At The Pretend Company, we believe improv can be heartfelt and hilarious in equal measure, that it can be theatrical without being self-serious or overly pretentious, and that it can tell stories in a way no other medium can.
This two-day weekend intensive will take improvisers with a minimum of 1-to-2 years experience under their belt and cast them into an ensemble of 8 like-minded artists, and work on the core concepts around making improvised theatre - Connection and Stagecraft. The course will include a showcase on the Saturday night, which will be noted by directors and on the Sunday we will have a chance to work on those notes.
The directors for this course will be Ali James, Chris Mead, and Liam Webber.
This intensive was developed by Ali, Chris, and Liam to bridge the gap for improvisers who want to create more theatrical work and for actors who want to take on the challenge of improvising theatre.
It’s fair to say the course is for people who want to work on their craft towards a step-change in their performance. Obviously improv is always delightful, affirming and fun - and this will be no exception - but what we’re offering here is specifically tooled towards making you a better improviser. We are asking for students who are happy to bring an attitude of focus and a positive work ethic to the weekend.
It has been designed to work as a primer for the longer 16 week course we will be running through the Autumn, but can also be taken as a standalone class to sharpen those theatrical improv tools.
Our course differs from most improvisation training programmes in a number of ways: