Performance Improv Courses
You can chose to follow the style of improv you enjoy the most in our new ‘performance pathways’ - Premise, Narrative or Organic. Each pathway has 2 levels of advanced training, and will open audition and performance opportunities.
Performance Levels
Our performance level improv courses are for students who have passed our Foundation Level 3 Game course. These courses train you to be a show ready comedy improviser working on your on-stage skills and developing you as a comedic performer. Each pathway focuses on a specific style, approach or format.
At the FA we value truthful and grounded choices in scenes, we also love to dig into the comedy theory of ‘why’ certain scenes work and others don’t, and we’re proud to give more in depth notes on students performance.
Performance level improv is about putting everything you’ve learnt into practice to create a show in front of an audience. Adding a live audience pushes you as a performer and it’s a real milestone as a student to find an audience react and enjoy those skills you’ve been honing in class. It does work!
Great For:
★ Building Confidence
★ Living in the Moment
★ Having Fun and Meeting People
★ Becoming a Better Performer
“Ambika credits her organic impulses on screen to her comedy background, a mix of sketch shows, stand-up and improv. In 2024, her group, the Free Association, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe for a fourth time (post–One Day, their shows all sold out). “
“Improv made me a better writer, it made me a better performer, it made me more relaxed on stage,” she says. “It made me more relaxed coming into auditions, knowing that I could just deal with anything that came out.”
FA Alumni Ambika Mod in GQ
Performance Pathway Options
Premise Pathway
8 week courses or 4 day intensives | 2 advanced Levels
Premise improv is any improv show which initiates its scenes with a comedic idea taken from the ‘opening’ to the show - such as a monologue, interview, video etc. etc.
Premise improv tends to get to the comedy quickly by distilling the fun ideas from the opening and initiating scenes with a game ready to go!
£335
£335
Organic Pathway
8 week courses and 4 day Intensives | 2 Advanced Levels
Organic improv shows take a suggestion from the audience and start! No openings, no bells and whistles, the audience give you something and you immediately begin. Organic improv requires performers to really commit and listen to uncover what’s fun about their scene as it develops, and to constantly reinvest in discovery within each scene and within the show as a whole!
£335
Narrative Pathway
8 week courses or 4 day intensives | 2 Advanced Levels
Narrative improv focuses on telling a story to the audience from beginning to end. Narrative improv stretches improvisers’ abilities to establish and maintain characters with strong wants and motivations that power an entire show, to learning how to discover and guide a story as it unfolds from their performance, and how to make bold choices that create climactic moments of change and resolution.
