Performance Art: Intro to Improv Youth Class Ages 14-18

Ruston Artisans Improv Class for Youth, ages 14-18 years will be held Friday, August 9th, 2019 from 3:30pm - 6:30pm

$25 per youth. Workshop Instructed by Amara Arielle Zabolotniy

Curious about improv? Whether you want to become an improv actor, are already a stage actor and want to improve your improvisational skills, or have never been on stage in your life, this workshop is the perfect place to start! You will get a taste of the techniques, exercises and games used to make improv great. It really is for everyone! The skills learned in this workshop could make you an employee who is quicker on their feet, an actor who saves a scene when someone forgets a line, or maybe the new charades champion on game night! Fire up your imagination and get ready to learn and create!

Class Outline:

Introductions and the Importance of Yes

We will touch on the basics of stage performance, such as projection, 'cheating' to the audience, and stage directions. We will discuss the importance of using your listening skills, properly taking direction and trusting your fellow actors. There will be an introduction to the importance of YES in Improv, and we will run exercises that allow the students to get to know each other and begin building the trust they will need in order to be successful together on stage.

The Art of the Mime

This class will focus on the art of using your body to tell a story without any props. Touching briefly on the history of mime, we will discuss it's importance to us as improv actors. We will do miming techniques created by the famous Marcel Marceau, and in the second half of class focus on combining what we have learned about miming and he importance of YES into fun improv games.

Creating a Rich Character

In improv, you have to e able to make something interesting out of very little information. This class will focus on exactly that. Students will practice creating complex characters on the fly and integrating them into exercises we worked on in the previous classes.

Working as a Team to Build a Scene

Using what we have learned from the study of miming objects and creating interesting characters, we will start to create full scenes and places. This class will be heavily focused on the students working together on stage, concentrating on listening to and reacting to each other. We will begin practicing interesting short form games that are good for performing in front of an audience.

Performing for an Audience

In our final class students will learn how to listen to and react to an audience, and how to work with the 'random audience member'. We will discuss comedy and how to play off laughs, and how to react when an audience isn't reacting like you expected. The rest of class will be focused on preparing for their first live performance.