MF GALAXY

INTERNATIONAL IMPROV ARTIST + TRAINER CREATES + CRITIQUE HUNDREDS OF STORIES PER YEAR; THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT MAKING AUDIENCE CARE; HOW IMPROV REACHES PAST FUNNY TO FIND PROFOUND MEANING Jacob Banigan is one impressive cat. He knows more about how to build and refine stories than anyone I’ve ever met, and I know a lot of writers. And yet Banigan doesn’t see himself as a writer and writes only occasionally. So how and why does he grok story like no one else? Because he’s a master improviser who’s been studying the craft since 1990 when he joined Rapid Fire Theatre in Edmonton. Sure, he also gained skills in years of creating and performing sketch comedy, including in The 11:02 Show which is where we worked together for a season, and in Gordon’s Big Bald Head, where I also worked with him one summer. But Banigan kept growing in the field, serving as Rapid Fire’s Artistic Director from 1995 to 2004, creating news plays, launching improv festivals Nos...

LINK BETWEEN IMMERSIVE THEATRE AND VIDEO GAMES, EFFECT OF EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL ON THEATRE ACROSS CANADA, WHY THIESSEN IS A DEVOTED PANTSER LISTEN/DOWNLOAD FREE Vern Thiessen’s plays are among the most produced theatre in Canada, and his work has delighted audiences across the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. His many dramas include Lenin’s Embalmers, Apple , and Vimy . He’ s written for young audiences, worked on a commission for the late Leonard Nimoy, and created an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage . He’s won the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award, the Alberta Playwrights' Network Competition, and Canada’s highest literary honour, the Governor General’s Award. Despite coming from a Mennonite family in Winnipeg, Thiessen spent seventeen years in E-Town and won the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition for Einstein’s Gift. For seven years he also directed youth and community engagement theatre education in Harlem, ...