Please note: All sales are final, and there are no refunds or exchanges.
July 7-August 1 (4 weeks)
Location: The PIT Theater (154 W. 29th St, 2nd fl)
Monday-Friday 2-5pm
Performance: Friday, August 1 at 7pm
$1,000 per person
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Full Details
July 14-August 2 (3 weeks)
Location: The PIT Theater (154 W. 29th St, 2nd fl)
Monday-Friday, 10am-1pm
Performance: Saturday, August 2 at 7pm
$900 per person
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Full Details
Complete an entire improv program, Levels 1-4, in just one month with some of the best improvisers in the country! This intensive will follow with a graduation performance at The PIT on Friday, August 1 at 7pm. Please note: Housing will not be provided.
Level 1: Intro to Improv with Kurt Braunohler (July 7-July 11)
This class incorporates movement-based exercises, scene work and group exercises to explore the primary tenets of improvisation — making you more confident, trusting and graceful on stage. The class emphasizes creating a rich environment for your scenes, committing to your decisions and your scene partner and beginning with the body as inspiration.
KURT BRAUNOHLER teaches improv at the The Peoples Improv Theater, New York Film Academy, and Stuyvesant High School. He has run corporate improv workshops for such companies as Pepsi, Red Bull, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has run workshops at improv festivals across the country as well as in Toronto and Munich. His improv creations include: The One Man Jam — a fully-improvised one man Harold which appeared at the Chicago Improv Festival, the Neutrino Video Projects (chosen for the HBO Aspen US Comedy Arts Festival and awarded "Improv Ensemble of the Year at the Chicago Improv Festival), Chengwin and Chunk, and Kurtbot. He co-hosts a monthly variety show, Hot Tub, with Kristen Schaal, and performs improv every Wednesday at the PIT with the Faculty. He has been improvising in New York since 1998 and teaching since 2002. He was trained by Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Armando Diaz, Kevin Mullaney, and Ali Farahnakian at the UCB, Rebecca Sohn and Mark Sutton from the Annoyance Theater, Liz Allen, and Miles Stroth from Improv Olympic. He recently created an improv and sketch comedy show for the Noggin Network.
Level 2: Scene work with Pat Shay (July 14-18)
The best scenes you see or do have you trying to describe them to people who weren't there and failing. There's something ineffable about them, where the humor comes not from any particular line, but from the scene itself. You've probably already done a few that made you feel that way. This class is going to help you create those scenes more regularly. Learn and practice techniques for starting scenes, for enriching them, for finding yourself when you feel lost, and creating characters that are completely unique, not because they're so far from the ordinary, but because they're so honestly yours.
PAT SHAY is a longtime student of Del Close who performed, coached, and taught at Del's theater, the ImprovOlympic, for ten years — on the national touring ensemble as well as two of the longest-running house teams in the theater's history: Georgia Pacific and The Pat Shay Dancers. In Chicago, he also played leads in full productions of Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet, and performed under Mick Napier's direction at the Annoyance. He has coached and taught improv teams at theaters throughout the country, and run workshops for student ensembles from many universities, including Miami of Ohio, UMass, Harvard, and Columbia. He recently spent four months performing for The Second City aboard a cruise ship, and now finds terms like "port" and "starboard" creeping into his everyday vocabulary.
Level 3: Intro to Longform with Matt Donnelly (July 21-25)
Students will take the basics of improv and work to shape them into deeper and richer scenes. With a focus on listening beyond the surface of interactions, students will be encouraged to examine themselves as performers and improvisors and learn to implement that into the work. They will also be introduced to basic principles of the Harold and other simple longforms.
MATT DONNELLY is well-versed with the many techniques of improv. He has been a teacher and performer for the past 10 years. As a student, he has learned from Mick Napier, Miles Stroth, Charna Halpern, Joe Bill, Amy Poehler, Armando Diaz, Liz Allen, John Cameron Telfer, Michael Delaney, Kevin Mullaney, and many others. Currently you can see Matt with his group Threat at the PIT on Thursday nights, or with The Faculty on Wednesday nights.
Level 4: Advanced Longform with Rebekka Johnson (July 28-August 1)
From scene work to piece work, this class you will teach you to harness your scene skills and allow them to become second nature. You will also be introduced to several forms including Harold, La Ronde, and Deconstruction. You will also be introduced to terms and skills that will allow you to examine your piece work as closely as you can examine your scene work.
REBEKKA JOHNSON, best known for her work on the MTV hit show Boiling Points, has performed in various sketch and improv shows across the country, including the Neutrino Video Projects which was an official selection at the 2004 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Rebekka has been improvising since 1997. She has learned the art of improv from Miles Stroth, Amy Poehler, Bob Dassie, Michael Delaney, Kevin Mullaney, Andrew Secunda and Matt Donnelly. She has performed in many venues around the city with Arsenal, The Mosaic NYC, and Neutrino. You can currently see her performing with Threat at the PIT.
The only professional sketch comedy writing program in the country! Complete an entire sketch program, Levels 1-3, in only 3 weeks with some of the best sketch writers and comedians in the country! The intensive will be followed by a graduation show on Saturday, August 2 at 7pm. Please note: Housing will not be provided.
Level 1: Intro to Sketch Writing with Alex Zalben
This is an intro level sketch class, pure and simple, geared towards the student who has never written before, or even a writer who wants a refresher in the basics. Working off the idea that anyone can start writing sketch comedy, you'll learn the formulas that will let you start writing sketch now. You will not need to have pre-existing work to take this class — it will involve practical assignments in individual and team writing. By the end of class, you'll not only have a truckload of sketches, you'll also be prepared to strike out and write great sketch on your own.
ALEXANDER ZALBEN was the Artistic Director of the Peoples Improv Theater from 2005-2007. He is also an award-winning sketch comedian who has performed and taught all over the United States, as part of the sketch groups Elephant Larry and Madame Funnypants. He has written for Modern Humorist, Jest Magazine, McSweeneys, and is the co-creator of the comedy website X-Ball Online, which receives over 20,000 visitors per month. His one-act play, All's Swell That Ends, Will, was performed at the Telluride Theatre Festival. He is also the producer of SketchFest NYC, the Big Red Comedy Festival, and the groundbreaking Neutrino Video Projects. One time, he took a class with, and then got slapped by, John Cleese.
Level 2: Intermediate Sketch Writing with Joe Schiappa
This class will examine sketch forms ranging from traditional forms such as game show sketches, talk show sketches, parodies and character sketches; to the offbeat and absurd sketch forms more typical of Python, The State or Kids In The Hall, as well as a short video scripts. The class will focus on writing, rewriting and group critique.
JOE SCHIAPPA is the director of Pete and Brian's One Man Show which was selected for the 2007 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. He was also the director of Matt and Ben which was part of the 2003 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Currently, Joe is one half of the comedy troupe Project:Projekt and can be seen in their show The Million Dollar Idea featuring Matt Higgins. He recently finished a screenplay with Ken Jeong (the upcoming Judd Apatow film Knocked Up). Backstage has called Joe's work "hilarious". Joe is an alumni of The Second City Training Center and has studied with Shira Piven of the Piven Theater. Joe is a graduate of Emerson College where he was a member of the troupe This is Pathetic whose alumni include David Cross and Laura Kightlinger.
Level 3: Advanced Sketch Writing/Writing for SNL with Ali Farahnakian
The class will focus on commercial parodies, one-page sketches and two-person sketches. You will be shown what an SNL-type sketch should look like and how to take your ideas and flush them out into sketches in a very nurturing environment.
ALI FARAHNAKIAN (SAG, AEA, WGA, AFTRA) studied extensively with Charna Halpern and Del Close in the 1990s at ImprovOlympic and was also a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade with whom he helped to create the critically acclaimed show, "Virtual Reality". At The Second City he was part of the Jeff-nominated show The Revelation Will Not Be Televised (dir. Jeff Richmond) for which he also received a Jeff nomination for Best Actor in a Revue. His one-man show Word of Mouth was an official selection to the US Comedy Arts Festival 2001 in Aspen. He was a writer on Saturday Night Live during its 25th anniversary season and received a Writers Guild Award. This past May he played Dr. Qari Shah in Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul (dir. Frank Galati) at the BAM Harvey Theater. Television credits include Law and Order, Criminal Intent, Special Victims Unit, All My Children, Third Watch and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He has worked for Miramax, The VH1 Fashion Awards and script-doctored for John Leguizamo. In 2002 he co-founded The Peoples Improv Theater (aka The PIT) in New York City. Spread the Word!