Level 1: Intro To Improv

Spontaneity. Playfulness. Listening. Trust. Honesty.

Learn the basic fundamentals of improv comedy and meet cool new people in the process! Our courses are designed to help students unlock their inner creativity in a fun and supportive environment. Whether you want to learn more about the comedic process to become a better writer/actor/performer, or you just want to loosen up and improve your communication skills while becoming more comfortable in your own skin, the lessons of improv we teach work to build your confidence both on-stage and off. This class will teach you how to celebrate who you are and to find truth in comedy through a series of improv and acting exercises that focus on honesty, spontaneity, playfulness, and saying “yes, and.”

TIANA STUART (she/her) is an actor, improvisor, musician, writer, and director.  Tiana discovered a love for improv comedy when she lived in Amsterdam from 2016-2019 where she studied long-form improv at the world-renowned Boom Chicago under Michael Orton-Toliver, who combined curriculums from both Boom Chicago and The Free Association out of London. She then moved back to the U.S. where she graduated from Coldtowne's conservatory program in 2022. You can now catch her goofing around on multiple House Teams at Coldtowne and in other troupes. Tiana co-wrote and directed Twinsies, a comedic short-film that has garnered 25 award nominations and 4 wins, including Best Comedy at the Austin Indie Fest. Tiana is also a co-producer of the Lysistrata Women's Comedy Festival, a four-day comedy festival celebrating the collective power of women. You can catch her in HBO's Love and Death and other films and commercials. She is represented by the Zephyr Talent Agency.

No lesson plans. Just a steady stream of scenework to help you pinpoint your individual tendencies. Find out what your strengths are and where you could explore further. Working in a non-stop series of improv reps, you'll learn what your patterns are and how to break them through personalized challenges. Great for intermediates who want to develop new skills and for professionals who want to keep fresh.

ASAF RONEN is the author of Directing Improv: Show the Way By Getting Out of the Way. He regularly performs, teaches and produces in Austin, was Education Director at The Institution Theater for eight years and is currently the Conservatory Director at ColdTowne Theater. He is also a Producer and Education Director of Austin’s annual Out of Bounds Comedy Festival. He has taught and performed improvisation in Canada, Great Britain, Norway and in twenty-eight of these United States with such groups as the B. Iden Payne Award winning Confidence Men (improvised plays in the style of David Mamet) and imp (mostly silent improv). He was also producer on TRUST US, THIS IS ALL MADE UP, a documentary on legendary improvisers TJ & Dave that premiered at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival in 2009 and helped develop the improvised film Days of Delusion with director Scott Myers. In 1999, Asaf founded the improv website, YESand.com of which he is Editor-in-Chief.

Prerequisite: must have taken a Level 2 improv class at ColdTowne.

Strong group work, or “group mind,” is the focus of Level 3, where students take a deeper look at their scenework and begin to create shows that are more than just a montage of disconnected scenes. While continuing to strengthen and build on the lessons of past levels, various storytelling techniques and other skills are introduced to help students go from improvising a single scene to creating an entire longform improv show. This class includes a student performance!

MIKE OOI is delighted to be part of the ColdTowne teaching team. A Texas native, Mike earned his BFA in Theatre just up the road at Southwestern University. Most of Mike’s professional career has been spent in Chicago, where Mike worked with several companies as an actor, director, playwright, and technician. Before leaving Chicago, Mike turned his attention to sketch, improv, and on-camera work, graduating from the Sketch Writing Program at The Second City. Since moving back to Texas, Mike continues to work professionally in theatre, improv, and on camera. Currently, Mike teaches younger students at ZACH, and performs with the ColdTowne house team, Dr. Jack. Mike’s credits include NBC’s Chicago Fire as well as several commercials, voice overs, and industrials. Mike is represented by Pastorini-Bosby.

Prequisite: must have taken a Level 5 improv class at ColdTowne.

In Level 6, you'll take everything you've been learning for the past year and apply it to creating and performing your class's own form. You'll also get a series of showcases at the theater that run concurrently with the class and culminate in a graduation show and ceremony. You get a certificate and everything!

This class includes a 4 showcase performances including a graduation performance.

TIANA STUART (she/her) is an actor, improvisor, musician, writer, and director.  Tiana discovered a love for improv comedy when she lived in Amsterdam from 2016-2019 where she studied long-form improv at the world-renowned Boom Chicago under Michael Orton-Toliver, who combined curriculums from both Boom Chicago and The Free Association out of London. She then moved back to the U.S. where she graduated from Coldtowne's conservatory program in 2022. You can now catch her goofing around on multiple House Teams at Coldtowne and in other troupes. Tiana co-wrote and directed Twinsies, a comedic short-film that has garnered 25 award nominations and 4 wins, including Best Comedy at the Austin Indie Fest. Tiana is also a co-producer of the Lysistrata Women's Comedy Festival, a four-day comedy festival celebrating the collective power of women. You can catch her in HBO's Love and Death and other films and commercials. She is represented by the Zephyr Talent Agency.

Prerequisite: Must have taken an improv class at ColdTowne or elsewhere.

Strengthen your two person scenes using characters, relationships, and finding & playing “The Game.”

Building on the fundamentals from Level 01, students will begin to practice skills and techniques that strengthen their scenes and characters. Concepts will be introduced to help create deeper characters and relationships more quickly, while keeping things fun! Students will learn how to identify patterns within their scenes to create “The Game”: the engine that drives comedy in an improvised scene or sketch. This class includes a student performance!

DANI GONZALEZ is a comedian based in Austin, Texas. She is a 2017 graduate of ColdTowne's program and has been performing ever since. She is a current member of Midnight Society, one of Austin's longest-running troupes, and has been a member of troupes such as Say Uncle, Stool Pigeon, and Prima Donas (Latinuats) to name a few. She has performed in multiple festivals with her sketch and improv groups.

Prerequisite: Level 3 or higher in an established improv program.

Create believable characters that exist under the imaginary circumstances created by the scene. Practice supporting a base reality by accepting the gifts that the moment has already provided. Improve your group scenes by discovering what your imagination can find between the lines of dialogue.

CLIFTON HIGHFIELD has been teaching and performing in Austin for over a decade. He has studied comedy at Second City, ImprovOlympic, iO West, and UCB in Detroit, Chicago, and LA. Clifton has taught scores of comedy classes at various theaters, festivals, comedy clubs, schools, and workplaces across the US and is currently a faculty instructor at The Fallout Theater. Clifton has performed in over a thousand shows across the United States and currently performs in The Sunday Harold with Candy Necklace at Coldtowne Theater.