Improv training sharpens the core instincts that make any actor better — genuine listening and presence, since there’s no script to hide behind; generosity and collaboration, through the “yes, and” principle of building on a scene partner’s choices rather than blocking them; spontaneity and confidence, from learning to trust impulses and commit without overthinking; and adaptability, since improv constantly demands real-time problem-solving when something unexpected happens. It also loosens self-consciousness by making failure and vulnerability a normal, low-stakes part of the process, which ultimately makes scripted performances feel more alive, present, and truthful rather than rehearsed.
Join Colin McGurk, an in-house performer at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles since 2017, in this fun and impactful workshop. Over four classes, you will learn the fundamentals of Improv, including:
Class 1. Starting From Today – Where are you at emotionally today? How does that align or misalign with your character? Learn to let go of your idea of how things should be and to accept how they are in the moment.
Class2. Listening with the Body – using our instrument to send and receive information to/from our scene partners. Our bodies are tuned to interpret more than just the words we are hearing if we trust our intuition.
Class 3. Memories/histories/secrets – improvising the lives of the characters outside the given text. Creating shared experiences that we can recall outside of our imagination.
Class 4. Truth in comedy, comedy in drama – play the reality of the comedy, not the joke. Play the humor in the drama, not the tragedy.