Not “survival of the wittiest”

What should an improv school teach—and how should it teach it?

Ask many actors if they’ve ever taken an improv class and they’ll more than likely tell you “no” and how afraid they are of it. Or they’ll tell you they studied with one of the handful of schools to put it on their resume but they didn’t get much out of it. Why? Because most classes are taught in an atmosphere best described as “survival of the wittiest.” In other words, if you’re funny you do well, if you’re not, you fail.

A training environment that encourages the crushing of one artist for the advancement of another leads to both artists being compromised. For the one squashed, they feel less confident, less able and less likely to take artistic risks in the future. For the one doing the squashing, they tend to end up alone in their work and stuck rehashing their own bag of tricks over and over. And they never challenge themselves or their fellow players to create something better.

This method of improv instruction and those that have come out of the these kinds of schools often set a scary or intimidating example of improv and its training. That’s why actors are sometimes terrified of the whole idea. There is so much judgmental attack, why would anyone want to do it, learn how to do it, or ever risk doing it? And if you’re not trying to be in a sketch comedy show, why bother in the first place? There would be no point.

That is, until now.

What should an improv school teach and how should they teach it?

Improv is ultimately about imagination. Imagination by its definition is the forming of new ideas and concepts that have never been seen or done before. This is the real goal of the true technique of improv – constantly increasing the freedom of one’s creative imagination. Once everything is aligned to the correct goal, one can start to see the breadth of possibility in improvisation training.

At The Acting Center, we’ve researched to uncover and reinstate the complete techniques of improvisation. This includes the exact and comprehensive truths of this art form and all the skills necessary to master it. These techniques are taught to the actor one at a time and built into a stable and universally workable approach applicable to any type of improvisational situation – ad-libbing lines as needed in auditions or on a scripted show, doing sketch work, exploring characters, creating songs out of thin air, and on and on.

Improv helps you find your own style.

The techniques taught are designed to aid the actor to find their own unique style, characters and artistic sense. They open the door to the creative imagination and freedom for the artist, whether it’s dramatic, funny, intense, light or any style in between.

Feel free to explore.

We teach without criticism. As we’ve discovered at The Acting Center, removing criticism from the training of actors gives the them the safety to create new thought and new art in a way that the critique-based system never will. Instead of criticism, we encourage the actor to create and create and create, and thereby find their own voice. Quite simply, it’s just not possible for a teacher to “coach” a student into that kind of certainty of their own artistic viewpoint. Because they’re not taught in an atmosphere where they feel they must defend their choices or second guess them because of constant critique, artists trained in this manner are unshakeable and at the same time, totally open to collaboration,

The goal is creative imagination unleashed. This is now achievable for any actor. This class can open wide the doors of imagination and ability in a way no other class can.

It’s a safe, non-judgmental and professional environment where every actor can discover for themselves new levels of certainty and confidence in their own creative ability. And we look forward to seeing you here.

Classes forming now.