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.

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.

Level 05: Advanced Forms

Prequisite: must have taken a Level 4 improv class at ColdTowne

Students will build upon their knowledge of the Harold by exploring other improv show formats and structures. These structures include The Deconstruction, Close Quarters, Spokane, and other popular forms. Through practice of these structures, students will hone their abilities while also gaining an understanding of the various parts and workings of an improv form. Understanding how to produce the kind of show you want to put up by creating your own form will be essential for the final level. This class includes a student performance!

Level 05: Advanced Forms

Prequisite: must have taken a Level 4 improv class at ColdTowne

Students will build upon their knowledge of the Harold by exploring other improv show formats and structures. These structures include The Deconstruction, Close Quarters, Spokane, and other popular forms. Through practice of these structures, students will hone their abilities while also gaining an understanding of the various parts and workings of an improv form. Understanding how to produce the kind of show you want to put up by creating your own form will be essential for the final level. This class includes a student performance!

Level 06: Creating a Form

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.

Level 06: Creating a Form

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.

This workshop will serve as a fun, fear-free exploration of improvising through song and dance. Musical structure and approaches will be introduced for total beginners and improvisers with experience in musical shows will get a chance to refine or improve their skills. Improv and/or musical theater experience is welcome, but the only thing required is enthusiasm! Piano accompaniment by Yuki Desouza.

CHRIS GRACE is a comedian and actor you may know from Superstore, This Is Us, PEN15, Broad City, and more. Grace performed his one-man show Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johannson to effusive reviews and sold out crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He's bringing his new show, Sardines, to headline Austin Sketch Fest on Memorial Day Weekend.

This project has been financed in whole or in part by the City of Austin’s Elevate Grant Program. Austin Creative Alliance is a fiscal sponsor of Austin Sketch Fest.

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

If you're an anxious improviser, this class is for you. In this four week class, we're going to slow down your brain so you can speed up your play. Kenny Madison will be giving you tactics, shortcuts, and straight up lazy hack moves that will make you look like you’re confident (without even needing to be!)

All the while, we'll be unlocking the note of what it means to slow down and listen to your fellow players. It's not rocket science – it's just getting out of your own way, noticing the choices you’re already making, and doing it on stage. If it sounds simple, it is. But you just don't know it yet.

KENNY MADISON has been doing improv for 15 years and coaching/teaching for 8 of those years. He currently teaches at Hideout Theatre and has done mainstages at Coldtowne, Hideout, Fallout, and directed 3 shows at The Institution Theater (RIP). In 2024, he directed "What Next?" for FronteraFest's Free Fringe with Gloria Rabil. That made it into Best of Week, which is pretty cool. With Heidi Rogers, he performs as one-half of Kenny/Rogers, which was accepted into the Del Close Marathon in 2018 and tours whenever they can. They currently have a monthly show as the hosts/producers of the After Dark LIVE Adult Comedy Show in Austin.

Whenever he is not keeping busy with that, he's 1/3 of Lasso Cast, a Ted Lasso podcast where he talks with critics, crew, and castmembers from the Emmy Award winning show Ted Lasso. And he also co-hosts the Trek Wars Podcast, which goes through both Star Trek and Star Wars in chronological release order.

When he's not doing any of that, he sleeps.