Elana Fishbein
Improv Utopia East 2025
Elana Fishbein presents
Tension Equals Comedy
Workshop
This workshop is all about harnessing tension for comedic effect. By utilizing tension and restraint over outright conflict in our scenes, we can delve deeper into our characters and create captivating interpersonal dynamics. If you're a fan of tactical silence, awkward exchanges, and unfulfilled wants, then you'll love this workshop!
All levels welcome.
About Elana Fishbein
Elana Fishbein is an improv teacher and performer based in New York City. She has designed curricula and facilitated improv workshops for corporations, non-profits, and educational institutions all over the United States and beyond. Elana’s targeted, experiential sessions aim to help students expand their ability to communicate, collaborate, empathize, and lead through radical respect and elevation of each other’s ideas.
Elana teaches improv at Magnet Theater and can be seen performing with the Armando Diaz Experience and, previously, her solo improv show, Pepita (Best of the Fest, San Diego Improv Festival). Her two-woman play, Sisters Three, devised entirely through improv, was a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Elana has written and performed for The Truth Podcast (Radiotopia), Story Pirates Podcast, and appeared on BBC America’s Almost Royal, as well as in the original musical comedies Girl Camp and Nightfall on Miranga Island. She is a member of Story Pirates, a non-profit arts-in-education organization that takes stories written by kids and adapts them into hilarious sketches and songs.
She is the co-creator of two professional development workshop series for teachers: “Beyond Winging It: Improv in the Classroom” and “Play.” Elana is featured in the documentary short, LMAO, about the therapeutic potential of laughter and comedy. She also runs an annual Improv and Yoga Retreat -- ask her about it!
Elana holds an M.A. in Educational Theater from NYU and B.A. in Drama from Vassar College. Her favorite succulent is jade.
