Online Three Genres Improv Course: Jane Austen, tennessee williams & Cabin in the woods

Level: Experienced

With 2 weeks spent on each genre, plus an online showcase to share with your friends, you’ll pick up some core tips on improvising with any Genre, as well as some customised and totally original exercises that’ll help you examine this terms genres.

In this 6 week course co-taught by Jonah Fazel & Amy Cooke-Hodgson, you will play within the symbolic Southern gothic stylings of Tennessee Williams, deconstruct all the foreshadowing and murderous horror of the Cabin in the Woods and bust open the repressed corsets of the 1800s whilst perambulating through the origins of Austen style Romantic Comedy.

Whilst this course is ideal for experienced players, as it presumes some experience with long-form scenes but Intermediate improvisers are also welcome and won’t feel out of their depth within the adaptive class environment. Whether you prefer to play with genre in quick and fun short-form scenes or more detailed long-form and narrative pieces, you’ll have all the tools at your disposal to start your very own show and play with a more assured touch. An ideal extension for those who’ve taken the previous 3 genres course of narrative improv courses. Designed to give you lots of opportunities to develop and hone your skills, with plenty of reps in each genre universe, you’ll refine your storytelling abilities in an environment that is both supportive and challenging.

Syllabus includes:

Narrative forms: Letter writing, going beyond ‘heroes journey’ and exploring various styles of narration and narrative steering.

Scene transition tools: Explore genre-specific ways of pushing the story forward.

Form specific lexicon and period-appropriate dialogue: Develop the ways in which you speak (cadence, accent and vocabulary) in order to not only create useful characters but provide a framework for your choices.

World Building & scene painting: Create rich complex worlds so that scenes feel effortless.

Point of View and character: Make clear characters, and provide them with style-specific wants, choices and obstacles.

Useful Tropes and Stereotypes: Establish ways to succinctly communicate your ‘in world’ choices using your characteristics.

Cinematography and theatrical staging: Exploring the opportunities that a camera and a zoom window can present us to inspire new ways of working.

Min. participants 6, max. participants 12.

If we have to cancel the event due to low numbers, we will do this with 24 hours notice (and you will receive a warning 48 hours before the course if this looks likely).

This experienced course runs every Thursday evening from 25th February to 1st April, 7.30 pm-9.30 pm GMT

Experienced (18 months+) A class for skilful 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. 

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.