It is a performance style based of the idea that truthful communication between a performer and their audience makes for a powerful and unforgettable experience. You don't need any performance or writing experience to take these classes, just the desire to learn more about what we do and how you can do it.

General Class Info

- All classes are $250.
- All classes will meet at the Neo-Futurarium (5153 N. Ashland Ave. Chicago, IL 60640)
- Class size is limited to 15 on a first-come first-serve registration.
- To register either:

1. Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to express your interest. Then send a non-refundable registration check for half of the amount ($125) made out to "The Neo-Futurists" to The Neo-Futurarium at 5153 North Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL, 60640.

or...

2. Register and pay online to reserve your spot. Click here to register for class...

- Full payment is due at the first class.

Want to bring us to teach these workshops wherever you are? Click here!

Intro To Too Much Light: Writing and Performing the 2-minute Play

Ever wonder how Neo-Futurists create plays for Too Much Light? This workshop will explore the process and tools needed to create a 2-minute play in the Too Much Light style. We will examine specific play formulas and styles that recur on our stage. Students will write from their own life experiences and then examine staging techniques that will equip their scripts with mind-blowing, low-budget, renegade-theatrics. This class will mimic the actual weekly process of the show Too Much Light, focusing on our techniques for generating ideas and showing you how to write, stage and perform your own scripts. The class culminates in a student-written performance of 20 plays in 40 minutes in our theater - with a live audience and everything! No experience necessary. Register for this class online...

Un-reproducible Performance: Creating Theatre without a Safety Net

A Neo-Futurist approach to creating theatre that cannot be repeated! You've seen us do it all the time in TMLMTBGB and our prime-time season shows… and it’s one of the core tenets of Neo-Futurism that makes what we do so unique and challenging. This class emphasizes writing and performance, incorporating Neo-Futurist approaches to ensure that plays cannot be performed exactly the same way twice. We'll tackle interviews, improvisation, site-specific performance, audience interaction, and much more. We'll challenge you to expand your comfort zone as you explore risk-taking and creative spontaneity in order to surprise, scare, and push yourself as a writer and performer. Register for this class online...

Neo-Futurist Performance Workshop

This is a great opportunity to work with the man who coined the term "Neo-Futurism" and long-time Neo-Futurist John Pierson who have been teaching this class together for 10 years.Over the course of eight three-hour classes we will explore the basic theory and practice of Neo-Futurism - a new form of personal, immediate, non-illusory, audience-interactive performance.  You will be introduced to classic Neo-Futurist exercises in task-based action, collage, self-expression, and absolute truth on stage.  The class will also be given bi-weekly assignments to bring in original pieces exploring autobiography, audience participation, and site-specific staging.  By the end of the workshop, you will emerge with a new handle on how to create an artistic response to your life and your immediate surroundings. There is no need to have acting experience, just the boldness and creativity to stand up and express yourself.  All are welcome! Register for this class online...

Self As Metaphor

Turn your life stories into physical performance with the help of Neo-Futurists John Pierson and Kurt Chiang. In this eight-week workshop you will study and perform individual/group physical work and how it relates to the neo-futurist aesthetic using sounds, silences, simple objects and a little bit of absurdity and chaos. Class will include a basic core workout, and some fundamental mime technique. We analyze music and soundscapes and it’s affect on physical performance, so access to simple sound editing software, although it isn’t required, would be cool for you to explore outside of class in order to create your own soundscapes for pieces we do in class. Register for this class online...

Other Classes we've been known to teach:

Clown & Physical Comedy

This class in physical comedy strips away layers of self-consciousness while familiarizing students with the bare-bones of theatrical clowning. Learn to establish a direct and immediate relationship with an audience and become complicit with scene partners while moving through performance space with musicality. The class focuses on exercises in clowning, physical comedy, improvisation to heighten one's natural sense of play. Students will amaze themselves as they begin to master the skillful juxtaposition of emotional blundering and physical precision.

The Neo-Futurists Short Short Story Workshop

Whether you are a solo performer, or a reluctant public speaker, learning to tell your story quickly, powerfully and convincingly is a critical skill. Gather with a group of like minded writers and learn Neo-Futurist writing techniques that will help you experiment in new forms, control the tone of your pieces, match form to content, edit for clarity, and choose details that will make your pieces unique, effective and unforgettable. Taught by Neo-Futurists Sharon Greene (creator of Windmilled) and Jay Torrence (creator of Roustabout).