Private Artist Development & Performance Coaching in Chicago
You already know how to perform. Now let’s find the work that could only be yours.
Some performers come to me because they have an act that almost works.
Some have a character they cannot stop thinking about.
Some have years of training in acting, dance, circus, drag, music, burlesque, mime, clown or improvisation, but the pieces have not quite become a language of their own.
And some simply know there is more there.
That is where I come in.
I work privately with performers to figure out what the work actually wants to become.
Not by making you perform more like me.
By looking closely at what is already unusual, compelling and specific about you, then helping you build from there.
Tell Annie what you’re creating →
What We Can Work On
Private artist development can begin with something very concrete:
- an unfinished act
- a character
- a piece that has stopped working
- stage presence
- physical storytelling
- audience relationship
- musicality
- pacing
- reveal
- tension
- an audition or performance problem
- a collection of ideas that have not become a piece yet
Or it can begin with the larger question:
What is the performance language that belongs to you?
My job is often to notice what is strongest before the performer has learned how to name it.
Then we build around that.
Why Work With Annie
Red Hot Annie brings more than twenty years of performance, teaching, producing and creative direction into the room.
She is the founder of Vaudezilla and creator of immersive performance worlds including The Pink Hotel, with decades spent developing performers, producing live entertainment and studying how audiences pay attention.
The work here is not theoretical.
It comes from years of watching what makes a performer disappear, what makes an audience lean forward, and what turns a collection of good ideas into a piece people remember.
Private Performance Direction
90-minute focused working session
$495
Bring me the thing.
An act. A character. A video. A performance problem. A strange idea. Something half-built. Something technically finished that still does not feel alive.
We work directly on it together.
You leave knowing what is working, what is getting in the way, and where I believe the piece wants to go next.
This is often the best starting point if we have never worked privately together before.
Contact Annie about a private direction session →
Act & Character Development
Three private development sessions across approximately 4 to 6 weeks
Starting at $1,250
Sometimes one session reveals something bigger.
This work is for performers developing a complete act or character and wanting deeper direction through the process.
We may work through:
concept
structure
music
movement
character
theatrical logic
costume
reveal
pacing
audience relationship
The details depend on the performer and the piece.
The objective is not simply to finish an act.
It is to understand what makes the act belong specifically to you.
If you are developing burlesque material, you can also explore Burlesque Act Development →
Ask Annie about developing your act or character →
Private Artist Development
Six private sessions across approximately 8 to 12 weeks
Starting at $2,500
This is for the performer whose question is larger than one act.
You may already be accomplished.
You may already get booked.
You may already have technique.
But you know you are capable of making work that is more specific, more theatrical, more authored and more unmistakably yours.
Over a longer development period, we can explore:
your artistic identity
your recurring characters and obsessions
what you naturally do better than other performers
how you direct attention
what you reveal and what you withhold
how your existing disciplines can collide
what kind of work you should actually be making
Sometimes we develop multiple pieces.
Sometimes one character opens a much larger body of work.
Sometimes the most important thing we discover is what you should stop doing.
The goal is not simply a better performance.
It is a clearer artistic language.
Contact Annie about private artist development →
This Is Not Only for Burlesque Performers
Burlesque is one of the languages through which I learned these principles.
But the work extends far beyond burlesque.
I am interested in performers who bring different vocabularies into the room:
actors
dancers
drag artists
singers
mimes
clowns
circus performers
aerialists
cabaret artists
improvisers
specialty performers
multidisciplinary artists
The interesting question is rarely:
“How do we make you more burlesque?”
It is:
What becomes possible when we add another language to everything you already know?
How I Direct
For more than twenty years, I have been studying what makes people look.
And keep looking.
Burlesque taught me about anticipation and reveal.
Producing taught me what happens when an individual performance becomes part of a larger room.
Teaching showed me how differently every performer needs to be directed.
Immersive work expanded the question beyond the stage entirely.
Again and again, I found myself working with the same elements:
Attention.
Character.
Desire.
Tension.
Revelation.
Transformation.
Audience.
World.
Those are the things we work with here.
Not formulas.
Not choreography pasted onto another body.
The work begins with the performer in front of me.
Tell Annie where your work is getting stuck →
If You Are Earlier in the Journey
You do not need private artist development to begin.
If you are curious about burlesque, performance or simply becoming more comfortable being seen, start in class.
Classes are beginner-friendly, low-pressure and one of the easiest ways for us to discover what you are drawn toward.
Explore Chicago Burlesque Classes →
See the Current Class Schedule →
If You Already Know the Problem
If the issue is primarily learning how to hold attention, become more grounded onstage, stop rushing or command a room without pushing harder:
Explore Stage Presence Coaching →
If you already have a burlesque act in development:
Explore Burlesque Act Development →
If you want an ongoing environment for experimentation and creation:
What Are You Trying to Make?
You do not need to arrive with the right terminology.
You do not need to know whether you need coaching, direction, act development or something else.
Tell me what you are working on.
Tell me what keeps catching your attention.
Tell me where it stops working.
I will tell you where I think the real work is.