Level 2: Scene Work Strategies

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!

ANTHONY ELLISON spent 9 years in Chicago writing, performing, teaching, etc. After dozens of sketch shows at Second City, Annoyance, CiC, he began to seek guidance in longer comedy within structure. He received an MFA in “The Art of Dramatic Structure”, and won the Scott McPherson Playwriting Award, while also directing for the OU Comedy Org - Black Sheep/Six to Midnight.  His plays have been produced in Chicago, NYC, Austin, Liverpool, Athens OH, Muncie IN, and a lot more.

The Harold

Prerequisite: must have taken a Level 03 Improv class at ColdTowne

If Chicago-style improv were music, The Harold would be the twelve-bar blues, the language that’s shared by all improvisers in this tradition. In addition to being a challenging and rewarding form in itself, The Harold is also a great teaching tool, and the skills learned in mastering it are applicable to almost every other form of improv. This level builds on and challenges all of the skills the students have learned up to this point. Students weave together multiple story lines and characters to create shows that are each a unique tapestry spun from what has come before. This class includes a student performance.

DAVE BUCKMAN has directed, taught and performed at some of the world’s leading improvisational comedy institutions. After several years studying and teaching improv in Chicago, Dave served as Artistic Director of Boom Chicago in Amsterdam for 2 years, where he was fortunate to work with and direct some of the funniest people working in television and web-based sketch comedy today. After Europe, Dave worked as a director and teacher at The Second City in Chicago. He has directed MainStage shows at ColdTowne: Bigfoot, the musical, Austin Translation, Barney Biller Dark Night, The Roast of St, Nick, Eye for an iPhone and Shanty Town Lake. The Second City: Who’s yer Baghdadi?” (Cleveland), World’s Gone Wild” (Touring Company) and Deficit Comedy Jam (Touring Company) Boom Chicago: Your Privacy is our Business, Europe, We’ve Created a Monster, The Future is Here and it is Slightly Annoying. In 2002, he directed “Boom Chicago: RockStars” only the second stage-swap with The Second City’s Main Stage in its 50 year history.

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.” Find out when the next classes begin by clicking register!

AMY KNOP (she/her) is an experienced teacher and prolific performer, producer, and director of improv at ColdTowne since 2016 -- including as B. Iden Payne-nominated director of "My Own Worst Enemy", "It's Britney, Bitch", and producer of sold-out runs of "Angola," "Old Love," "The Rose," and more. She has toured with Prayer Circle Comedy (Denver Improv Fest, Dallas Comedy Festival, Big Little Comedy Fest), performed in multiple ColdTowne mainstages, co-captains Fallout's Saturday night house team, and been managing director of Austin Sketch Fest since 2019. She is a graduate of ColdTowne Conservatory and Advanced Studies programs and performs every Friday with "Austin Chronicle Best Of" nominees "A Very Special Episode." She loves welcoming new performers and showrunners into the Austin improv community!

Advanced Scene Work

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!

DREW WESELY graduated from ColdTowne Conservatory in 2008, started as a Teacher’s Assistant in 2011, and became an improv teacher in 2015. He graduated from ColdTowne Conservatory’s Advanced Graduate Improv Studies program in 2016. He hosted the ColdTowne Theater monthly improv jam, and currently hosts his independently operated weekly drop-in improv class/jam. Instructors from UCB, iO, The Annoyance and The New Movement have either coached or taught him in classes or workshops.

THIS IS AN AUDIT SLOT. Which means you will be able to watch, but will not be able to directly participate in exercises or scenework. There will be an option to upgrade to a full slot when there are any available.

The TJ and Dave workshop focuses on two person scenes as the basis to work on the basics of Improvisation. We will use the ideas of honesty and the moment at hand as starts for our scenework. We will also explore the concepts of Heat and Weight and paying close attention to delve into relationship and the meaning of the moment we have inherited when the lights first come up.

Since 2002, TJ & DAVE began performing at the iO Theater in Chicago.  In 2006 they began an Off Broadway run, performing monthly at The Barrow Street Theatre in New York City. The 2009 South by Southwest Film festival included the documentary "Trust Us, This is All Made Up" directed by Alex Karpovsky, which chronicles a "T. J. and Dave" performance. The Chicago Reader has described the show as "an hour of subtle character development, verbal facility, and pantomimic agility that anticipates and plays off the audience's reactions.

The TJ and Dave workshop focuses on two person scenes as the basis to work on the basics of Improvisation. We will use the ideas of honesty and the moment at hand as starts for our scenework. We will also explore the concepts of Heat and Weight and paying close attention to delve into relationship and the meaning of the moment we have inherited when the lights first come up.

Since 2002, TJ & DAVE began performing at the iO Theater in Chicago.  In 2006 they began an Off Broadway run, performing monthly at The Barrow Street Theatre in New York City. The 2009 South by Southwest Film festival included the documentary "Trust Us, This is All Made Up" directed by Alex Karpovsky, which chronicles a "T. J. and Dave" performance. The Chicago Reader has described the show as "an hour of subtle character development, verbal facility, and pantomimic agility that anticipates and plays off the audience's reactions.

THIS IS AN AUDIT SLOT. Which means you will be able to watch, but will not be able to directly participate in exercises or scenework. There will be an option to upgrade to a full slot when there are any available.

The TJ and Dave workshop focuses on two person scenes as the basis to work on the basics of Improvisation. We will use the ideas of honesty and the moment at hand as starts for our scenework. We will also explore the concepts of Heat and Weight and paying close attention to delve into relationship and the meaning of the moment we have inherited when the lights first come up.

Since 2002, TJ & DAVE began performing at the iO Theater in Chicago.  In 2006 they began an Off Broadway run, performing monthly at The Barrow Street Theatre in New York City. The 2009 South by Southwest Film festival included the documentary "Trust Us, This is All Made Up" directed by Alex Karpovsky, which chronicles a "T. J. and Dave" performance. The Chicago Reader has described the show as "an hour of subtle character development, verbal facility, and pantomimic agility that anticipates and plays off the audience's reactions.

The TJ and Dave workshop focuses on two person scenes as the basis to work on the basics of Improvisation. We will use the ideas of honesty and the moment at hand as starts for our scenework. We will also explore the concepts of Heat and Weight and paying close attention to delve into relationship and the meaning of the moment we have inherited when the lights first come up.

Since 2002, TJ & DAVE began performing at the iO Theater in Chicago.  In 2006 they began an Off Broadway run, performing monthly at The Barrow Street Theatre in New York City. The 2009 South by Southwest Film festival included the documentary "Trust Us, This is All Made Up" directed by Alex Karpovsky, which chronicles a "T. J. and Dave" performance. The Chicago Reader has described the show as "an hour of subtle character development, verbal facility, and pantomimic agility that anticipates and plays off the audience's reactions.