story
Improvise an entire play/movie from just one suggestion! 8 week course plus show.
Improvise exciting and captivating long-form multi-scene adventures with heroes, heroines, villains, relationships, action sequences, cliff hanging moments of suspense, relationships we care about, improvised special effects, musical underscoring and most of all lots of fun!
We’ll be looking at narrative structure, cause & effect, what happens next, the circle of expectation, character archetypes, character objectives, making it matter, love and hope, relationships, heroes and villains, story spine, hero’s journey, characters we care about going through emotional change, fun edits, exploring different genres and more!
Character, relationships, scenes, game and emotions are all important in improv, and it’s when these skills are all put together in harmony with STORY that improv really goes to another dimension.
By the end you’ll be able to improvise an entire play/movie as part of a team from just one suggestion!
next available dates
Dates:
Every Thursday for 8 weeks from Thursday 18th September 2025, plus show on Thursday 13th November 2025. SOLD OUT
Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 1st October 2025, plus show on Monday 24th November 2025. SOLD OUT
Time: 7pm – 9pm.
Teacher: Steve Roe.
Price: £235. Either payable all at once or £100 at time of booking and £135 when the course starts.
Venue: Charles Dickens School, Toulmin Street, London Bridge, SE1 1AF.
Tubes: London Bridge or Borough.
Ages: 18+
This is an advanced course designed for people with previous long-form improv experience. You must have completed levels 1-4 before signing up for this course.
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 has also taught improv at East 15 Drama School, Imperial College London and Oxford University, and to various corporate clients including Google, Facebook, Comedy Central, Accenture, 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 produces and directs Hoopla’s house team programme.
He continues to support countless other shows that have popped up from Hoopla workshops and is influential in growing the UK’s improv scene.
faqs
What comes after this course?
We have a variety of other advanced improv courses that would be suitable.
Who is this suitable for?
People with previous improv experience who want to learn and experiment with improvised narrative and longer stories. You don't need previous narrative experience, we'll cover that in the course.
How much improv or acting should I have done before doing this course?
Our Level 4 improv course or a similar amount elsewhere. You should already be used to improvising scenes from suggestion and editing scenes together.
What if I can’t make every week?
As we’re forming a team over the course it’s best not to miss more than one session over the course. If you think you’ll miss more than one session over the course please wait until another time to do the course.
What if I’m running late?
We’ll be starting each session exactly on time, but if you’re held up at work or whatnot please come along anyway, we’d rather you turned up late than miss a session. You’ll get more out of the workshop if you’re there on time though, as that’s when we discuss the theme for the day and also do all of our warm ups.
What’s the class size?
The group size is going to be limited to 16 people, and averages around 14 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. It’ll be fun as we get to know each other and build a team together.
course content
Each workshop consists of some fun back to basics warm ups, then some awesome exercises on narrative, scene work and character skills, followed by putting it together into epic improvised movies/plays each week.
Topics over the course include a selection from the list below. We adjust the exact topics from course to course as we adapt to each group.
- The circle of expectation and being obvious.
- Building a captivating world of location, characters and relationships.
- Playing relationships and emotions to create stories.
- Creating a protagonist we care about.
- What happens next.
- Cause & effect and the power of the word “because”.
- Reincorporating and justifying story elements.
- Narrative structures including Love Hope Death, Story Spine, Fairytale and Hero’s Journey.
- Big themes. Love! Hope! Death! Rebirth! Good vs Evil!
- Character archetypes including heroes, mentors, heralds, friends and villains.
- Objectives and making it matter.
- Characters and relationships we care about going through emotional change.
- Physical improv including chase scenes, fight scenes and lots of action.
- Hoopla fun cards to encourage play.
- Improvised CGI!
- Musical underscoring to inspire emotion.
- Focus and staging.
- Editing multiple scenes together.
- Different genres to inspire great stories.
We adjust the exact topics from course to course as we adapt to each group.
Most of all having loads of fun improvising exciting plays/movies from scratch!