Carl Jung inspired improvisation
Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
From course teacher Steve Roe:
Reading the work of the psychologist Carl Jung has been the most amazing and inspiring experience, and I’ve found it highly relevant to improv.
I see echoes of Carl Jung’s work in the work of improv teachers like Viola Spolin, Keith Johnstone and Del Close, storytelling experts like Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler, and much of the cultural movement of the 50s and 60s.
If improv and acting are about people and their relationships, it makes sense to me to go back to first principles and explore what it means to be a person, and I think Carl Jung’s work is a good start for that.
If creativity involves expressing ourselves, it makes sense to me to go back to first principles and explore what the self actually is, and Carl Jung is a good start for that too.
I’m not a psychologist, I’m an improviser. This course isn’t therapy. It’s an improv course for people who want to explore different parts of themselves on stage and take their improv to a new exciting place.
Most of all I hope the course will help people to bring their full selves to the stage and inspire their next chapter in improv and acting.
online mini-course version
Dates (2 day mini-courses):
Thursday 13th May AND Friday 14th May 2021. BOOK
Time: 7pm – 9:30pm (UK time, BST/GMT+1).
Teacher: Steve Roe.
Price: £40.
Venue:Online using zoom. All details for login for zoom will be emailed to participants on the day of the first workshop.
Ages: 18+
How the online version works:
1. Book your place on this page.
2. On the day of the first workshop we will email you log-in for the zoom chat.
3. You then click on the link in the email to join the zoom chat and enter password.
4. You will just need a laptop with camera and internet connection, everything else will be in the link. Laptops work better than ipads and phones for improv over Zoom.
5. Don’t worry if you haven’t used Zoom before, we start the first session with an overview of how to use it.
real-life full course version
Date: Every Thursday for 6 weeks from Thursday 17th June 2021. SOLD OUT
Time: 7pm – 9pm.
Teacher: Steve Roe
Price: £170. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £85 followed by the remaining £85 once the course starts.
Venue: Theatre Delicatessen Studios, 2 Finsbury Avenue, London, EC2M 2PP.
Tube: Liverpool Street or Moorgate.
Ages: 18+
Covid-19 Safety & Flexibility
We have kept class sizes low to ensure 2 metre distancing can stay in place. We have also redesigned games to make sure physically-distanced improv is still fun, friendly and playful! We also offer full flexibility on bookings to give you peace of mind when planning ahead.
teacher Steve Roe
Steve Roe is the Director and Co-founder of Hoopla and has been teaching improv for over 14 years.
Steve creates a friendly, fun & supportive atmosphere in workshops where people are free to play and be themselves.
Steve has experience of teaching beginners, experienced improvisers, stand ups, drama school students and professional actors.
He teaches improv at East 15 Drama School and Imperial College London, and to corporate clients including Google, Facebook, Comedy Central, Apple, BBC and ITV.
In 2010 Steve founded the UK’s first ever improvised comedy club at The Miller in London Bridge, helping to create a vibrant community of performers and audience.
Hoopla’s Improv Comedy Club was recently recommended by Time Out, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Evening Standard and The Londonist.
Steve has studied improv with Keith Johnstone, Charna Halpern from IO, Patti Styles from Improv Melbourne, Shawn Kinley from Loose Moose, The Annoyance, The Upright Citizens Brigade, Fooling with Jonathan Kay and Clown with Mick Barnfather.
Steve regularly hosts Hoopla’s nights at The Miller, as well as performing, producing and directing various groups across the London improv scene. Steve also directs Hoopla’s house team program.
He continues to support countless other shows that have popped up from Hoopla workshops and is influential in growing the UK’s improv scene.
topics
- Creative Play as a way to find balance and help creativity.
- Exploring our dreams through improvisation.
- Archetypes and applying them to improvised characters and stories.
- Playing the opposite gender to explore your masculine and femine energies, the anima and animus.
- Using family members and other people from your life as inspiration for characters.
- Experimenting with different personas.
- Playing characters that are the opposite of you.
- Improvising as your shadow and owning your whole self on stage.
- Playing characters based on people in life you don’t like, exploring shadows and projections.
- Playing characters in love using the concept of missing energies.
- Exploring the psyche, ego, persona, self, and unconscious and how they apply to improv.
- Introversion and extroversion and switching between the two.
- The eight psychological types and using them to inspire character.
- Finding characters by exploring repressed energies.
- Stages of life and rites of passage as inspiration for scenes and stories.
- The collective subconscious and using it as inspiration for characters and stories.
- Applying Jungian psychology to improv, spontaneity and creativity and looking at how it connects to the birth of modern improv.
faqs
We have followed government guidance to make sure all of our classes are covid-secure, while also working hard to make sure socially-distanced improv is still fun, friendly and playful! We also offer full flexibility on bookings to give you peace of mind when planning ahead.
For additional FAQs please see list below:
What previous experience do I need?
You should have done our Level 1: Beginners Improv Course and Level 2: Performance Improv Course or similar amount of improv or acting somewhere else.
Do I need to have done your Level 3 Long-Form Course first?
No. You are welcome to hop straight into this course after our Level 1 and 2.
How often do you plan to do this course?
This is probably a one-off.
What if I’m running late?
We’ll be starting each session at 7pm. Please don’t book this course if you are likely to be late on a regular basis.
What’s the class size?
In pre-Covid times limited to 16 people - small enough that you get lots and lots of practice and stage time, but big enough that there’s still a lively atmosphere in the workshop. Now limited to around 9-12 people depending on room size to ensure physical distancing stays in place.
Can I pay by instalments?
Yes, you can pay half at time of booking and the other half will be due once the course starts.
Is there a show at the end?
No.