Online Narrative Toolkit Improv Course

Level: experienced

Taught by Jules Munns of the Maydays (‘Happily Never After’) and Impromptu Shakespeare, this course will introduce you to a range of tools, techniques and jigs to level up your improvised stories. Based on the core idea that narrative shows should not feel like a maths problem, but serve the scenes and players, this course will both bring out and hone your natural narrative instincts. It does not introduce a one-size-fits-all structure, but concentrates on providing players with the skills they need to create stories that they care about, stories which retain all of the freewheeling joy of your first improv class, but feel complete and gratifying to play and watch.

Skills taught include:

Beginnings, middle and endings – how to create, satisfy and occasionally defy audience expectations

The important moment – noticing patterns and how interruption can be the start of a story

Premise – asking ‘what if’ to give you a clear core idea for your show

A sense of place – how to use genre and specificity to give reality and detail to your setting

Reaching the crisis – how to know what your character wants, but instead give them what they need

Worldview, morality, protagonists and antagonists – how to make your show about something that matters

Landing the plane – how to make shows that resolve rather than just stop

Whatever the level of ability required, all of our classes are safe, supportive environments led by our experienced teachers. Please email us if you are unsure whether a class is suitable for you. If you sign up for a class inappropriate to your level the Nursery/Maydays reserved the right to remove you from the class without refund.

Min. participants 4, max. participants 12.

With a maximum of 12 attendees, the Narrative Toolkit is run by Jules Munns. Jules performs with the Maydays and Impromptu Shakespeare, as well as being one half of Ten Thousand Million Love Stories. He has performed and taught across the world, from Finland to Pakistan, Malawi to Canada. He creates improv blogs and podcasts and performs online for the Nursery.

This experienced course runs every Tuesday evening from 3rd November to 8th December, 7.30pm-9.30pm GMT

Experienced (18 months+) A class for skillful players, especially those who have finished improv training programmes at their school and are looking to widen their horizons. These classes will make the assumption that you are comfortable performing longform improvisation and will push you.