Teaching Improv: From Performer to Pedagogue
For good improvisers who've been asked to teach. You can DO it — now learn to explain WHY it works, structure a class, give feedback that changes behavior, and create safety in the room.
Who this is for
- Experienced improvisers who have started teaching or are about to.
- Teachers who want stronger pedagogy, not just more exercises.
Before you start
- Solid personal improv experience and a real interest in helping others improve.
What you'll get
- Explain core improv principles in a way students can actually use.
- Design classes with sequencing, safety, and specific feedback in mind.
- Develop a teaching voice that is grounded without copying your own teachers.
Course syllabus
Move in order. Each thread builds on the one before it.
The System Underneath: Why Improv Works
Before you learn the moves, learn the physics. Improv isn't a collection of arbitrary rules.
The Teacher's Toolkit: From Performer to Pedagogue
You can do improv. Now someone's asked you to teach it. And you've discovered that knowing how to ride a bicycle and knowing how to teach someone to ride...
Building on Offers: The Engine of Scene Work
Every improv scene is a chain of offers given and received. Understanding this chain - and what breaks it - is the first real skill an improviser...
Rep target
Do 10 responses where you name the offer first, then add one specific detail.
Success signal
Your response clearly uses what the other person just gave you instead of replacing it with your own plan.
Transfer
Use this in one real conversation today by echoing the other person's reality before you add your own point.
Presence and Commitment: Being Fully in the Scene
The two invisible skills that separate okay improv from electric improv are presence and commitment.
Rep target
Run 5 short reps where you make one simple choice and play it all the way through with your body, voice, and eye-line.
Success signal
The choice feels easier to follow because you stopped hedging and the other person can immediately read what is true.
Transfer
In one conversation or meeting today, let one honest reaction land fully instead of softening it with qualifiers.