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.

Improv for Actors: Ages 12-16

Saturdays 11:00-12:30
September 11- November 20, 2010
Showcase: November 20 at 6pm
Instructor: Asaf Ronen
Fee: $175

Fun-damentals of Improv: Ages 9-11

Saturdays 11:00-12:00
September 11- November 20, 2010
Showcase: November 20 at 6pm
Instructor: Amira Wizig + guests
Fee: $125

Imagination Investigation: Ages 7-8

Saturdays 10:00-11:00
September 11- November 20, 2010
Showcase: November 20 at 6pm
Instructor: Amira Wizig + guests
Fee: $125

Games for performance: Ages 12-16

Tuesday 1:00-2:30
September 7 – November 23 (12 weeks)
Showcase on November 16.
Instructor: Jessica Arjet
Fee: $190

Scenes for Performance: Ages 12-16

Tuesdays 2:30-4:00
September 7 – November 23 (12 weeks)
Showcase on November 16.
Instructor: Jessica Arjet
Fee: $190

Fun-damentals of Improv: Ages 9-11

Tuesdays 11:00-12:30
September 7 – November 23 (12 weeks)
Showcase on November 16.
Instructor: Jessica Arjet
Fee: $190

Imagination Investigation: Ages 7-8

Tuesdays 10:00- 10:50
September 7 – November 23 (12 weeks)
Showcase on November 16.
Instructor: Jessica Arjet
Fee: $130

Class Descriptions:

Improv for Actors

Improv is an excellent tool for becoming a better actor. Improv is an incredibly fun. Put them together and you have the best way ever to work on your acting skills. You’ll learn to have authentic feelings, fresh reactions, strong characters, and complex feelings, all while having a fantastic time. Everyone knows that you learn better when you are having fun, so by the end of this class you will be a genius.

Imagination Investigation

Delve into improv with this fun and playful class. We will use imaginative games to learn stage craft, storytelling, character, and teamwork. This class is a great place to discover the fun and excitement of improv and comedy.

Fun-damentals of Improv

Learn how be positive, take risks, and focus on the people you’re working with. We’ll learn about timing, story structure, building character, and more improv games than you can shake a stick at. This class will be a fun and supportive environment for kids to start focusing on what makes improv work.

Games for Performance

This is a fast paced exciting class that will work on the various games that will make a fantastic performance. We’ll work on the rules and strategies for making the games as fun as possible both for the improvisor and the audience. Although you will have the opportunity to perform, it is not mandatory. Times and dates for out of class performances will be determined before the class begins. If you enjoy the comedy aspects of Improv and/or want to be a comedian this class is for you. Requirements: Previous classes or experience with improv or Improv Basics Workshop and Energy!

Scenes for Performance

This is a full on work out for your acting skills. We will get in there and work the scenes to make them as full and rich as possible. Including playing with character, timing, interactions, reactions, and narrative structure. If you like the Story and Acting elements of improv or want to hone your acting skills,this class is for you. Although you will have the opportunity to perform, it is not mandatory. Times and dates for out of class performances will be determined before the class begins. Requiremnts: Previous classes or experience with improv or Improv Basics Workshop and Focus!

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.