CASSIE AHIERS is a director, writer and educator originally from Minnesota. She holds a degree in Theater Directing from Columbia College Chicago. Recent Elysian directing credits include, Shipping, Fanny: A Classical Punk Musical and Widdle Women, an original play she wrote for the Elysian’s Spaghetti Festival. Cassie has over 15 years of experience teaching improv, sketch writing, and theater, to students ages 4 to 80. Cassie is a former director of The Second City’s National Touring Company- leading 100+ productions that toured theaters nationwide. As an acting coach, she worked on over 50 episodes of Nickelodeon productions, including Side Hustle, The Thundermans Return, That Girl Lay Lay, Danger Force, and Aaron & Erin. Her newest short film, Aloneness, is in post-production, while Boy Band in a Haunted Hotel—a short she created with a group of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities—is set to premiere at festivals later this year. Learn more about her film and theater work at www.cassieahiers.com

Cassie will be teaching Directing Lab

Visiting Artist

Christopher Bayes is Co-Founder and Head of The Pandemonium Studio in New York City and author of Discovering the Clown: or The Funny Book of Good Acting. He is currently Professor and Head of Physical Acting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and has served on the faculty of Juilliard, NYU, Brown, The Actor's Center, and the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Lab. He was part of the creative team and Movement Director for the Broadway and Touring productions of THE 39 STEPS, and has directed hundreds of productions in New York and across the United States.

Chad Damiani has spent over a decade as one of the architects of LA’s dynamic modern clown scene. He leads CLOWN ZOO (an all-star ensemble that employs theatrical mask) and is the creator/star of the hit monthly show STAND UP AND CLOWN - where he directs well-known stand-ups as they attempt clown work for the first time. He also performs solo work at traditional comedy clubs and variety shows — including regular spots for the international sensation STAMPTOWN and an appearance on AGT. When Chad isn’t traveling and teaching, he’s often working for the Vegas-based circus powerhouse Spiegelworld (he’ll be appearing in the upcoming Formula One-themed clown show BOX BOX this November). In past lives, Chad worked as a Blacklist-winning screenwriter and as an announcer for World Championship Wrestling (where he learned from the greatest physical storytellers in the world). 

Chad teaches Language of Nonsense

Chad also runs the famous monthly show Stand Up and Clown

Eric Davis is an award winning performer, director, devisor, and writer. His critically-acclaimed creations won awards for Best Theater, Most Outrageous Show, Commitment to Community alongside copious international Best of Fests, and was named Top 5 shows at the world’s largest performance fest- Edinburgh Fringe.  His creations in Cirque du Soleil’s IRIS and ALEGRIA have been seen by millions of audience members. As a Director, Eric’s Bouffon Glass Menajoree was nominated for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Director, Outstanding Ensemble, & Outstanding Original Script by the NY Innovative Theater Awards. He appears in the feature films, Urge & I’d Kill For You.  For info about shows, workshops, direction and consulting:  redbastard.com. Instagram: @redbastardnyc

Jessica Elaina Eason is an actor, writer, and improviser born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in West Newbury, Massachusetts. It’s a journey. You may recognize her from The Baby-Sitters Club, Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery, The Goldbergs or a hilarious commercial that interrupts your game. Jessica writes on the reboot of NBC’s Night Court with her fabulous writing partner Rebecca Delgado-Smith. She performed at The UCB Theatre in New York for years, and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she performs at UCB LA. Jessica is married and is the proud parent of two of the most wicked funny and sweetest boys on planet Earth.

Ithamar Enriquez is an alum of The Second City Chicago and has been a guest performer at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade and as a puppeteer and guest host of The Jim Henson Company’s Puppet Up! His TV and film appearances include: WandaVision, Miracle Workers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lady Bird, The Conners, Arrested Development, 9-1-1, The Office and A Series of Unfortunate Events. His voice can also be heard on American Dad, Netflix’s Chicago Party Aunt and Nick Jr.’s Pop Up Problem Solvers. His live solo show, Ithamar Has Nothing To Say, has played all over the country and became a series produced by Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele.

Ithamar will be teaching Improv Deconstructed

Inessa Frantowski is a Canadian comedian living in Los Angeles. She is a Canadian Screen and Canadian Comedy Award winner. An alumni of The Second City Mainstage in Toronto, UCB Maude in Los Angeles and Just For Laughs: New Faces in Montreal and currently in the Groundlings’ Sunday Company. Inessa is known for her fearless approach to stand-up comedy that blends wit, physicality, and original character work. Film/TV credits include: This Hour has 22 Minutes, The Amazing Gayl Pile Cosmopolis, Greener Grass, American Princess, The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town and the upcoming David Spade film Busboys. She has also been teaching comedy internationally for 15 years crafting specific curriculum for various institutions including the National Ballet School of Canada. Her stand up album, Help me, help ME is available on itunes/Spotify. @inessacomedy everywhere!

Inessa will be teaching Organic Standup again in the fall . She also hosts “SuperBloom”

Conor Hanney is the founder & director of THEE Improvised Musical, the show BroadwayWorld calls a "powerhouse" with over 200 performances over 10 years in 14 festivals & 12 straight cagematch wins. He's worked in 9 writers rooms for Netflix, Disney, & Paramount, freelanced 6 scripts, sold 12 songs, and sold Disney his first series pitch along with the rights to his first novel manuscript. He's currently developing two series for Paramount, two features for Broken Road & Oops Doughnuts, and did punch-ups on James Gunn's recently unshelved Coyote vs. Acme for Warner Bros. In theater, Conor was licensed by Princeton, a Finalist for both The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference & Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, and is currently adapting The Partridge Family musical for Broadway. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame, plays piano at Darren Criss's Tramp Stamp Granny's, performed a musical best man speech with the Austin Children’s Choir, and runs a special needs improv company and little league.

Connor will be teaching Musical Improv: Making Up Songs

Jacquelyn Landgraf is the Artistic Director of the Elysian. She is a director, performer, writer, and teacher, with a focus on new and developing work, and supporting artists-in-process. Alum of the experimental comedy collective The New York Neo-Futurists, the writer/performers of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, The Infinite Wrench, and a long roster of downtown performances. For over fifteen years, she was on the acting faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts/Atlantic Acting School, and teaches performance and writing workshops across the country and internationally. As an actor, Jacquelyn was in the original cast of the U.S. premieres of Deaf West’s Orpheé, Anna Nicole the Opera at BAM/New York City Opera, John Guare’s 3 Kinds of Exile directed by Neil Pepe at the Atlantic, Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays at The Public, and The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, vol. 1, which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for “Unique Theatrical Experience.” She created the two-season musical fiction podcast It Makes A Sound.

Jacquelyn will be teaching Playing Yourself

Natasha Mercado is a celebrated actress, director, and the creator of The Soft Clown, a performance philosophy rooted in vulnerability, connection, and heartfelt absurdity. Recognized as an "Emerging Content Creator" by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers in 2020, she continues to push boundaries in creative storytelling. Over the past decade, Natasha has built a dynamic career on both stage and screen. Her acting credits include roles in series for major platforms like Adult Swim, HBO, Broadway Video, and TruTV. On stage, Natasha has written and performed solo shows that have received international acclaim. Her latest production, #1 Son, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2024 to glowing reviews from major outlets and is now touring across the US and Europe. 

John Norris is an absurdist comedian. He has studied/trained in clown, bouffon, mime, theater, and sketch and improv comedy. He worked with John Gilkey for years and was an ensemble member of The Murge. He taught with The Idiot Workshop for several years (which he loved)and he stopped teaching during 2020 and decided to focus on performing. In 2022, he created the show Mr. Chonkers, which has found some success and he performs it at festivals and venues all over the world. He spends part of the year in Las Vegas performing in the show Absinthe at Caesar’s Palace.

Corey Podell is an actor, director, and teacher. Most recently, she directed the stage shows Mr. Chonkers, Vanessa 5000, Gutterplum, Queen of Fishtown, and The Underground Monk Show. Corey is a founding member of ‘Clown Zoo’ and has years of experience performing and teaching at The Groundlings Theater and UCB. As an actor, Corey can be seen in The Joe Shmo Show Reboot, The Comeback, Two Broke Girls, Transparent, and The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Corey is a sought after instructor who has taught across the United States but is overjoyed to be teaching at what she considers her home base, The Elysian Theater!

Corey is currently teaching Clown Fundamentals . She is also directing “Underground Monk Show”

Visiting Artist

Anya Saffir is a theater director, writer, and educator based in NYC. Directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing at the American Repertory Theater Institute, Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Theater for a New City, Hamlet with Orpheus Productions, American Sojourns: Three Plays by Thornton Wilder at The Moscow Art Theater, Romeo and Juliet at The American Theater of Actors, a new translation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull co-developed with translator Moti Margolin, Pierre Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique at The Abe Burrows Theater, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs at Classic Stage Company, Chekhov’s Three Sisters for Muse Theater. With frequent collaborator-composer Cormac Bluestone, Anya co-wrote and directed an operetta of Marjorie Williams Bianco’s classic story, The Velveteen Rabbit. She has taught and directed B.F.A. and M.F.A. actors at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Brooklyn College, Penn State, and Harvard University/A.R.T, with a special focus on Shakespeare and the plays of Anton Chekhov. Anya has worked with hundreds of actors as an acting coach, helping them to prepare roles for Broadway, off-Broadway, film and television.

Anya will be teaching Chekhov in L.A.

Zach Steel has been teaching at The USC School of Dramatic Arts since 2014 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre Practice and Director of Comedy. He teaches at The Idiot Workshop and is a member of the performance ensemble, Cruel Babes. He also serves as the Director of USC Comic+Care, a program that utilizes the practice of various comedy disciplines, including improv and medical clowning, to strengthen community and support the healing process. USC Comic+Care has partnered with Los Angeles General Medical Center, CHLA, Norris Cancer Center, The Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program @ Norris Cancer Center, The Children’s Bureau, and various other Los Angeles healthcare organizations. He has performed original work in multiple theatres in New York, L.A., São Paolo, Brazil, and took his original, award-winning show, Me Rich You Learn, to The Telluride Playwrights Festival in Colorado. He has appeared on several television shows for Disney, Showtime, NBC, Comedy Central and Fox.

Zach will be teaching Clown Fundamentals.

Claire Woolner is a clown from LA who has trained and performed with Cirque du Soleil’s John Gilkey, was a member of The Idiot Workshop’s Flagship clown ensemble The Murge (directed by Gilkey), and runs the clown incubation theater PDA. She has toured and performed in multiple ensemble clown shows, has taught clowns across the country and has helped usher many a clown show into the ether. Her newest solo show ‘A Retrospection’ was awarded Top of the Fringe (HFF ‘23), Platinum Medal (HFF ‘23), Encore Producer’s Award (HFF ‘23) an epic run at Edinburgh Fringe 2023 and lotsa stars.