John Breen is a comedy writer, director, actor, producer. He has numerous credits for stage, film and television, including:
Portlandia
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Untraceable
Wendy and Lucy
The Auteur
As an improviser, John studied and performed at Comedysportz Portland, and at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC, and LA. He also trained with Mick Napier and Joe Bill at the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago, and Keith Johnstone in Calgary, Alberta.
John founded The Liberators, a highly acclaimed longform improv group, in Portland, Oregon in 2006. Another praised improv project of John's is Bang + Burn, an improvised action film duo with his good friend, Beau Brousseau. When in Los Angeles John performed with his friends in Soundtrack at the UCB Theatre on Franklin.
John has been performing and teaching improv classes and comedy writing classes for over 25 years. He currently teaches longform improv classes in Bend, Oregon at the Bend Institute of Comedy. He also coaches improv and writing online via Zoom.
Breen has been expertise leads to his focuses on grounded, honest scene work, where finding, heightening, and expanding the Game are key, as developed by Del Close and the UCB Theatre. John Breen's classes train his students to be decisive, to create longform sets that are energetic, focused, cohesive, and build relentlessly to a powerful, hilarious climax. John believes in the power of improv training, as it simply makes everyone better human beings. Breen is always striving to build confidence in his students by taking them through rigorous skills training, providing constant, honest, authoritative feedback, all the while maintaining an air of lightness and excitement.
For more on classes visit Bend Institute of Comedy!