Improv Classes
Elective Workshops
The Nursery offers elective classes aimed at experienced improvisers taught by a host of teachers.
We also host international teachers for special workshops.
Our international guests have included David Razowsky, Patti Stiles, Armando Diaz, Jill Bernard, Colleen Doyle, and Jason Shotts to name a few.
These workshops always sell out fast, please book in advance to avoid disappointment.
Current Monthjuly
Event Details
Where does a story come from? When does it start? How are we sucked in with the characters to follow the story? The movies of the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki
Event Details
Where does a story come from? When does it start? How are we sucked in with the characters to follow the story? The movies of the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki are fascinating and completely immersive, and yet very often the character does mostly mundane activities and actions.
This workshop will explore the birth of a story, its starting point and the spark that lit the fire of the audience’s imagination. Through visual character building and techniques used in the movies of the master, you will learn to not worry much about the story in order to end up telling better tales. Let go of the pressure to be a brilliant storyteller, the story is already happening!
Time
(Monday) 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm BST
Teacher
Gael Doorneweerd-Perry has practiced improv for about 12 years in Strasbourg and he is member and co-founder of La Carpe Haute. He’s also co-founder of the SIN, an international network of improvisers in Europe.
He is travelling and created formats to continue to explore and share, including with his partner on and off-stage, Laura Doorneweerd-Perry. They are going on a year of work around the world to teach and perform their show Object of Affection in 2019-2020.
Gael teaches improv and loves it! He travelled in Europe and over during the past few years, performing and teaching, and found a thousand ways to improvise. His dream is to combine it to be a multifaceted cristal of improv! Now, he shares this way of acting around the world, physical and noisy, kind and silly, emotive and crazy.
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BookPrice
£15
Event Details
What defines our history? It is the sum of all encounters, friendships, loves, rivalry and reconciliation we have experienced. In an improvisation scene, we love to see these intimate bonds
Event Details
What defines our history? It is the sum of all encounters, friendships, loves, rivalry and reconciliation we have experienced. In an improvisation scene, we love to see these intimate bonds that are woven between the characters.
In this workshop, we will learn how to create rich and colourful relationships between our characters. And with all these tools, we will play a longform style story using all these human links.
Time
(Saturday) 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm BST
Teacher
Meng Wang has been an improviser since 2009. He trained in theatrical improvisation in Paris in different schools: Big Buddies Impro, Impro Academy, and l’Atelier des Impronautes. He is a member of the improvisation troupe Smoking Sofa, a Parisian company specialized in narrative longform. He regularly participates in workshops and international festivals where he has worked with renowned trainers such as Patti Stilles, Shawn Kinley, Omar Argentio Galvan and Joe Bill. He now specializes in the Keith Johnstone improvisation system, organic improvisation, and long forms. Meng is a former video game designer, and loves adding gamifications in his trainings, watch out if you are working with him, he will make you PLAY!
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BookPrice
£15
Event Details
Based on Gianni Rodari's "Grammatica della fantasia" chapter where he explains how to create characters based on different elements. In this class we will work the infinite possibilities and combinations
Event Details
Based on Gianni Rodari’s “Grammatica della fantasia” chapter where he explains how to create characters based on different elements. In this class we will work the infinite possibilities and combinations of elements, objects, animals, sensations and feelings to achieve stronger and deeper characters.
Time
(Monday) 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm BST
Teacher
Feña Ortalli began his acting career in 2001. In 2006 he created Global Impro, an improv troupe dedicated to national and international collaboration and exchange. He’s currently based in Madrid where he performs and teaches with the most important companies in the city. Since 2011 he writes, edits, and directs Status, a digital magazine about improvisation, published in seven languages. He’s also the author of the book Impro: Dynamics of the Unexpected (2018). Since 2001 he has taught and performed in different cities in over 20 countries.
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BookPrice
£15
Event Details
How much of the emotions we show on stage are truly deeply our own, unfolding organically? Can we allow ourselves to reach into our life experiences, and let parts be
Event Details
How much of the emotions we show on stage are truly deeply our own, unfolding organically? Can we allow ourselves to reach into our life experiences, and let parts be shared with our fellow players and the audience through our authentic reactions? In this class, we explore how reactions can be born and developed when we dare to use the feelings and stories we authentically carry within us, rather than forcing reactions that the intellect dictates.
Time
(Saturday) 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm BST
Teacher
Noha Mousbah is an improviser, improv teacher, a scripted theatre, TV and voice-over actor, a creative facilitator, and a storyteller, often telling interactive stories in several languages. She is a member of the main theater ensemble at Stockholms Improvisationsteater; the oldest and largest improv theatre in Sweden and the Nordics. She is also a founding member of Paraphrase Improv Ensemble. Noha performs and teaches in English, Swedish and Arabic and has international acting and teaching experience from Europe, Asia and Africa.
In addition to teaching at theatres and festivals such as the BIG IF in Barcelona, RIIF in St Petersburg and Spunk in Zurich, she is also a guest teacher at Stockholm University of the Arts.
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BookPrice
£15
Event Details
Mind Reading for Improvisors: How to attune to your own, your partner's and your audience's wants. Do you know what your scene partner is thinking or feeling? What about your
Event Details
Mind Reading for Improvisors: How to attune to your own, your partner’s and your audience’s wants. Do you know what your scene partner is thinking or feeling? What about your audience? This workshop blends improv and mind reading techniques to give you a unique perspective into the wants of your scene partners and audience members. These tools will help you support and connect quickly and deeply with your partner in scenes. You will practice attuning to yourself in order to be clearer with your offers and create engaging scenes for your audiences.
Time
(Monday) 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm BST
Teacher
Shannon Stott is an improvisor based in Austin, TX. She has been performing and teaching Improv and its benefits to theater students and corporate clients since 2001. Shannon utilizes improv as a tool to change lives both on and off the stage, encouraging her students to carry these tools out of their theaters and into their workplaces and homes.
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BookPrice
£15
Event Details
Always wanted to learn how to take a funny idea and mould it into a comedy sketch? Always enjoyed writing but wanted to give comedy a try? Well check out, INTRODUCTION
Event Details
Always wanted to learn how to take a funny idea and mould it into a comedy sketch? Always enjoyed writing but wanted to give comedy a try?
Well check out, INTRODUCTION TO SKETCH WRITING an introduction to the basics of writing sketch comedy. Using in class writing exercises and video clips, students will come away with a basic understanding of sketch structure and the ability to start crafting premises that can then be fleshed out into full sketches.
Time
(Saturday) 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm BST
Teacher
Mark Kendall is a comedian based out of Atlanta, Georgia where he performs improv, stand up, and sketch. His one person show, “The Magic Negro and Other Blackness” was produced by Dad’s Garage Theatre and the Alliance Theatre and also performed at ARS Nova’s ANTFEST and The New Ground Play Festival at The Cleveland Play House. He completed the Comedy Central Chris Rock Summer School Program, where he pitched jokes at “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” Mark was the Readers Pick for Best Comedian in Creative Loafing Atlanta in 2019.
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BookPrice
£15
Event Details
Personal Storytelling will focus on how to take a kernel of an idea and set up the framework for a solo performance storytelling piece. We will focus on storyboarding ideas
Event Details
Personal Storytelling will focus on how to take a kernel of an idea and set up the framework for a solo performance storytelling piece. We will focus on storyboarding ideas to help with the process of orally composing a story. All you need for this workshop is an idea of something that you want to tell a story about and some writing utensils and paper. By the end of the workshop you should have something that you can start rehearsing, and hopefully a methodology to help turn future ideas into stories.
Time
(Monday) 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm BST
Teacher
Maged Roushdi has been improvising in the Atlanta area since 2001 and has been with Dad’s Garage Theatre since 2016. As an ensemble member there he has worked on performing, teaching, and developing shows both at the theatre and around the Atlanta Improv community. He has had the opportunity to perform with a great deal of talented individuals including Colin Mochrie, Phil Lamarr, Amber Nash, Scott Adsit, Mark Meer, Joe Bill, Thomas Middleditch and more.
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BookPrice
£15
Women’s Workshops
Women’s workshops are an open and supportive creative space for women and non-binary people of all ages and experience levels.
These workshops run once a month, and they are stand-alone, so you can book one or come along every time. Each workshop is taught by a different teacher and focuses on a specific area of improvisation, and we have some exciting people lined up over the coming months!
Current Month
QI – Queer Improv
Come and join in at this open playday with QI, London’s first* queer improv group. It’ll be a fun afternoon of scene work and storytelling. Something that is really fun in improv is play that makes no assumptions about anybody’s identity or beliefs. Come along and play with a fun group of people who see you as yourself.
Open workshops every two months! Everybody is welcome to come and play! Always free!
*as far as we’re aware!
Current Month
Free Improv Taster Workshop
Try improv for free! Puddle Jumping is a monthly free improv workshop at the Nursery, open to all.
Puddle Jumping is a great introduction to improvisation if you are new, or an opportunity to work on your core skills if you are a seasoned player.
Guided by an experienced member of the Nursery team, you will work on the core skills of improvisation through warm-ups, exercises and finally in guided scenes in front of the rest of the class.
Puddle Jumping is a friendly, accessible environment in which to have fun, create stories and characters and maybe even learn a little. Coffee, tea and biscuits provided.
Current Month
Improv Beginners Courses
If you want to start learning improv, look no further than our beginners courses.