Meet the incredible all-women instructor lineup, bringing their brilliant improv magic from every corner of the Netherlands!
Erica started improvising in the United States over a decade ago but has called the Netherlands home for four years (first Eindhoven, now Rotterdam). She has been in casts with Curious Comedy Theater (Portland, OR, US) and Florida Studio Theater (Sarasota, FL, US) and has performed in well over a dozen international festivals. She currently performs with the group Tailored Swiftly and teaches and coaches both independently and in collaboration with SPARK and the Improv Community of Eindhoven.
While she loves musical improv and the puzzle of tying a complicated narrative together, her focus right now is on exploring simplicity and clarity, and on how we can embody characters whose choices and dialogue feel easy.When not fulfilling the duties of her final year as Artistic Director for IMPRO Amsterdam, Erica can be found hanging out with her dogs, sewing, or playing endless puzzle games on her laptop.
Trista is half Kenyan and half Tanzanian, an international background that she jokingly notes saves her from being entirely American. For the past 21 years, she has called Amsterdam home, which is the very place where she first discovered improv and fell in love with the art form from day one.
Over the years, she has developed a deep appreciation for how the practice of improv grounds people in the sweet details of the present moment and encourages pure, unfiltered play. She is particularly passionate about teaching and witnessing that exact same playful, liberating transformation take place in grown adults who step onto the stage.
Mash is an active improv performer and teacher who works extensively across the Netherlands, collaborating with prominent companies such as Flock Theatre, Unplanned Musical, Boom Chicago, and SPARK Rotterdam. Beyond the world of unscripted performance, she is also heavily involved in scripted theatre, showcasing her diverse creative talents through acting, directing, and writing for DownstageLeft theatre as well as various pop-up productions.
When it comes to improv, Mash is an absolute omnivore. She passionately explores and embraces a wide variety of styles, ranging from deeply theatrical improv to the silliest physical comedy. Her work spans from tracking down and playing “the game” of a scene to diving into the world of musical improv, making her a highly versatile force on stage and in the classroom.
Based in Amsterdam for 10 years now, Soa (pronounced Sue) is a French improviser and a cast member of The Unplanned Musical at Easylaughs and recently Flock Company.
Driven by a love for musicals, she draws her biggest inspiration from Musical Theater, bringing its high drama and deep emotions straight onto the stage. Or she brings to life goofy and quirky characters—a playful reflection of her own real-life personality.
What makes her eyes sparkle onstage is the collision of the extraordinary and the mundane: crafting big, proud characters who must navigate a world far too standardized. Offstage, she juggles her life between the joys of parenting two boys, the demands of the working world, and indulging her passion for improvisation.
When she was 4, her parents said, ‘That’s enough! Let some drama teachers figure you out”. After giving scripted theatre a chance for 16 years, she retired. She took her first steps in improv about 12 years ago in Amsterdam and has since played, trained, and taught on 5 different continents.
Bodei is the Artistic Director of Longform at Easylaughs Amsterdam and the co-artistic director of the IMPRO Amsterdam festival.
As a teacher, she has a strong focus on experimentation; “let’s give it a go!” is an often-heard answer in her workshops. She loves sharing theory and knowledge without filling her workshops with endless speeches.
Griet is an active improv performer and teacher who is currently based in the city of Nijmegen. Throughout her career, she has collaborated extensively with a wide variety of local longform and shortform improv groups, gaining valuable experience both as a performer on stage and as an instructor in the workshop room. Her dedication to the craft also earned her a spot as a cast member for IMPRO Amsterdam on two separate occasions.
When it comes to her teaching style, Griet focuses on helping players build well-grounded scenes while maintaining a highly fun, welcoming, and playful atmosphere. In her own performance and practice, her favorite kind of improv is one that strikes a delicate balance, beautifully combining genuine authenticity with a touch of the absurd.
Jenny is a multifaceted improv teacher, actress, and professional presentation coach. Originally, she began her professional journey as a chemist, but she quickly discovered that the invisible connections between people are just as fascinating and dynamic as those between physical atoms. Nowadays, she dedicates her time and career to exploring the unique space where science, improv, and human communication intersect.
As a teacher, Jenny’s primary aim is to help players get completely out of their heads and move into a space of genuine connection with one another on stage. She firmly believes that by letting go of the constant pressure to be funny or the forced need to construct a complex narrative, the true fun and the most compelling stories will emerge naturally on their own.
Shane, who is originally from NYC, has been performing since she was eleven and discovered how much she liked playing men in Shakespeare plays. Over the years, she has acted, sung, danced, photographed, blown glass, and earned advanced degrees in Astrophysics and Mathematics.
She lives in Eindhoven, where she works with the Improv Community of Eindhoven. You can find her there teaching classes and workshops, producing shows and jams, directing new formats, and acting on stage. Although based in Eindhoven, she also teaches and performs in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and at international festivals.
For Shane, the stage is for letting go and celebrating who we are, while connecting with and moving the audience. Improv celebrates the specific weirdness of how we are all unique.
Jorieke is an improviser based in Groningen. She joined the group Stranger Things Have Happened as a member in 2017, and she has been teaching and training different groups and workshops for that same amount of time. As a performer, she has played on stages both nationally and internationally, which includes participating in improv festivals located in Oslo, Sofia, Copenhagen, and Edinburgh.
In her practice, what she values most about improv is establishing a genuine connection with her scene partners and uncovering the specific logic of the game as a scene unfolds. She believes the most exciting moments occur when players practice close listening, follow their own curiosity, and cooperate to build an unexpected narrative together.
Gizem started her acting career when she was 6, just to wear a princess costume. After years of performing in scripted theatre, she discovered the magical, unscripted universe of improv in 2013. Since then, she has lived every day as if she were on stage, ready to “Yes, and” every suggestion.
You may find her at ImproNation as an education director and performer, at SPARK as a trainer, and with the improv troupe Cliffs of Dover. Gizem has performed at various international improv festivals across Europe, loves spreading the joy of improv and helping others unleash their creativity.
Her mission? To ensure that every soul in this universe experiences the sheer delight of hearty laughter.
Dineke is based in Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands. Her improv journey began when she was seventeen years old; she played a walking stick insect, a footman, and a squire at a theatrical theme park. Since that initial experience, she has explored theatre sports, long-form improvisation, and applied improvisation, and she has been working as a teacher for around ten years.
In the classroom and on stage, her eyes sparkle when players manage to surprise themselves, make brave choices, and discover something completely new together. She loves improv that creates a real connection between performers, gives unexpected moments the room they need to grow, and ultimately helps people shine.
Nathania is based in The Hague and has been active in the theatre world for over ten years now. She first started her journey as an actor and slowly evolved into a creative producer and a director over the course of her career. Throughout this time, she has been involved in many different projects, including the Caribbean television series “Big ‘N Mac”, the first live improv show hosted on the island of Bonaire, and several teaching projects.
Currently, she works as an independent theatre maker and creative producer while also performing on the Boom Chicago stage on the weekends. In her creative work, she finds her primary inspiration in the human experience and the dynamics of relationships.