4 week Class | December 9 &10, 16 & 17

A good improviser who wants to be a great improviser needs to master some of the traditional skills of scripted theatre. Increase your awareness and skills to:

• Sharpen audience focus

  • Great actors make sure every moment of the performance is focused, polished,  and effective. How do you do this instantly while you and your partner make stuff up? 

• Build deeper, more relatable relationships on stage. 

  • Develop heightened awareness of endowments, and  learn to yes, and  given circumstances to flesh out your characters and relationships.

• Develop your stage technique

  • Projection, enunciation, and physical presence hugely affect your on-stage work. 

• Play with emotional reality

  • Good scenes can be ruined by the improviser’s need to “find the funny.” Great actors, on the other hand, relish the chance to access real emotion. There’s nothing wrong with being funny, but audience “comedy fatigue” is a real thing!

Prerequisite: Completion of both Fundamentals classes or the equivalent. Talk to the instructor if you aren’t sure you qualify.  

Michael Burns has over 50 years experience in the theatre. He studied acting at SUNY Purchase, then worked with David Shepherd, (founder of The Compass, the first improv theatre in the US.)  Before founding The Mop & Bucket Company and the Mopco Improv Theatre, Michael acted, wrote, produced, and directed plays for a number of professional and community theatres in the Capital Region and New York City.