The Magic Theater and Shakespeare Santa Cruz.He has directed full-length improvised plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Broad Stage and The Pasadena Playhouse. (next workshop: 1/9/2016)

Ann Maddox Ann Maddox has performed at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles since 2005, in several sketch shows such as Baby Hungry, Charlyne Yi Show, UCB presents, Other people’s stuff, Make That Sandwich! and most recently, the one act sketch play Talking Is Hard, which just finished it’s year long run at UCB. She has also performed improv on the Harold team Lincoln’s Bedroom and wrote sketch comedy for Maude Teams Nice Kitchen and Hot Mess. In 2011 she was a cast member of the annual CBS Diversity Showcase, featured as a performer and writer. She has written and performed her own UCB shows Machu Picchu and Battle of the Funny Bands with her music/sketch band Machu Picchu. They have appeared in stand up and variety shows such as Comedy Death Ray, Tomorrow Show, Garage Comedy and the Las Vegas Comedy Festival.
Ann Maddox has been in several commercials playing either a weird coworker and/or a stoner type. You may have seen Ann in The Office as a pregnant telemarketer, an artsy hipster in Two Broke Girls, a bubbly game show host on Fuel TV’s Stupid Face,eating bird poo on Web Soup, and a Japanese panda suited criminal in Todd Rohal’s Catechism Cataclysm (currently on Netflix)! She also often appears in College Humor and Funny or Die videos. You can catch her this fall on TBS in The Pete Holmes Show and on IFC with The Birthday Boys

David Park was born and raised in Dallas, Texas where he graduated from Lake Highlands High School. David then graduated from Colgate University in upstate New York where he performed in the improv group Charred Goosebeak. After graduation, he worked in New York and then Mexico and finally settled in Los Angeles, California. He has studied at IOwest, The Second City and at the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater and performs regularly in such groups as Dr. God, The Lusty Horde, Trophy Wife and the Friday Forty. David was recently part of the Second City Tour Company on the high seas. He has appeared on IFC, AMC, Comedy Central and the TV Guide Network. He currently works as a writer/producer and sometimes on-air talent in television production. David enjoys taking you on journeys to lands that never were and always are…

Dave Razowsky is the respected former artistic director of the Second City Los Angeles. As a performer at Second City he worked with Steve Carrel, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Dratch, and Chris Farley, among others. David has directed Second City in Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and The Second City National Touring Company. David is a consultant for Dreamworks, and has directed two of Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago theatre’s productions– RockStars, and Live at the Leidseplein – Your Privacy is Our Business. He is a member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and performed in their sold-out run The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is a co-founder of The Annoyance Theatre, and has written for The Simpsons Comic, The Simpsons nationally syndicated Sunday comic strip, and was commissioned to write a film treatment for The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening. David is the voice of Dixon, the world’s coolest adult, in ABC’s animated series, The Weekenders, and has appeared on Spin City, Roseanne, and Late Night with David Letterman as the voice of Albert Brook’s parrot.