Thank You For Coming Out to Team Up with FUN HOME for Improv Workshop

In anticipation of Pride Week, Thank You For Coming Out (TYFCO) is teaming up with Fun Home to hold an improv workshop benefiting the organizations I'm From Driftwood and How We G.L.O.W. Each of the four groups amplify the LGBTQ voice in a different way and aim to promote an understanding among communities. This workshop will encourage empathy, inclusivity and acceptance within the LGBTQ community by using and teaching the ideals of improv - listening, trust, respect, affirmation and connection with each other through the principle of Yes, And. TYFCO and Fun Home's main goal is that both I'm From Driftwood and How We G.L.O.W. can take what they learned back to their organizations and continue to inspire others.

Thank You For Coming Out (TYFCO) is a show that creates improv and musical improv based off the heartfelt and vulnerable coming out stories of our Featured Storytellers. It creates a safe, supportive and inclusive space for LGBTQ performers to explore and be themselves by the use of improv's number one principle: Yes, And. 'Yes, And' is the most basic but important principle of improv: say YES to your partner by agreeing, affirming and then building from it! Improv requires everyone to respect, listen to, support and to affirm each other or the scenes fall apart.

Fun Home: One of the most groundbreaking productions ever to hit Broadway, FUN HOME is the winner of five 2015 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Score (Jeanine Tesori andLisa Kron), Best Book (Lisa Kron), Best Direction (Sam Gold) and Best Actor (Michael Cerveris).

Based on Alison Bechdel's best-selling graphic memoir, FUN HOME introduces us to Alison at three different ages, revealing memories of her uniquely dysfunctional family - her mother, brothers and volatile, brilliant, enigmatic father - that connect with her in surprising new ways. This intimate and emotional theatrical experience is performed entirely in the round, bringing audiences closer to Alison's story than ever before. A refreshingly honest musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes, FUN HOME is "a blazingly original heartbreaker and a nonstop treasure of invention" (Newsday).

The How We G.L.O.W. Project amplifies the voices of lgbtq+ youth through interview theatre. Creators Jamila Humphrie and Emily Schorr Lesnick completed 21 interviews with young people of diverse backgrounds about their identities, the labels they claim or create, and the biggest issues facing their communities. Now, with a small cast playing multiple roles, these stories are coming to life, with a script made entirely of the words of the interview participants. Inspired by The Laramie Project and the work of Anna Deavere Smith, this project blurs the line between audience, theatre and community. By learning about how these young people G.L.O.W. (Gay, Lesbian or Whatever), we hope audiences will leave with a desire to deepen cross-generational dialogue and to work in solidarity with these young people towards structural changes that support their identities.

I'm From Driftwood, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in New York City, aims to help LGBTQ people learn more about their community, and everyone learn more about themselves, through the power of storytelling. Founded in 2009, I'm From Driftwood has collected over a thousand videos highlighting a range of topics that affect every age, race, gender, background, and culture while deepening an understanding, preserving history, and encouraging empathy. Past storytellers include Tony Award winner Alan Cumming (Cabaret), Emmy winner Laverne Cox, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk), Noah Michelson (Huffington Post Queer Voices editor), and Houston Mayor Annise Parks, as well as hundreds of other queer voices.

Producers

Lauren Patten has appeared as Medium Alison in the Broadway company of Fun Home, and is the original understudy for both Medium Alison and Joan. A native of Chicago, Lauren has worked extensively in theatre across the country, including the original Los Angeles company of Deaf West's Spring Awakening. She can be seen on "Arrested Development," "Awkward," "Switched at Birth," and in the upcoming Judd Apatow film The Big Sick. She currently studies creative writing in the Riggio Honors Program at The New School. www.laurenpatten.com

Dubbs Weinblatt is the creator of and produces/performs in the monthly improv/storytelling show Thank You For Coming Out. Dubbs has performed improv, musical improv, standup and storytelling shows all over NYC but has really found a passion for producing. When Dubbs isn't producing or performing, Dubbs is traveling, eating bagels, or working on writing in her blog, https://offmychestweb.wordpress.com/

Featured Performers from Fun Home

Roberta Colindrez is a New York City based actor/writer. Her stage experience includes: Fun Home (Public Theater, Sundance Theater Lab); Mala Hierba (2nd Stage Uptown); Water (NPR Presents:); The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill: vol 2 and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (New York NeoFuturists); #therevolution (CTG); Song for the Disappeared (Sundance Theater Lab). Film/TV: GIRLS (HBO); Boardwalk Empire (HBO); Gotham (FOX); Unforgettable (CBS); F to 7th (webseries); Otis Under Sky (SXSW, co-writer); Birdman (dir: Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu); The Artist's Assistant; Beautiful Dreamer.

Beth Malone has been part of Fun Home through most of its formative stages, including the Sundance Theatre Lab and the critically acclaimed run at The Public Theatre. Beth spent much of last year at The Denver Center, starring as Molly Brown in the world premiere of a wholly reimagined version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown,directed by Kathleen Marshall. Other original Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include June Carter Cash in Ring of Fire, Betty Jean in The Marvelous Wonderettes, and Alison in Bingo!. Regional theatre appearances include 9 to 5, The Break Up Notebook, Annie Get Your Gun, LES MISERABLES, and the world premiere of Sister Act. Beth holds an MFA from UC Irvine. Original Cast Recordings: Fun Home, Ring of Fire, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Bingo!.

Joel Perez is honored to make his Broadway debut after originating the role of Roy /Pete/Bobby/ Jeremy Off-Broadway at the Public Theater. Stage work includes In the Heights (1st National Tour), Fame (Macau Music Festival), Stuck Elevator (A.C.T. and Long Wharf Theater), The Mapmaker's Opera (NYMF), and Pirates! (Huntington Theater). Ensemble member of Broken Box Mime Theater. TV work includes "The Outs" (Vimeo), "Person of Interest" (CBS), "The Big C" (Showtime), and "Black Box" (ABC). He studied at Tufts University and The British American Drama Academy. Love to my familia, the Sundance Theater Lab and everyone at BRS/GAGE and Abrams Artists Agency.

Jim Stanek's Broadway credits include: A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder; The Story Of My Life, Lestat, Little Women, The Rivals, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, and Indiscretions. Off-Broadway: Freud's Last Session, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and Jacques Brel... Education: CMU! Inspiration: Wife, three boys & family. Regrets: OLD headshot!

Featured Performers from TYFCO

Brad Benson used his first legitimate tax return in 2006 to enroll in Zach Woods' Improv 101 at the Upright Citizens Brigade and has continued to perform improv, musical improv, sketch, and acting projects ever since. He currently performs Tuesdays at Magnet Theater with the Musical Megawatt house team "Goats." Brad is known in other circles as a digital marketing maven, social butterfly, formidable cook, avid reader, great hugger, marathoner, wanderlust traveler, and go-to wedding date. An eternal optimist, his boisterous laughs are heard clearly (and often); careful, they're contagious.

Nikita Burdein is a performer at the Magnet Theater, where he also teaches Musical Improv. He can be seen everyFriday at the Magnet with Premiere: The Improvised Musical, as well as on Magnet house teams Wonderland andBody Work. He also hosts a monthly LGBTQA diversity improv mixer at the UCB East called the ...XYZ Jam with his team Fancy Man.

Rachel Bouton has studied improv at the Second City (Chicago), UCB (New York) and the Pit (NYC). She has a bachelor's degree in classical voice and is a grad school dropout who studied Intercultural Communications for a year before heading to NY to "do the comedy thing". Rachel can be seen weekly at the PIT as part of the musical house team VERN, and performing improvised musicals all over the country with the touring show Broadway's Next Hit Musical. She is also the founder of PowerSuit Improv, a company that focuses on using the tools of improv to foster creativity, collaboration, and confidence in the workplace. When she isn't on stage or teaching workshops Rachel produces nerd-tastic science parties for the public radio program Science Friday. She loves improv, bagels, humans and talking about Cephalopods.

Ryan Leach is a New York based actor and comedian whose credits include BRUNCH with Brian Faas at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, Thank You For Coming Out at The Magnet Theater, Lake Homo High at The Annoyance Theatre, One Night Only: Midsummer Nights Dream at Reckless Theatre, and the New York Comedy Festival. He is an alumnus of the University of Virginia and has studied at New York University, The Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Complicité and the British American Dramatic Academy where he worked with faculty from the Yale School of Drama, The Juilliard School, and RADA. Recent credits include American Mill #2 at La MaMa ETC, Venice Double Feature at HERE Arts Center, and I Didn't Kill Jonbenet Ramsey at Dixon Place.

Mollie Roth is a animator, drummer, graphic designer, improviser, painter, writer artist aspiring to learn how to play her banjo.

Additional Participants

T.J. Mannix has been a performer, voice over artist, teacher, and improvisor in NYC for 19 years. He was on one of the first Harold teams at the UCB, studying with Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, and Armando Diaz. He has toured with The Second City, and sis currently touring the U.S. and Canada this summer with his solo improvised musical "LimboLand." He is also the founder and co-producer of the 8th annual New York Musical Improv Festival (www.NYMIF.com). He has appeared in more than 80 TV and radio commercials, recently finished the Law and Order trifecta (playing a gay kidnapper). He admits to spending a very dark year as a Mouseketeer.

John de Guzman is a photographer featured in Apple's #shotoniPhone6S and #shotoniPhone6 global marketing campaigns. Based in NYC, he documents his daily life on instagram (@johndeguzman) and Facebook (@johndeguzmanphotography). He also shoots head shots, portraits and family events. John is a musical improviser performer at the Magnet Theater. http://johndeguzman.com.

Magnet Theater, NYC arrived in March 2005. Founders Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman, and Alex Marino came together with the common goal of teaching improvisation and sketch writing while developing and presenting fantastic comedy shows and other diverse entertainments and art. Magnet Theater's founders studied under long-form Chicago improv guru Del Close at Improv Olympic and have since helped to shape the New York comedy scene dramatically through teaching, performing, and presenting comical theatrics both individually and together.

Magnet Theater offers a full schedule of classes in improv comedy, musical improv, sketch writing and performing, storytelling, and on-camera auditioning for all levels of experience with new classes forming regularly. All classes are based on the Magnet Theater Core Curriculum, which provides students with a solid foundation in improv fundamentals coupled with ample performance opportunities. For more information about classes at Magnet Theater or to register, visit www.magnettheater.com.