Meet our Main Ensemble
Our Team
Anne Rab
Anne Rab has been working as an actor, director, and theatre educator since 2010, initially based in Leipzig, Germany. She is part of the leadership team of Momenta, Leipzig’s international festival for improvisation, and is a long-standing member of Theaterturbine.
In 2017, she moved to Vienna, Austria, where she continues to teach, direct, and perform regularly within the Viennese improv community. She also works internationally, teaching, performing, and developing new improvised formats and shows.
Her interest in improvisation began over 15 years ago in a clown ensemble creating stories without words, and this work continues to drive and fascinate her today. She explores non-verbal improvisation and teaches bodywork to actors, improvisers, and anyone interested in discovering new ways of expression.
She also loves to perform with a number of duo partners, including Sarah Arndtz (Heroes), Ursula Anna Baumgartner (Bemme & Melange), and Jim Libby (The Messengers), and is a passionate advocate for greater community awareness within the world of improvisation.
Fun Fact
I love LEGO!!!!
Mark Jane
Mark Jane has been specialised in acting, directing and teaching improvised theatre since 1994. Originally from England, he moved to Paris in 1996 where he pursued his acting career.
In 2012 Mark supervised the French translation of « Impro – Improvisation and theatre » by Keith Johnstone.
In 2016 he joined the impro group EUX in Paris and now plays in their successful impro shows every week in the French capital. Mark is also specialized in Keith Johnstone’s Trance Mask techniques. He teaches and makes masks through his association Trance Mask France.
Today he is a renowned improvisation teacher and is called to run workshops on improvisation all over France and Europe. In 2018 he published his book “Jeux et Enjeux: La boîte à outils de l’improvisation théâtrale” in French. In 2021 he published the English version “Creating Improvised Theatre: Tools, Techniques, and Theories for Short form and Narrative improvisation.”
Fun Fact
I was once an arms dealer
Heyfa discovered improvisation in 2009 and has been exploring it ever since. She trained with Ludi IDF and the Impronautes, while also experimenting with transmask, mime, and clown. After co-founding the troupe Les Kontrefaçons in Paris, she later joined the Capitaines de la BIM in Brussels.
She is particularly passionate about long-form improvisation and performs a wide variety of formats, including DIXIT Impro. One of her core projects is Trouble, a feminist format that holds special significance in her artistic work.
Alongside her performance practice, she is actively involved in shaping the improv community: she is part of the team behind the Wonder Impro Festival in Paris and co-organised Mahdia Improvise in Tunisia.
As a member of the Mediterranean collective Sabir, she brings a strong commitment to cultural diversity and inclusivity into her work. She leads workshops for all levels, focusing on storytelling, status, physical connection, and the professional applications of improvisation.
Fun Fact
I only started improv because the improv class was cheaper than the theatre one and somehow it became my entire life!
Heyfa Limam
Velvet facilitates at festivals across North America, online, and most recently, at Robin Hood International Improv Festival. Velvet is an agent of empowerment, creating curriculums and delivering workshops that give people space to develop their competence, consciousness, self-efficacy, and to create positive connections.
They graduated from Second City Toronto Musical Conservatory, as well as advanced improvisational studies with international instructors.
Fun Fact
Proudly Aquarian
Velvet Wells
Diana Brown is an improv artist, director and teacher whose work blends emotionally grounded storytelling with playful theatricality. Known for character-driven, genre-inspired longform, her performances explore the meeting point of emotional truth and joyful comedy. She was named one of The Improv Boost’s 2025 Sudden Impact Teachers.
Her work has been featured at festivals including Impro Amsterdam, Vancouver Improv Festival, Improv Fest Ireland, Liverpool Improvisation Festival, SF Sketchfest, Camp Improv Utopia, SAVI Fest, Countdown, Tucson Comedy Arts, Queen City, Gather, Ocean State, Unscripted Shakespeare, Uptown, ImprovCon, and others. Diana will direct the international ensemble at Improv Fest Ireland 2026.
Diana performs with Bingewatch, Bold Curls, But Of Mind, Fleeting Reminiscence, Gamesome Frolic, The Oracle, and Serious Kicks. She regularly collaborates with BATS Improv and is an actor with Killing My Lobster sketch comedy in San Francisco. She leads the Improv Performance Lab program at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's School of Theatre
Fun Fact
I collect metaphors the way some people collect seashells.
I secretly believe numbers have personalities and emotional points of view.
Diana Brown
Jim was born in Maine, in the USA, but has made his home in Vienna, Austria, and has built a wonderful reputation as a performer, director, and artistic consultant. He has performed in some of Europe’s most illustrious theatres, has worked continually in television and film, and is a featured voice-over artist in several prize winning film productions.
In the world of improvisational theatre, Jim is in great demand. He is a founding member of the English Lovers, toured the world with Rocket Sugar Factory, and has performed with, or taught literally thousands of actors, directors, dancers, musicians and just plain people… Working on the application of the ideas and techniques of improvisation: From the creation of theatre and performance, to team building, communication skills and more.
Jim helped to create the very first, fully improvised performance piece to ever be taken into the repertoire of a German state theatre. He also helped to create the very first, fully improvised, radio drama for the BBC, A Time to Dance, which was nominated for a Sony Academy Award, and co- directed the first, fully improvised feature film to be produced in Austria, Another One Opens, which after several cinema runs, and winning a few prizes, is now on Amazon. He is also the artistic director of Moment! - Vienna’s International Festival for Improvised Theatre, returning in 2027.
Jim can currently be heard in the new feature film, Moonbound, and soon in the upcoming BBC limited series, Life In Real-Time.
Fun Fact
Jim has no tattoos, but is open to suggestions!*
(*Subject matter, placement, and reasoning are required for consideration...)