story
Improvise an entire play/movie from just one suggestion!
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!
dates, time, location
Dates:
Every Tuesday for 8 weeks from Tuesday 23rd May 2023, plus show on Tuesday 18th July 2022. BOOK
Time: 7pm – 9pm.
Teacher: Steve Roe.
Price: £230. Either payable all at once or £100 at time of booking and £130 when the course starts.
Venue: The Ship, 68 Borough Road, London, SE1 1DX.
Tubes: Borough or London Bridge.
Ages: 18+
This is an advanced course and is only suitable for people with previous long-form improv experience of our Level 4 course or equivalent.
Dates:
Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 1st February 2023, plus show on Wednesday 5th April 2023. SOLD OUT
Time: 7pm – 9pm.
Teacher: Steve Roe.
Price: £230. Either payable all at once or £100 at time of booking and £130 when the course starts.
Venue: Theatre Delicatessen Studios, 107 Leadenhall Street, EC3A 4AF.
Tubes: Bank, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Aldgate.
Ages: 18+
This is an advanced course and is only suitable for people with previous long-form improv experience of our Level 4 course or equivalent.
Dates:
Every Saturday for 8 weeks from Saturday 14th January 2023, plus show on Saturday 11th March 2023. SOLD OUT
Time: 2pm – 4pm.
Teacher: Chris Mead.
Price: £230. Either payable all at once or £100 at time of booking and £130 when the course starts.
Venue: Theatre Delicatessen Studios, 107 Leadenhall Street, EC3A 4AF.
Tubes: Bank, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Aldgate.
Ages: 18+
This is an advanced course and is only suitable for people with previous long-form improv experience of our Level 4 course or equivalent.
teacher Chris Mead
Chris improvises with the award winning Maydays and sci-fi group Project2.
He is co-founder and Director of The Unmade Theatre Company, specialising in improvised theatre.
Chris is also co-founder of The International Improv Station (formerly The Improv Place) an online international community of experienced improvisers.
Chris has studied improv internationally at iO Chicago, The Annoyance Theatre Chicago and The Hideout in Austin, Texas.
He has performed at various improv festivals internationally including Austin Texas, Norway, Edinburgh, Dublin, Sweden and Barcelona.
Chris studied theatre at Royal Holloway College and University of London.
Chris is one of the Artistic Directors of The Nursery Theatre.
He also hosts YesBot, a podcast dedicated to the theory and craft of improv (but with added exploding robots) featuring leading performers from around the world.
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.
What if another lockdown happens?
The course will be postponed to a later date and your booking and payment will be automatically moved to that date. In the meantime you will receive FREE unlimited online drop-in workshops while waiting for real-life courses to restart.
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 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:
- The circle of expectation and being obvious.
- Building a captivating world of location, characters and relationships.
- 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.
Most of all having loads of fun improvising exciting plays/movies from scratch!