The Improv Program
Level 1
This class teaches the basics of the iO style of improvisation as created by Del Close and Charna Halpern.
Cost: $260
Level 2
Here you will build on the teachings of Level 1 while allowing you to discover your strengths; it focuses on character creation, “the group mind” and object/environment work.
Cost: $260
Level 3
This class concentrates on the two-person scene, the anchor of long-form improvisation.
Cost: $260
Level 4
This is where you use all the skills you have acquired thus far in order to create the Harold, the signature long-form structure at iO.
Cost: $260
Level 4B
The advanced Harold level, here you will probe even deeper into the form, focusing intensely on the acting, editing, and group commitment that it takes to generate a 30-minute piece. There is 1 performance at the end of this level.
Cost: $260
Level 5
This class looks at other advanced types of long-form improvisation such as the Deconstruction, the Mosaic, the Bat, Close Quarters, the Living Room and more.
Cost: $260
Level 5B
This final level allows students to use their newly acquired improvisational skills to create an original long-form show. Performance Class shows run in the Del Close Theater for six to eight weeks after the class has ended.
Cost: $260
Writing Electives
Level 2 - Sketch Writing
Learn to write sketches, after the style of “Saturday Night Live,” using the show’s current cast. The basic components of a typical episode of SNL becomes the elements for the students’ own SNL portfolio: Cold Opening sketches, monologues, Weekend Update pieces, TV and film parodies, cast pieces, digital shorts, etc… With a special emphasis on rewriting and marketing said packet in the later half of this eight week course.
Cost: $300
Level 1 - Talk Show Portfolio
Learn to write jokes (or two-liners) based upon the events of a given week. From this basic skill, the student heightens and explores the process into writing monologues and then onto the more formidable process of creating all the elements for a state-of-the-art portfolio, suitable for submission to a given talk show in pursuit of a TV writing job, or to an agent in pursuit of literary representation.
Cost: $300
Writing for the Stage
This eight week elective will focus on writing a sketch comedy using the iO method of long form ensemble based improvisation and other tested techniques used in writing sketch comedy. You will write scenes during this class to be performed on Monday nights before Armando. The class will improvise and re-improvise scenes and write scenes from improvised ideas. You will be forced to trust your own instincts, and those of your ensemble members, while initiating bold scenes based on improvised material. It will allow you to improvise a scene, take a note, try the scene again applying the note, and discover what comes next. This class will be based on spontaneity as well as calculation. The first two weeks will be spent improvising in class on Friday, and creating ensemble. The last six weeks will involve class on Fridays and a show on Monday nights to try out material. There is a possibility that the Monday show might develop in to a run upstairs at iO. There will be a three week period of evaluation, then iO will decide. You must have completed at least Level 3 of iO Training or if you haven’t completed level 3 at iO, then you should have completed at least a minor in theater or the entire program at Annoyance or the conservatory at 2nd City.
Cost: $300
Level 3 - Spec Script
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Cost: $300