NYMIF: The Meaning Behind Words

NYMIF: The Meaning Behind Words with Stephanie McCullough and Kate Cohen

Class Description


THE MEANING BEHIND THE WORDS will empower participants to let the song do the emotional storytelling for them. This workshop will allow participants to focus less on "the lyrics" and more on strong initiations, emotional specificity, song structure, and metaphor to create impactful songs.

Instructor: Stephanie McCullough

Stephanie McCullough, PsyD., has been a full time faculty of the Music Improv program of the Second City for over 14 years. She started her musical improv journey twenty years ago playing for the Harold team Baby Wants Candy and cutting her teeth on short form music games at ComedySportz. Stephanie has helped launch and produce many independent music improv ensembles in Chicago, her latest one being BOOKENDS: An Improvised Musical Between the Lines. Other ensemble credits include: Mansical, Improvised Sondheim, Do Wop Dreams, Hitchcock*tails, and many many more. Stephanie loves teaching this artform to all experience levels! Ask her about her curriculum dissecting HAMILTON in 3 hours. Love to Otto, always.

Instructor: Kate Cohen

Kate Cohen has been improvising in Chicago since 2004 and performs regularly with ComedySportz Chicago, The Improvised Sondheim Project and Baby Wants Candy. Prior to teaching, Kate served as the Training Center’s Adult Program Coordinator, performed sketch and improvisation with the Second City aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines and was an ensemble member of the Training Center’s Educational Touring Company. Kate has performed with Laugh Out Loud Theater, ImprovAcadia in Bar Harbor, Maine, Infinite Sundaes, Twisty, and in the improvised musical One Night Only in New York. Kate earned her BA in Theatre from the University of Arizona and is currently finishing her MS in Learning & Organizational Change at Northwestern University. She is honored to have been a part of the Second City family since 2006.

Full Session Schedule


Session Schedule*

  1. Mar 14, 2020, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
    at The Magnet Training Center
    (22 West 32nd Street, bet. Broadway and 5th Ave., 10th floor)
This class does not have a show/performance