TOM BOOKER has studied improvisation and sketch at The Second City Training Center and with legendary improv guru Del Close at Chicago’s ImprovOlympic. He is a founding member of Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre and has been a director and instructor at The Second City Training Center in Los Angeles.
Tom co-wrote and co-directed (with producing partner Jon Kean) the feature film Kill The Man starring Luke Wilson, which premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Through Theatre-A-Go-Go!, the L.A. theater company he founded, Tom wrote and directed “Patty, Patty, BANG! BANG! – The Patty Hearst Musical!” and “Up With Puberty!” (co-written with Whose Line Is It Anyway?’s musical director, Laura Hall), and a stage production of Valley Of The Dolls (which starred Kate Flannery of The Office) at New York’s Circle In The Square Theater.
Tom performed in The Annoyance Theatre’s Off-Broadway production of “The Real Live Brady Bunch” at the world famous Village Gate Theatre and at the Westwood Playhouse in Los Angeles.
He has appeared in several television shows, a few movies and nearly a hundred commercials.
He’s a really nice guy. You should meet him.
Asaf Ronen
ASAF RONEN is the creator and Editor-in-Chief of YESand.com, a website devoted to improvisation, and is the author of Directing Improv: Show the Way By Getting Out of the Way. He has been involved in improv since 1990, starting in college and working with Theatresports, ComedySportz and directing his own longform improv troupe, Hiatus, where he helped create original formats.
Asaf has taught improvisation in Canada, Great Britain, Norway and in twenty-two of The United States. His directing credits include the all-girl group goga, the improvised comic book adventure show Ka-Baam!!, and Death in the City, a dramatic longform improv piece, at the NY Fringe Festival. He was a producer on Trust Us, This Is All Made Up, a documentary on legendary improvisers TJ & Dave that had its world premiere at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival and was a writer on the soon-to-be-released Days of Delusion.
Asaf has taught throughout NYC’s public school system as a resident artist through LEAP and New Horizons and as part of Weist-Barron’s ACTeen. In 2000, Asaf worked with Cirque du Soleil as a scout for improvisational talent.
Kristin Firth
KRISTIN FIRTH draws from a varied background of improv styles. She’s taken multi-session classes with over 40 different instructors across schools of thought, including the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre teachers, Armando Diaz, Keith Johnstone, Jill Bernard, and more. (Throw in another 20 or so instructors if you want to count one-day workshops).
Her performing experience ranges from short-form games (Maestro, This Week Tonight, Austin’s Next Top Improviser) to NY/Chicago “style” (Hyperlinks, Chantico Warfare) to full-length narrative plays (Improvised Shakesepare, Charles Dickens Unleashed, Who is T. Henry Baudecliffe) to ongoing troupes she is/was part of that tackle many styles and projects (Firth&Arjet, The Love Notes, Skipfield).
She enjoys grounded theatrical improv with more realism and emotion (Austin Secrets, The Plagiarists). Kristin also loves singing and improv that incorporates music (Dancy Street D’Orchestra, Vinyl Destination), and she has performed and taught children’s improv (Flying Theater Machine).
She has performed in festivals locally (Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, Ladies are Funny Festival, Fronterafest) and nationally (New Orleans Improv Festival, Chicago Improv Festival, Del Close Marathon).
Kristin performs constantly and you can catch her multiple times almost every weekend performing with her duo Firth&Arjet, or in Hideout Theatre mainstage shows or Gnap! company projects. See firth.ca/improv for her full resume and a link to her upcoming shows.
Kristin loves food, especially chocolate, and she’s really into boardgames and owns almost 150 of them. Ask her about it sometime!
Ted Meredith
TED MEREDITH is that fun loving guy that answers your life-long question, “what would happen if Gene Wilder and Jon Lovitz had a lovechild?” He is currently an actor and writer at Esther’s Follies, Austin’s only 30 year old sketch/music/magic show, and has spent nearly five years playing characters from Bill Clinton to Glenn Beck.
Ted has a BFA, cum laude, in Acting for Theater from Southwestern University, where he studied Viewpoints, Alexander Technique, Directing, Dance, Voice, etc. Upon graduating he joined the company of Austin Shakespeare, performed with Zilker Hillside Musical, and was one of the founding members of the Austiner Ensemble. He has been nominated for B. Iden Payne and Austin Critic’s Table awards, and was winner of of his High School’s Mr. PHS Theater award! He is also a frequent performer for Zach Scott Theater’s children shows and Austin Shakespeare’s roaming production of the World’s Fastest Hamlet.
Ted can be seen in the web series Freelancers, on which Ted is a co-writer/creator/director/actor with Erica Lies. Ted has also been cast in several commercials and films, including Austin-set film The Two Bobs and the upcoming Days of Delusion. You can watch Ted perform in real life with Church Potluck (The Institution house team), Esther’s Follies (every Thurs, Fri, & Sat), and The Best of Everything (once a month at the Highball).
