Date: Saturday, October 24th
Time: 10am - 1pm
Instructor: Jeff Quintana

Length: 3 Hours

Prerequisites: Some improv experience recommended.

Scenes can be slow. They don't have to start slow. A scene doesn't have to be loud or frantic to have energy, but something does need to be happening quickly. Snap Into Action explores how improvisers can eliminate hesitant scene starts and immediately give themselves, their scene partners, and the audience something to care about.

We'll tackle what some call the "Entry Exhale" which is walking onstage, sighing, sitting down, slowly beginning an activity, or waiting for someone else to make the first meaningful choice. Instead, performers will learn to enter scenes physically, emotionally, and intentionally engaged. Using commitment, relationship, environment, emotion, and strong first moves, we'll create scenes that begin with momentum while still allowing the comedy to breathe and develop naturally.

Because a scene can eventually become quiet, patient, strange, or beautifully slow. It just doesn't have to take three minutes to get there.

This workshop will focus on:

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Jeff Quintana is a comedian, improviser, director, producer, educator, and comedy entrepreneur with more than 23 years of professional experience creating, performing, directing, and teaching comedy. Since beginning his comedy career in 2003, he has continuously performed, rehearsed, directed, and taught, dedicating his life to understanding what makes comedy connect with audiences.

As the founder of Circuit Comedy, Jeff has spent over fifteen years developing original approaches to improvisation, stand-up, clown, immersive theater, freestyle rap, and corporate training. Throughout his career, he has founded three comedy theaters and training centers, serving as Artistic Director, Creative Director, and Training Center Director, where he built original curricula, trained instructors, directed productions, and helped shape hundreds of performers.

Today, Jeff is completing The Circuit Method, a book that distills more than two decades of study across America's leading comedy institutions into a unified system for creating comedy that is emotionally connected, physically expressive, structurally dynamic, and consistently entertaining.

Jeff's training spans nearly every major school of American improvisation, including The Groundlings (Los Angeles), Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, The Peoples Improv Theater, and Magnet Theater (New York City), along with The Annoyance Theatre, The Second City Training Center, iO Theater, CIC Theater, Home Comedy Theater, The Playground Theater, Theatre Momentum, One Group Mind, and The Neo-Futurists (Chicago). He has also trained extensively in clown with Ed Malone, immersive and site-specific theater with Tamilla Woodard and PopUP Theatrics, physical theater rooted in the work of Jerzy Grotowski through Jesús Quintero, and theater performance at Florida International University.

His teachers include many of the most influential voices in modern comedy, including Groundlings founder Gary Austin, Mick Napier, Susan Messing, Armando Diaz, Noah Gregoropoulos, Farrell Walsh, Paul Grondy, Bill Arnett, Billy Merritt, Bobby Moynihan, and many others.

As an educator, Jeff has taught workshops and classes for The Annoyance Theatre, iO Theater, Home Comedy Theater, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, The Playground Theater, and One Group Mind, helping performers strengthen their comedic instincts, emotional authenticity, stage presence, and audience connection. He has also led corporate workshops and live experiences since 2010 through Circuit Comedy and THEY Improv, working with organizations including Wix, Spirit Airlines, Chivas Regal, Carnival Cruise Line, and numerous other companies to improve communication, leadership, creativity, and collaboration through applied improvisation.

Jeff is also an accomplished immersive theater performer, appearing in multiple acclaimed productions of Miami Motel Stories with Juggerknot Theatre, including the Little Havana, MiMo, and North Beach productions, while serving as a creative consultant on the Wynwood edition. His work blends theatrical storytelling with audience interaction, creating immersive experiences that dissolve the boundary between performer and spectator.

As a performer, Jeff headlines nationally with The Powerful Hourful starring Antonio Quintana, Motivational Speaker, an immersive avant-clown stand-up experience that combines outrageous motivational speaking, improvisation, physical comedy, absurd philosophy, and audience participation into a one-of-a-kind live event. His work has appeared at comedy clubs and performing arts venues throughout the United States, including The Laugh Factory, Improv Comedy Clubs, Funny Bone Comedy Clubs, Stand Up Live, Mic Drop Comedy, The Fillmore Miami Beach, The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and many other theaters and comedy venues.

Jeff believes comedy is one of the most powerful tools we have for helping people connect, grow, and see the world differently. Through performance, education, and The Circuit Method, his work is dedicated to creating comedy that serves both the audience and the artist.