We’re really excited to be bringing over two of our favourite improvisers – Will Hines and Connor Ratliff from the Upright Citizens Brigade.

Will is one of the best teachers of improv we’ve ever worked with. He ran the UCB Training Centre in New York and is the author of the ludicrously titled “How to be the Greatest Improviser on Earth”.

Connor is on the Stepfathers (The UCB’s flagship team team) and every week *kills it* on ASSSSCAT, the UCB’s favourite show. Will Hines’s book could be called “How to be the Greatest Improviser on Earth: i.e. Connor Ratliff” and no one would complain. He also has one of the funniest lines in Don’t Think Twice.

Sep 21, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM £30

Sep 22, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM £30

Sep 23, 2017 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM £30

Sep 24, 2017 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM £30

Sep 25, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM £30

Congratulations, you just started an improv scene and now you are pretending to be X. (Not Malcolm or the American punk band, X the variable! Imagine it is any improv character you might be likely to step out as.) This character probably will cease to exist within the hour, maybe even within the next few minutes. What do you owe to them? Anything? Nothing? I have some thoughts on this.

Sep 21, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

The basics which we can never practice too much: saying yes. Taking the offer. Using what’s given to you — to unpack it, to be inspired by it, to be affected by it. A good improviser can get a whole lot out of simply accepting the offer of the previous line. Let’s get that skill honed.

Sep 22, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

What a great, lively title! Well, it sounds kinda heady but this is actually simple. One of your jobs as an improviser is to make things feel truthful: the imaginary car you’re driving, the job you just made up, the marriage which someone just declared. And your job as a comedian is to make UNUSUAL things feel truthful: self-destructive, silly, foolish, absurd things — you make them feel truthful, and that’s where you get those sweet sweet laughs! We get into this often easy always crucial skill!

Sep 23, 2017 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Improv scenes tend to get complicated, often because people keep passing up opportunities to keep it simple, overlooking ideas in the hope that something “better” will come along. The result is scenes that accumulate a ton of baggage and feel more like work than fun. This workshop will focus on how to keep things simple and avoid “clutter.”

Sep 24, 2017 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Play the game, not the plot. Okay, but what’s the game? Game is the funny part, usually a belief or a behavior. One of the best ways to get game into your bones is by doing second beats. What WAS funny about your first beat? YOU MUST CHOOSE.

Sep 25, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

We’re very proud to welcome We Are Thomasse, hilarious British-American comedy duo, to London for a couple of workshops and a show in addition to their show at Leicester Square Theatre.

Sep 28, 2017 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM £20

Oct 2, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM £25

Learn from viral British-American comedy duo We Are Thomasse how to produce high quality, digital content on any budget. They will detail what you need to get started on pre-production, how to find crew and equipment, how to get creative with the locations available to you, and how to effectively reach an audience online.
They release new videos online every other week and have amassed 10 million views in under two years and want to share what they’ve learned with other artists hungry to get their ideas in front of a worldwide audience.

Sep 28, 2017 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

This workshop is for actors, comedians and non performers who want to know how to make the sketches they are performing as funny as possible with delivering grounded, honest, emotionally connected performances. Sarah and Nick, aka We Are Thomasse, are both classically trained actors who believe that acting for sketch should be treated the same way as acting for drama and comedy on stage or screen. They will teach you how to quickly analyse a sketch, make strong choices, and find out what really matters to each individual character. By the end you will have new tools to be a better sketch performer and better overall actor. And you can take these new acting skills with you into your improv scenes or perhaps, when you produce some digital comedy on a budget!

Oct 2, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

We’re really excited to be bringing over two members of the legendary UCB team Sandino – John Timothy and Alan Stazinski!

John currently performs every Saturday with the UCB NY house team The Curfew. He is the co-writer/co-producer/head sound guy for the mockumentary comedy feature “The Third Party.” Additionally, he does sketch comedy at various outlets online where his videos have been seen by millions. John’s improv interests are in dynamic, action-driven play and large scale world building. He has been doing improv for over 15 years and he remembers every single scene that he’s ever messed up.
Alan is an actor, comedian, and writer living in Los Angeles. He has been at the Upright Citizens Brigade since June 2007. He is also the creator and former host of the popular show The Kaleidoscope. He has been on the House improv teams Sandino, Rocks, and is now on the house team Camp. His one man show Guy’s You Love to Hate ran at the UCB and now his show Umconfortable is currently running there. He can be seen performing all around New York City, on commercials, and across the web. He has taught improv workshops around the world, including New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, London, and Oxford University.

OCT 5, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM £30

OCT 6, 2017 7:00 PM – 10.00 PM £30

OCT 7, 2017 11:OO AM – 2:00 PM £30

Oct 12, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM £30

Oct 13, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM £30

OCT 14 & OCT 15, 2017 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM £100

Why does every Harold have to look the same? As a blueprint, the Harold is one of the best long form improv formats out there, but what if there was more?
This workshop focuses on moving past the cookie cutter Harold format and developing the tools to change the composition of our shows on the fly. We’ll focus on letting the suggestion inform not only the content, but also the structure and mechanics of our shows to create unique, individualized pieces of theatre. If the suggestion is a question, how can we make our shows look more like the answer?

Oct 12, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

This workshop focuses on the improvised longform “the Movie,” created by Del Close with the Family. The class will simultaneously learn how to find games in classic and contemporary movie genres and to simulate film making techniques like camera angles and editing on the live stage. (To clarify — NO CAMERAS INVOLVED, the form is performed live on stage only).

OCT 14 & OCT 15, 2017 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Stop talking about the fun thing and start doing the fun thing. This workshop focuses on how to clarify your thinking about scenes and gameplay to put action in the forefront. We’ll work on developing an action-forward framework for going into scenes and playing them once you’re in them. We’ll also work on how to turn traditionally talky scenes into action and reaction driven scenes. Do more. Talk less.

Oct 13, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

You are already funny. Stop focusing on that. Start focusing on making the scene you are in as real as possible. You are gifted to play a velociraptor juggling d*ld*s, then you be the best velociraptor juggling d*ld*s you can be. Enough with being detached and clever, be honest and emotional.

OCT 5, 2017 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Every scene has the opportunity to have a game, but what if I told you that the game could be found in the first line of the scene? You’d call me insane! Well sanity has no place in this class where we focus on finding game immediately in a scene and trimming the fat.

OCT 6, 2017 7:00 PM – 10.00 PM

Transaction scenes, Fight scenes, and teaching scenes. We are taught not to do them. In this class we find ways to work around this improv traps and build beautiful scenes out of them.

OCT 7, 2017 11:OO AM – 2:00 PM

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