Diana Brown
Improv Utopia Yosemite 2026
Diana Brown presents
Shakespeare
Workshop
Rogues, Ruffians and Wiley Wits
Improvising Bawdy Characters in the Style of Shakespeare with Diana Brown
Join Diana Brown for this workshop to show experience that requires no extensive knowledge of Shakespeare, just the willingness to explore the bawdier side of Elizabethan life.
A ribald romp inspired by the bawdy, and in truth, a bit naughty side of Shakespeare.
We'll review the six levels of Elizabethan Society: Monarchy, Nobility, Gentry, Merchants, Yeomen, and Laborers.
Please note: In our presentation, anyone can play any role they feel called to play.
We’ll adventure to the pubs and inns and alleyways populated with scurrilous rogues and bawds lively quick.
Delightful characters, deliciously flawed with aspirations of greatness.
• We’ll explore the way Shakespeare used rhythm and rhyme, simile, metaphor and imagery to tempting effect.
•And we’ll spend some time focusing on Original Pronunciation, the way the actors actually spoke in Shakespeare's time.
Our efforts will culminate in an improvised performance.
About Diana Brown
Diana Brown is an improv artist, teaching artist, actor, producer, director and voiceover talent.
She was voted Most Valuable Mentor and Teacher at the San Francisco Improv Festival. Diana was named one of The Improv Boosts Sudden Impact Teachers of 2025.
She leads the improv program at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s School of Theatre. Diana is an instructor, and corporate training facilitator with Leela Improv Theatre in San Francisco. Diana leads the improvised Shakespeare program at All Out Comedy and is a guest teaching artist with BATS Improv in San Francisco.
Diana was an instructor for the 2025 Rise Comedy Summer Improv Intensive presenting Exploring Genre. She’s presented Improv workshops, intensives and “workshop to show” experiences at the Camp Improv Utopia West, Improv Fest Ireland, Belfast Improv Fest, SAVI FEST, The Unscripted Shakespeare Festival in NYC, Queen City Comedy Experience, Uptown Improv Festival, Vancouver Improv Festival, Tucson Comedy Arts Festival, Ocean State Improv Festival, Gather Spring Improv Retreat, Cornerstone Improv, Countdown Improv Festival and others.
Diana is half of the duo Bingewatch, she plays in the Shakespeare inspired trio Gamesome Frolic, the Tennessee Williams inspired duo Fleeting Reminiscence, the trios POPTOP, Slumber Party, the duos Timepiece, Salt and Pepper, Davenport & Brown, and the Twilight Zone inspired ensemble But of Mind.
She has enjoyed sold out appearances at San Francisco Sketch Fest 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2019. She appeared with Groundlings: Personals at San Francisco Sketchfest 2026, at Impro Amsterdam, Rise Comedy Fest, Improv Fest Ireland, Vancouver Improv Fest, Liverpool Improvisation Festival, Bay Area Musical Improv Fest. SAVI Fest, Uptown Improv Fest 2024, Ocean State Improv Fest, Tucson Comedy Arts Fest, Countdown Improv Fest, The Queen City Comedy Experience, San Francisco Improv Festival, Improvaganza Hawaii Festival of Improv, San Diego Improv Fest, New York Improv Festival, Alaska State Improv Festival, and others. Diana also performs in scripted theater productions, appearing in festivals in New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Most recently in Playground’s Solo Fest 2026.
