The magic we share through the power of improvisation happens thanks to a number of principles we embody. However, if we had to pick three that make it or break it, it would be these.
Be Brave
Success is all about taking risks and not being afraid to fail. When we’re ready to put all insecurities, fear and need for perfectionism aside, a path to great things unfolds before us. Dare to step into the unknown. Be an innovator. Be brave.
Be Affected
A business is a team and all team members work together. The key is to put all our trust on your colleagues and work with them instead of working as a lone ranger. Train yourself to let go of control and accept your partners’ offer. Allow yourself to change. Be affected.
Be In The Moment
What is in the past is already gone and what lies ahead of us will come regardless of what we do. What matters is the “now” and we won’t be able to take fully advantage of it if we trouble ourselves with what happened or what will happen. Learn how to live in the present moment and take in all that it has to offer. Be in the moment.
We take pride in the collective skill set our team possesses. All improvisers at heart, all with unique backgrounds and professional paths. Every single one of our team members is the best of the best at what they offer. Place them all together and you get an all-start team that is a force to be reckoned with.
Menelaos is a theater improviser, instructor, photographer, life-long traveller and the mastermind behind improvisation in Greece. He has spent more than a third of his life traveling around the world; That’s 13 years on the road. Part of that was in the USA, where he got neck-deep into the art of Improvisation and Improvisational Theater. When he moved back to Greece he founded the country’s first -and only- Improvisation theater and training center.
Many years ago he obtained a degree and an MSc in a field that hardly suited his skills (Computer Programming), has worked as anything from translator for a large international financial group to sushi chef at a super market (and everything in between), has lived in 5 different countries on 4 continents, and has ended up in the hospital a number of times.
These days he teaches improv combined with public speaking and team building to individuals, corporations, NGOs and public entities, organizes/presents/plays in improv shows as often as possible and gives interviews that his mom loves sharing on Facebook.
During his free time he takes care of the hoard of four-legged friends he has at home.
Panagiotis Delavinias is one of the most powerful members of our team, as he has a very out-of-the-box way of thinking that leaves us all astounded. He was born in 1989 as he says, but nobody believes him. When he was young, he understood that improv is a part of who he is, because of how elegantly he lied to his teachers. His first contact with theatre and the stage, was in High School, when he played “Von Dimitrakis”.
During the past few years he has been heavily involved with improv, because he believes it to be the only true magic. All the rest is just optical illusions. He has taken any improv-related training available in Greece, as well as numerous workshops in Finland, Spain and Sweden.
He holds a computer programming degree and has tried a number of jobs that bored him beyond measure and don’t even relate to one another. His goal is to give improv training to as many people as possible, so that they too can experience the magic.
Vasiliki is an actress, won over by Improvisational Theater. After attempting (in vain) to adapt to a “normal” career, studying Tourism in Heraklion, Creta, she returned to Athens to follow her first and great desire: theater.
Since then things have been getting better and better! After graduating the great drama school of Carolos Koun, Technis Theater ,she crossed paths with improvisation. It was love at first sight. She was excited how one of the principles of improvisation reminded her of a childs’ spontaneity can relax a person. She dove into the world of improv head first and, having completed ImproVIBE’s training, she took her first steps towards teaching improv. Her goal now is to spread the magic of improvisation as far and wide as possible.
Music, cinema and telescopes are her greatest joys. However, nothing exceeds her passion towards her flatmates. Her cats!!
Carolyn has recently moved to Athens from San Jose, California, where she taught improv classes and performed weekly at American Improv Theatre. She has studied improv in California, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York and has performed in the San Francisco Improv Festival, Femprovisor Fest, and the Del Close Marathon in New York City, among others.
Her love of improv stems from an imagination trained through years of avoiding reality, a deep affection for quirky people and the human connection, and the fact that she feels most awake at about 8pm.
Anna Georgelli got wrapped up in improvisation’s deadly net without even realizing it. It’s been three years since she first got involved in the art form of Improv Comedy Theater. Before all that she used to be a physiotherapist. It’s something she still practices, even though she has reversed their gravity on the scales of time!
Initially as a student, and then as a performer, participating in shows and festival around Athens with various improv troupes. By now, she has become an instructor, teaching the art of Improvised Theater to adults and children alike.
If you ask her, she’ll tell you that Improv is more than just an art form, it is a way of life! (Go on, ask her!)
At the same time, she constantly expands her activities, with acting, story writing and striped shoes being currently in her scopes.
Anna is one of our main improv-for-children instructors and performers.
Born in 1983 in Athens. A graduate of Polytechnical Univerisity of Patras, currently a postgraduate student at Hellenic Open University specializing in “Earthquake Engineering and Seismic-Resistant Structures” and practicing the profession of Civil Engineering, whenever luck and the financial crisis allow it. He speak Englishs, Japanese and Norwegian. However, these formal qualifications don’t suffice to define him.
The hobbies that complete his profile are three : games – computer and board games alike – , social dancing, 1920s to 1940s Lindy Hop to be exact, and Improvisational theatre. Their common elements : non – verbal communication, the joy of uncertainty, and the depth and perplexity of the human psyche as it unfolds spontaneously is what has won him over. An invaluable asset to our team of experts, Kostas’s way of thinking is unconventional and 100% present in whatever he does at any given moment.
