What You’ll Learn
Learning how to improvise can be joyous, engaging, and very rewarding. You’ll meet new friends! You’ll laugh more than you ever have! You’ll giggle while you’re falling asleep as you relive your class!
But improvising in front of others can also be scary. Suddenly, you’re not in control anymore! Maybe you won’t know what to say! Who knows if you’ll say or do something that’s dorky and weird?!?! Don’t worry: we got your back!
Part of learning how to improvise is getting comfortable with unknowing and uncertainty. That’s why we use a variety of joyous and playful games and exercises that teach our art form.
Improv Class Levels
LEVEL ONE: foundations
For those who’ve not taken an improv class in Portland, we offer our Foundations series. Here, students learn experientially, through games that teach an introduction to listening, eye contact, and understanding of verbal & non-verbal communication. Our Foundations level improv classes are FUN and are designed for the general public, ages roughly 16+. You do not need to be an actor or artists to understand, learn from, or love these improv classes.
Level Two: Community Play
This improv class series is designed to bring people together to playfully explore character scene work. Teachers will help students develop characters, learn the basics of story structure, and understand how to enter, exit, or edit a scene. Students can expect to improvise entire scenes that introduce or explore a story! These improv classes are two hours long each.
Level Three: The Advanced Workshop
This improv class series is for those seeking to practice and/or perform as a team, exploring one or more long-form improvised formats. The first half of each class focuses on exploring different advanced skills such as callbacks, games, story development, and character psychologies. The second half is used for improvising one or two 15-20 minute long sets. We’ll continue practicing story structure, creating compelling characters, and mastering when and how to edit scenes. These improv classes are two-and-a-half hours long each to accommodate the stronger skills required.