Topic outline

  • General

  • Improvisation Basics

    In this unit students will be given an intoroduction to the foundation skills that form the basis of all good Improvisation. This includes:

    • Saying Yes
    • Becoming the expert
    • working with offers
    • Listening and responding to your partner(s)

    • Narrative Skills

      In this unit, students will learn about basic narrative structures and how to apply it to Improvised performance. You will learn how to:

      • effictively start scenes;
      • develop on stage relationships;
      • create tension;
      • find the natural ending; and
      • use alternative narrative structures.

      • Movement and Physicality

        In this unit, students will learn to effectively manipulate space and physical gestures to communicate with an audience. This will include:

        • The use of space and levels
        • object and mime works
        • using your environment effectively
        • supporting the scene through fielding and providing scenery

      • Justification

        In Improv, performers have to make many decisions with dialogue, movement and relationships. New offers need to fit within the reality thathas already been created. Offers which are not justified lead to good offers being dropped, the scene moving away from the cup of expectations and the audience feeling dissapointed. 

        In this unit, students will learn how to effectively justify new offers as they are presented.

        • Relationships, Emotions, Status and Character

          This uint is about doing all the little things that allow an audience to connect to a performance. If you can make your audience care about what is happening on stage, you are more likely to affect them.

          • Short Form Improvisation

            This is a chance to put into practice all of the skills learned during the course through short form games and open scene work.