(Sarasota, FL) Taking Improv from the stage to the office, FST kicks off its new Corporate Training program. Think about it. What factors make up a positive work environment? Positive can-do attitudes, open and effective communication, and improv of course. That’s right. Improv is not just an actor’s game. It’s for everyone. It’s a chance to teach the skills necessary for your teams to listen, collaborate, and succeed. Any groups interested in a Corporate Training workshop may contact Will Luera by email at [email protected] or by phone at 941-366-9017 ext. 355.
During a typical Corporate Training workshop, participants can expect a memorable experience filled with comedy and comradery. Workshops begin with a brief description of the concept, techniques, and rules of improv and their relationship to team building, creative organizational growth and development. Next, the trainers engage participants in a number of carefully designed improv exercises illustrating the benefits of creative collaboration and productive risk taking. As the workshop progresses our trainers pose engaging, interactive questions designed to build clear connections and associations. The final segment of the workshop focuses on generating specific ideas and commitments about how the creative tools and team building skills of their improv training will translate to work and life.
At the helm of FST Corporate Training is Director of Improvisation, Will Luera. Having worked in the technological industry for years, Luera approaches this training not as an actor, but as a fellow working man. “It’s a faster moving world where employees are not just cogs in a machine, but creative contributors in rapidly evolving work environments. Improvisational training has become a necessity for the 21st century workplace. Recent features in Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Slate.com, and many other sources praise the benefits of workplace improvisational training. We here at FST recognize these benefits and are proud to launch a world-class corporate training program. It’s built on the pillars of improvisation that are sure to benefit the companies of the Sun Coast of any size or industry. We will have off-the-shelf solutions focused on team building, creative thinking, conflict resolution, and more. Or we can create a custom solution built specifically for your company culture and personnel. For the last 15 years I’ve been working with companies, universities, and individuals all over the United States and around the world. I look forward to sharing the gift and power of applied improvisation in the workplace to the businesses in and around Sarasota,” stated Luera.
Creating a safe atmosphere to enable even the shyest members of each team, business, or organization remains at the core of this program. Providing the validation to take gentle risks in the collaborative cause of humor is what it’s all about. Seminars are designed to improve skills in areas such as public speaking, creative thinking, and group conflict and growth. FST’s Corporate Training program allows for business professionals to discover new ways of working together to promote the best possible working environment. Any groups interested in their own corporate training industry night may contact Will Luera by email at [email protected] or by phone at
941-366-9017 ext. 355.
Workshops offered:
Public Speaking:
Focuses on the subtle body and vocal language cues that are crucial for any individual who speaks in public or in front of large groups. This workshop focuses on what an individual can do to appear more confident in what they are presenting, while also being aware of the group they are presenting to. The learning experience has individuals speaking in front of their classmates while the instructor provides them valuable side-coaching on how they can improve their presentation.
Active Listening:
Works with participants on their ability to absorb content when engaging in one-to-one meetings or large group seminars. The workshop focuses on how an individual can make note of highlights in a presentation and turn those highlights into engaging questions. This skill can be valuable for a manager who interacts with people that all require different levels of attention and needs or an employee who interacts with many customers a day. The learning experience has individuals engaging with each other in several different ways while their instructor asks them to focus on different aspects of the conversation.
Team Building:
Highlights the key principles essential for successful innovation and collaboration in the workplace. Participants feel inspired and fully supported while taking risks, learning new skills, and scaling barriers that block creativity and innovation. This interactive and energizing learning experience is strictly “hands on,” enabling participants to access the dynamics of creativity rather than merely listening to a lecture.
Creative Thinking:
Provides a direct path to creativity by scaling the boundaries of stagnant convention that so often constrict creativity and deplete the spirit of innovation. Driven by the essential ingredient of creativity and innovation – curiosity – Creative Thinking constructs an atmosphere in which novel ideas are generated, embraced, and successfully implemented. Just minutes into the training, participants are engaged in the experience of interactive discovery enabling them to not only “think outside of the box” but successfully interact out of the box as well.
What’s so Funny?:
The principles and structures of improvisation celebrate laughter and the human spirit. This seminar demonstrates that, in business and in life, humor can inspire creativity and nourish collaboration. Employing the collaborative technology of improv, businesses, organizations, and teams delight in a dynamic process of interactive discovery, leading them to the possibilities created when their “inner censor” is disarmed. This training seminar is completely interactive, demonstrating the benefits of integrating improv humor into management, sales, marketing, customer service and virtually any other business function.
Performing Every Day:
Designed to give business leaders, management, sales forces, customer service personnel, marketing staff, trainers, and other professional communicators new, dynamic strategies that will immediately enhance their communication skills. Memorable and powerful business communication is an art form that requires a new, “live” performance every day.
Transforming Conflict
Addresses the process of conflict resolution through the unique adaptation of the structures and tools of improvisation to transport individuals, teams, and businesses away from destructive divergence and toward creative convergence. This interactive training seminar addresses the classic business and organizational dilemma: Will conflict (and its resolution) become incorporated into a dynamic creative process, or will it subvert the corporate vision and ultimately destroy the potential for innovation?
Group Transition and Growth:
Utilizes the principles and tools of improvisation to address the challenge of revitalizing any business, organization, or team experiencing a transitional event. The collaborative nature of improv combined with its framework of positive humor and interactivity can provide an effective vehicle for bypassing the resistance that often accompanies a major change or transition. Improvisation fosters skills in communication, flexible thinking, collaborative interaction, and creativity. Success in any improv endeavor is directly related to the cooperation and collaboration of its participants.
The Art of Management:
Proposes that the mechanics of successful improv and successful business essentially parallel each other. The purpose of any improv experience is to give two or more people a task to complete within an unpredictable and unplanned framework. They all engage in solving a problem while creating or discovering something new within a given set of constraints.
About Will luera
A versatile, solutions-driven IT Generalist with over 15 years of experience in project management, software QA, network administration and technical documentation, Luera has been a pivotal resource for leading firms such as Informix Software and e-Travel.com. His experience includes a solid expertise in Windows/Linux/UNIX LAN infrastructure environments, HTML coding, configuration/release management and software testing.
Luera is currently the Director of Improvisation at Florida Studio Theatre and the Artistic Director Emeritus of ImprovBoston (winner of multiple “Best of Boston” Awards). The former Director of the INNY-nominated ImprovBoston Mainstage cast, he also serves as the Producing Artistic Director of Atomica Arts, Artistic Director of the Pilsen Improv Festival, Artistic Adviser to the Women in Comedy Festival, Artistic Associate of the Chicago Improv Festival, and part-time faculty for the theater department at Boston College. A globally renowned improv and theater actor, director and instructor, Luera performs and teaches regularly all across North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
About Florida Studio Theatre
Known as Sarasota’s Contemporary Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre was founded in 1973 by Jon Spelman. Starting out as a small touring company, FST traveled to places such as migrant camps and prisons. The company then acquired the former Woman’s Club building, becoming the first permanent venue. Shortly after Richard Hopkins arrived, the building was purchased and renamed The Keating Theatre. In the years that followed, Florida Studio Theatre established itself as a major force in American Theatre, presenting contemporary theatre in its five theatre venues: the Keating Theatre, the Gompertz Theatre, the Parisian style Goldstein Cabaret and John C. Court Cabaret, and Bowne’s Lab Theatre.
Even with its growth, Florida Studio Theatre remains firmly committed to making the arts accessible and affordable to a broad-based audience. FST develops theatre that speaks to our living, evolving, and dynamically changing world. As FST grows and expands, it continues to provide audiences with challenging, contemporary drama and innovative programs.
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WINTER MAINSTAGE
HAIRSPRAY – November 12 – January 11
DANCING LESSONS – December 10 – February 27
FLY – February 4 – April 4
CHAPATTI – April 8 – May 30
WINTER CABARET
WITH THE PRIMA DONNETTES – October 22 – February 5
AMERICAN PIE – December 31 – April 23
NEVER MARRY A GIRL WITH COLD FEET
AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS FROM VAUDEVILLE – February 18 – June 7
FST IMPROV
OUT OF BOUNDS MATCH UP – October 18 – January 3
WRITE A PLAY
RAP-Punzel – September 23 – November 14
