Eager to return theatre to its intimate, storytelling roots, he took his favorite exercises from the acting, writing, improv and storytelling classes he'd been teaching - and created a class where actors, writers and regular folk could transform their personal stories and original characters into funny, powerful and true solo shows…
The GO-SOLO Workshop was born.
Eighty (and counting!) 7-week workshops later, GO-SOLO alumni number in the hundreds, and include winners of the 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012 & 2013 FringeNYC Best Solo Show Awards (to name a few) – a record unparalleled by any other solo show class.
The GO-SOLO approach is based in authenticity, community and the core belief that the more personal you go, the more universal your work becomes. It's about learning to trust your voice, your experience, your wisdom. We believe that EVERYONE has a story to tell. (Even YOU!)
MATT HOVERMAN is an Emmy Award-winning writer, actor and the founder of GO-SOLO.
Besides teaching ongoing classes with GO-SOLO, Matt has also led GO-SOLO Intensives at Princeton University, the All for One Theatre Festival, the Ojai Playwrights Festival, CityWrights Playwrights Festival and more. He is on the Advisory Board of All for One and the Artistic Advisory Board of Opening Act (a theatre outreach program for NYC's at-risk students.) Additional teaching credits include: Theatre for a New Audience, The Acting Company, Corporate Scenes and the University of California, San Diego.
He is the subject of the documentary SOLO by Shannon Romines, a NY Times feature and has contributed articles on the art of creating solo shows to Backstage and HowlRound. An excerpt of his solo show I'M NOT REALLY HERE: Memoir of a Temp was published in the NY Times.
As a playwright, Matt's plays include IN TRANSIT (FringeNYC Best Playwriting Award), THE STUDENT (Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival winner) and THE AUDIENCE (co-bookwriter, Drama Desk Award nomination for Best New Musical.) As a TV writer, his work includes Disney's Sofia The First, Goldie & Bear, Fancy Nancy and the PBS Kids series Curious George and Arthur, for which he received the 2014 Emmy Award for Best Writing on an Animated Series and the 2016 Humanitas Prize.
His extensive acting credits include the La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Rep, the Acting Company, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and many villainous voices on cartoons like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He has a BA in playwriting from Brown University and an MFA in Acting from UCSD. For more: MattHoverman.com
CHRISTINE RENEE MILLER is an Actress/Writer/Director/Solo Show Performer who developed two solo shows in Matt Hoverman's workshops (including BABY COW at FringeNYC.) She has also directed many of Matt's students to great success, including SCARED SKINNY by Mary Dimino (FringeNYC Best Solo Show Award), Melinda Buckley's MOTHER (Best of the Fest at the Celebration of Whimsy Theatre) and ASIAN BELLE by Michelle Glick (MITF Audience Award). She has been fully trained in Matt's method and brings a fresh perspective informed by her extensive "on the ground" experience developing and staging solo shows in many of NYC's best venues and festivals. For more on Christine, please visit: ChristineRMiller.com
MELINDA BUCKLEY has acted, dance and sung on Broadway and in several National tours. Highlights include: Crazy For You, A Chorus Line and the Bob Fosse revival of Sweet Charity. As an improv, sketch and stand-up performer, she has appeared at all the major clubs in NYC.
Her solo show work includes, most recently MOTHER (and me) - which was developed with Matt Hoverman in Go-Solo classes. Directed by Christine Renee Miller, it won 'Best of Fest' at the C.O.W. in FringeNYC and received an extension due to popular demand. Following the Fringe, it went directly into development runs under the helm of Kimberly Senior (Dir B'way's Disgraced, Off B'way's Career Suicide) at Second Stage Uptown, Chicago Shakes and Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. It was selected as one of 12 shows (out of 400) to be featured in Green House Theater's 'Solo Celebration' festival in Chicago, followed by its regional premiere at Geva Theater Center in Rochester, NY - where it performed to capacity audiences and exceeded box office expectations. In Spring of 2018, Geva will sponsor a 3 week tour in London and Ireland.
On the other side of the table, Melinda has written, directed and choreographed numerous theatrical and commercial productions.
For the big screen, she assisted Lonny Price in the filming of a star studded production of Company starring Neil Patrick Harris, Patti Lupone, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer and Christina Hendricks; she co-created the storyboards and staged the musical sequences for Columbia Pictures', Stuart Little I and II with Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie; and she appeared in and choreographed the independent film 1999, starring Amanda Peet and Jennifer Garner. For television, she choreographed several episodes of the daytime soap, One Life to Live, an award winning promo for CBS' Fall Line up and assisted award-winning choreographer, Pat Birch on Mike Nichols' Working Girl, as well as several episodes of Saturday Night Live.
In the corporate world, Melinda has written, directed and choreographed many corporate productions for such clients as CBS, Fox, ESPN, Microsoft, IBM, Verizon Wireless, American Express, McDonald's, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Audi. In order to better serve her executive clients, she developed an interactive 'Power of Story' workshop specifically focused on how to craft powerful messages based on their own stories and personal values.
web design: michaelthomasholmes.com
In 2001, Matt Hoverman had a good idea...