Classes

Saturday Jan 18th 12-4pm $150

(NO USE OF INTERN CREDITS FOR THESE CLASSES)

"Sketch to Improv" workshop. It has 16 students maximum and after I talk about writing sketches through improv, I will get 4 students at a time to improvise a scene. When each scene is over, all the students and I(mostly me) talk about how to make a sketch from the improvised scene that was just done - how to build up the comedy, build on the characters and create a story for this new sketch, we're making. Then we do the scene again, as a more prepared comedy sketch. At the end of the class, the students do improvs again and this time, work on their own to make them into sketches. Then they perform them and I give them notes.

Sunday January 19th 12-4p $150

(NO USE OF INTERN CREDITS FOR THESE CLASSES)

"One Line Premise" workshop. Each student must bring in a one line premise for a comedy sketch like "What if a guy was $10 short of being a millionaire" and the group and I(mostly me, again) break down each premise and I will help them see how they can write it as a scene. And a feature of this workshop is that I want them to go home and write a comedy sketch from their premise. Then they email it to Amey and Kevin will email his notes for each students sketch. This workshop is a writing workshop and we will not be improvising or performing

SILENT STORYTELLING PART 2

Dec 1st & 8th 1-3pm

$40

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE TAKEN PART 1 TO TAKE THIS CLASS!

When language is striped away, what essential pieces are left to tell a story? Learn to open up space through breath and gaze alone. Through physicality and full articulation of the body we allow the audience into a world of your our design. 

Skeleton Kii is a Denver based clown with training in the Lecoq pedagogy of neutral mask from the Pig Iron Theatre in Philadelphia. 

Speak with Confidence: Improv for Public Speaking with Brian McCarthy

Date: Sunday, December 15th 1-3p
Location: Chaos Bloom Theater
Cost $20

Ever get nervous speaking in front of a crowd?

This workshop is packed with fun improv games designed to help you become a confident public speaker

You'll learn to get out of your head and into your body, so you can:

-- Overcome stage fright & imposter syndrome

-- Think on your feet and avoid freezing up under pressure

-- Feel confident & comfortable speaking and presenting -- even if you’re a shy introvert

You’ll also learn how to add more energy, spontaneity, and passion to your message. So your audience is engaged and eager to hear more. Whether you’re presenting to a room of executives or speaking to a packed auditorium, this will help you perform at your best when the spotlight is on you.

About Brian: Brian is an improviser who has performed regularly in Denver for the past 5 years and in festivals across the US. He's a certified coach and helps professionals conquer fear, build lasting confidence, and perform at their best at work while having more fun.

January 12th/19th/26th 1-3pm

at Chaos Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway

The Power of Mask Work for improvisors: Allowing the body to express what the face can not.

Wearing a mask in theater training means committing fully to your physical self. Your entire body becomes the instrument for conveying thoughts, emotions, and narratives.

In this workshop you will:

• Learn how to create dynamic and engaging characters with physical expression rather than words.

• Find the truth of unexplored personas within yourself: personas you can use to come alive on stage.

• Gain confidence with instinctual movement, rather than thought.

• Discover how to use your body, the breath, and the space around you to convey the inner life of a believable character.

• Learn methods to portray heightened emotions.

• Read your scene partner more deeply.

Michael has studied acting and scene study at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. He is one of the founding members and performs for the contemporary Clown Troupe Idiot Theatre. He performed with the Commedia dell’Arte troupe Tut Zanni at Denver’s Savoy Theatre. He directed the one act play “You Go,” at the Wheat Ridge Theatre Company’s stage. Mike is an improvisor performing in Denver, and has written and performed sketch comedy with the group Midnight Snack in Denver and with the Parker Players in Parker, Colorado. He has studied Narrative Improvisation with the group PGraph in Austin, Texas.

The Art of Flirting with Bethany Roberts & Maddie Roger’s

January 26th 1-3p ($20)

The purpose of this class is number one to have fun. Flirting does not have to be romantic, it is just a fun way to interact with people and make friends. I’ve been social dancing for 10 years and have danced with over 1000 strangers that I never have met before, so I am an experienced flirt. I thought it would be fun to teach you all some of the things that work for me.

This class is founded in CONSENT. The beauty of flirting is, it is a way to gauge if someone is interested in interacting with you without being explicit. It is like dipping your toes in really cold or really hot water to see if you want to go in.

This class involves these categories: Eye contact, Conversation, and Physical Touch.

Eye contact is the first way to see if someone is interested in you. In college, my friend and I had this phrase called “Trap 'em with your eyes”. We would look at people from across the room and smile. That alone 9/10 would get them to come over and talk to us. Eye contact is powerful. In dance, one of the ways you ask people to dance with you is by making eye contact. After eye contact comes conversation, then sometimes some flirty physical touch

Sundays February 9th/16th/23rd 1-3pm at Chaos Bloom Theater

$60

1. Basics of Mime work and spacial work.

   1. We will explore the 3 key elements of space work. The object's form, the object's location in space, and the object's relationship to your body.

   2. We will learn exercises that can help build muscle memory for existing in well formed spaces.

   3. We will explore the idea of specificity in object work that is separate from accuracy.

2. Discovering your space and discovering your character through environment.

   1. We will show how specificity and process are often more important that accuracy of object work.

   2. We will learn exercises that focusing on discovering things about our characters and relationships through specific object work.

3. Using environment to slow your play while deepening your connections, characters and stakes.

   1. We will focus on scene work that centers on object work to establish characters, stakes or themes.

   2. We will practice exercises that will help us maintain object work throughout the scene.

   3. We will explore the ways in which subtle choices about object work can have a large impact on our scenes.

4. practice playing with an environmental focus.

   1. We will use exercises and scene work to highlight perspectives around object work

   2. For example it is often more important to build context and create attitude around an environment to project where the characters are living than it is to mime the objects accurately in the space.

Puppetry with Natalie Lien-Bowdish & Jared Ramirez

Sunday March 2nd/9th/16th 1-3pm

Chaos Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway

Join Denver comedy locals, Natalie & Faron as your guides amid the thrilling and profound experience of externalizing your self expression through the freeing art of puppetry. Whether you are new to puppets, improv, or performance in general, these tenured instructors are here to take you step by step “by hand” into furthering your artistic enrichment via puppetry. The course will cover puppet manipulation 101 as well as touch on the clown pedagogy Faron & Natalie apply to their specific brand of high-excitement audience interactive puppetry techniques. You will leave this class with a deep well of puppetry resources as well as confidence to go out there and be your authentic weirdest self on stage.

Improv Salon Initiations w/ Asa Erlendson

Sunday March 23, 30th and April 6th 1-3pm

This three-part workshop on Initiations will look at the starts of scenes through multiple lenses, ranging from the interpersonal to the physical and spatial as well as the verbal. The second part will continue the work of the first, but it will primarily focus on initiating premises. Fun! Suitable for beginners or advanced players who want to revisit a fundamental aspect of a scene: the start.

Now with an extra day!

Improvised Rapping with Megan Miles

Sunday April 27th & May 4th 1-3pm

At Choas Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway

Join Megan8Miles for 2 hours of Freestyle Fun! Explore basic rhyming techniques, storytelling, finding the beat, rap battling and more! Whether it's your first time on the mic, or your 50th...this workshop will challenge your rap skills, build confidence, and most importantly...allow you to have fun!

About the Instructor: Megan8Miles has been freestyle rapping since 2011. She co-created Denver's Original Hip Hop Improv Team SuperBaby. She performed in her first rap battle in 2012, and went on to compete in an additional 10 battles. In 2016, she moved to New York where she studied improv and sketch comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade. Megan was also an original graduate of Freestyle Love Supreme Academy (A Hip Hop Improv School Co-Created by Lin Manuel of Hamilton). 

In the Spring of 2024, Megan competed in Denver's "Who Got The Juice" Freestyle Rap Battle, which was judged by Charlie Clips (Wild N' Out) and SuperNatural (Godfather of Freestyle Rap). 

In the Fall of 2024, She was also a contestant in Denver's $5280 Body Bag Battle competition.