Rick and Laura Hall

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Rick and Laura Hall

Improv Singing Workshops
with Rick and Laura Hall
All classes held at The Hideout Theatre downtown

FOUR OPTIONS!

•Intro to Improv Singing (3 hrs) Wednesday, May 10, 7-10pm
•Musical Accompaniment for Musicians (2.5 hrs) Thursday, May 11, 7-9:30pm
•Improv Singing Weekend Intensive (5 hrs) Saturday and Sunday, May 13/14, noon-2:30pm
•Advanced Improv Singing (3 hrs) Sunday, May 14 5-8pm
***Rick and Laura will also be playing in a very musical Big Bash on Saturday evening 8:30pm

MORE DETAILS: 

Intro to Improv Singing Workshop
Wednesday, May 10, 7-10pm

Have you always wondered, “How do they improvise the songs on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, or “How can I start feeling comfortable doing music improv in my shows?” If so, then join with Whose Line musical director Laura Hall, and veteran Second City improvisor Rick Hall for an Intro to Improv Singing.

Laura & Rick have taught Music Improv all over the world. They create a supportive, fun environment, starting with games and warmups to ease into singing. You’ll build vocal confidence and learn to listen to each other and the accompaniment. You’ll learn about creating characters and stories through song. Before you know it, you’ll be belting out your own great improvised songs!

Here is some of the material we’ll cover:
1. Warming up and why it’s important; the care and use of your voice.
2. Building vocal confidence: exploring melody, rhythm, discovering your natural voice, ways to help if you’re not an experienced singer.
3. Finding your own way of approaching a musical accompaniment, and your own take on the subject matter.
4. Music improv as a natural extension of scenic work: exploring character, location, story, etc. to create rich and interesting songs.
5. Ensemble singing: Listening, watching, supporting each other, taking turns, coming to a chorus, intro to harmony singing.
6. Rhyming games and exercises like “Irish Drinking Song”.

Musical Accompaniment for Musicians
Thursday, May 11, 7-9:30pm

Laura will explain and demonstrate how she approaches working with singers, how to work on different musical styles, gear options and playing with other musicians, in both long and short form improv shows. She will discuss the different functions of music in an improv show, focusing on creating songs with singers, underscoring scenes, and how scenes lead in to songs. There will be plenty of time for questions, as well as hands-on opportunities to play with singer improvisers, and get feedback. Although Laura is a pianist, all instrumentalists are welcome. Bring your own instrument if you can, and the Hideout will have a couple of keyboards on hand as well.

Improv Singing Weekend Intensive
Saturday and Sunday, May 13 & 14, noon-2:30pm

Spend two days with Rick and Laura Hall growing your Improv Singing toolkit! As a teaching team, Rick and Laura provide two unique perspectives—that of an experienced Musical Director and a seasoned actor/improviser—creating a lively, supportive environment for you to grow, explore and move out of your comfort zone, starting with warm-ups and games to help ease into singing. All in a positive setting where you can explore, stretch out, and most importantly, have fun.

Music Improv Workshop Curriculum:
1. Warming up and why it’s important, the care and use of your voice
2. Building vocal confidence: exploring melody, rhythm, discovering your natural voice, ways to help if you’re not a confident singer.
3. Finding your own way of approaching a musical accompaniment, and your own take on the subject matter.
4. Music improv as a natural extension of scenic work: using character, emotion, and relationships to create rich and interesting songs
5. Group singing: Listening, watching, taking turns, coming to a chorus, harmonies
6. Rhyming exercises and short form games
7. Musical structure and why it’s important
8. Heightening scenes to easily grow into songs.

If the group is ready, we’ll go on to:
1. Longer forms with music: Musical, Harold, Armando, Montage
2. Movement: improvising group movement and choreography
3. Advanced group singing: call & response, counter melodies, duets and trios
4. Working with different musical styles: vocal stylization and movement to enhance styles.

Advanced Improv Singing Workshop
Sunday, May 14, 5-8pm

Are you an experienced musical improviser looking for opportunities for advanced practice and new techniques? If so, then join “Whose Line Is It Anyway” musical director Laura Hall, and veteran Second City improviser Rick Hall for an Advanced Music Improv Workshop.

Here’s some of the material we’ll cover:
1. Ensemble singing: Coming to a chorus, counter melodies, call & response, duets, trios and big cast numbers, advanced harmonies.
2. Creating a strong “who” and “where” for your songs, raising the emotional stakes of a scene to “earn” a song
3. Integrating music into long forms such as Harolds, Montages and Armandos
4. Musical form and structure (and why it’s important)
5. Working with different musical styles and genres
6. Movement and staging to support a song, improvising group choreography

 

BIOS:

Rick and Laura met in Chicago in The Second City National Touring Company, and continue to write, teach and perform, both separately and together. Rick & Laura teach music improv workshops at colleges, comedy clubs, festivals and theaters around the world, bringing a unique dual perspective as an improvising actor and musician.

Laura Hall is best known as the improvisational pianist and Musical Director on all 20 seasons of the hit TV show, “Whose Line is it Anyway”, with both Drew Carey and Aisha Tyler hosting. Laura has toured extensively with “Drew Carey and the Improv All Stars” and performed with “Whose Line Live” at the Adelphi, the Palladium, and Royal Albert Hall in London.

While at The Second City, Laura was Musical Director and Composer for the Jeff Award winning E.T.C. revue, “Channel This!” She composed original musicals with The Annoyance Theater and Theater-A-Go-Go, including “Patty, Patty, Bang! Bang!” which won an L.A. Weekly award for Best New Musical. Laura has played with countless improv groups, including iO Chicago,
iO West, Theatresports, The Groundlings, Unexpected Productions (Seattle), ImprovBoston, Curious Comedy (Portland), “Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!” (L.A.), and “Hyprov” with Colin Mochrie and Asad Mecci.

Laura has composed scores and songs for several indie films, including; “Slice of Pie”, written by Rick Hall; “The Long Isolation”, recorded entirely remotely during the pandemic lockdown; two award winning holocaust documentaries, “Swimming in Auschwitz” and “After Auschwitz”; a romantic comedy, “Anatomy of a Breakup” written by Judy Minor; and “The Wheels on the Bus” children’s video series, starring Roger Daltrey as an 8 ft dragon.

Laura has recorded “Improv Karaoke”, fully produced tracks to help improvisers learn music improv. She’s created an in-depth online video course, “A Musician’s Guide to Improv Comedy” and a book, “The Improv Comedy Musician: The Ultimate Guide to Playing Music with an Improv Group” which both teach musicians the specialized skill of playing for improv.

Rick Hall was a founding member of Chicago’s Improv Institute. At The Second City he created and performed in two Main Stage shows, “John Paul Sartre & Ringo” and “Catch 27”. Rick uses his improv skills as a host/presenter at meetings and corporate events, as well as auditions, television shows and commercials.

Rick was a series regular on the improv-based TV show “The Factory”. He played Agent Johnson on 28 episodes of the hit Disney show “KC Undercover”, and has been on many other television shows including “NCIS”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “24”, “The Middle”, “Key & Peele” and “Seinfeld”. He’s been in commercials for AT&T, Centrum, Sabra Hummus and many more. Recently, Rick can be seen on the indie film circuit as Detective Chowder in “The Long Isolation”, written and directed by Deb LaCusta and Dan Castellaneta from The Simpsons.

Rick is an accomplished writer and storyteller, headlining at “The Reboot”, “The Otter Story Hour”, “Story Salon”, and “Open Words Expo”. His one man show “Pigboy”, featuring stories about growing up on a farm in Central Illinois, was chosen for the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and enjoyed successful runs in L.A., Chicago, and across the Midwest. Rick has recorded a cd of several of his stories and turned one of them, “Slice of Pie”, into a short film, which won numerous awards on the film festival circuit.