Why kids' Improv Classes? With improv, kids learn how to:

• Be positive
• Get more creative
• Focus on the people they're working with
• Take risks
• Overcome shyness

These classes create a fun and supportive environment for kids to learn the basics of creating improv, story telling, and stagecraft. The classes are taught primarily through games, play, and improved stories.

Session one: Jan 23 - Feb 27
Session two: Mar 27 - May 1.

Ages 4-6
Saturdays 10-11am Creative Play 6 weeks $60
with Jessica Arjet

Ages 7-10
Saturdays 11am- Noon Play and Improv 6 weeks, $60
with Amira Wizig

Ages 11-14
Saturdays 11-Noon Improv Skills, 6 weeks, $60 with Asaf Ronen

Starting January 19th:

Ages 4-6
Tuesdays, 10-11am Creative Play 6 weeks $60
(second session begins March 2)
with Jessica Arjet

Ages 7-10
Tuesdays, 11-Noon Play and Improv 6 weeks $60
(second session begins March 2)
with Jessica Arjet

Ages 9-11
Tuesdays, 12:30-2pm Fundamentals of Improv   12 weeks $180 with Jessica Arjet

Ages 11-14
Tuesdays 2:00-3:30pm Improv Skills 12 weeks $180
with Jessica Arjet

Six-week classes end Feb 23, with another six-week session running March 2- April 13 (skipping March 16).

Twelve-week classes end April 13.

Class Descriptions:

Creative Play - Pre-schoolers get to exercise their thirst for dramatic play. We use the principles of Improv to teach basic stagecraft, story telling, team work, comedy and dramatic rythym. And we have a whole lot of fun!

Play and Improv - The kids will have a blast learning the fundamentals of Improv, stage craft, storytelling and teamwork. Every week we will learn new games that teach while having a great time.

Story Dramatization - Based on the Process Drama movement, each class starts with a short "hook" activity, and then builds as students and teacher improvise an entirely new story together.

Fundamentals of Improv - Learn how be positive, take risks, and focus on the people you're working with. This class will be a fun and supportive environment for kids to start focusing on what makes improv work.

Talk Show Madness - Middle-schoolers love to talk, so this class gives them the chance to hone presentation and acting skills in the roles of host, guest star, commercial presenter, and more, all while researching and creating character profiles for the parts they'll improvise during a show.

Improv Skills Teens will start honing improv skills like understanding their role in a team, saying "yes!", narrative construction, public speaking skills, and enhancing creativity in this fast-paced and exciting class. We will learn improv games as well as begin to focus on scene work and learn the art of long form improv.

All classes held at the Hideout Theater (617 Congress)

Jessica Arjet, founder of the Flying Theater Machine, is a mom of two who graduated from the Heroes of Comedy Improv School in 2003 and was immediately asked to join the troupe. She can be seen most Saturday nights playing in the "Maestro" improv show at the Hideout. She teaches drama, comedy, and Improv at Zach Scott's Performing Arts School, the Lockhart Community Theater and privately, and runs the Flying Theater Machine, Austin's only improv comedy for kids. She is also a professional Clown (Penelope Foolish) in and around Austin, and grew up in amateur theater playing more roles than she can remember.

Amira Wizig has taken classes and served as a teacher assistant at the Hideout's Heroes of Comedy Improv School. Amira has presented on arts integration and teacher professional development strategies at state and natoinal level conferences, and has taught drama for the Williamstown Theater Festival, the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, the Alley and Main Street Theaters in Houston, and Theater Action Project in Austin. She has a BA in English from Rice University and an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth from UT Austin.

Asaf Ronen is creator and Editor-in-Chief of YESand.com, a website devoted to improvisation, and the author of Directing Improv: Show the Way By Getting Out of the Way. He has been involved in improv since 1990, starting in college and working with Theatresports, ComedySportz and several improv troupes with whom he created original new longform shows.

He resides in Austin where he is Marketing Director of the Austin Improv Collective and producer on TRUST US, THIS IS ALL MADE UP, a documentary on legendary improvisers TJ & Dave that premiered this year at Austin's South by Southwest Festival.

Asaf has taught improvisation in Canada, Great Britain, Norway and in twenty-three of The United States. His directing credits include the all-girl group goga, the improvised comic book adventure show Ka-Baam!!, and Death in the City, a dramatic longform improv piece, at the NY Fringe Festival.

Asaf has taught throughout NYC's public school system as a resident artist through LEAP and New Horizons and as part of Weist-Barron's ACTeen. In 2000, Asaf worked with Cirque du Soleil as a scout for improvisational talent.