K-12 Educational Outreach Shows, Workshops, Residencies, Professional Development
NYC FIELD TRIPS – TOURING NATIONWIDE
IMPROV 4 KIDS – IMPROV 4 TEENS
NOW BOOKING 2017-2018 School Year
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Find out why we have schools coming back for their 10th year in a row.
We host field trips to our theater in Times Square and Regularly Tour NJ, NY, CT
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Get a day of shows & workshops for just $1500
(reg $2000, 4 teaching artists for up to SIX 45-minute sessions)
Single session starting at just $500 in Manhattan. Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx

K-12 Educational Outreach Shows, Workshops, Residencies, Professional Development

Improv Comedy is a ton of fun and a valuable addition to any educational program. We use the laughter from our shows to break down walls of ego and insecurity. Our Workshops introduce concepts of creativity, community and leadership. Our Residencies develop student leaders. Our Professional Development programs teach your staff how to continue the work long after we move on to another school.

FIELD TRIPS OR ASSEMBLY SHOWS

We always recommend starting a program with a show. We introduce the art form to the entire student population and staff, and we introduce ourselves as the fun adults before delivering a message.

The shows are highly interactive. 10-20 students will be invited on the stage with us, while the entire show is improvised on the spot based on audience suggestions. Every 3-5 minutes the MC interacts with the whole crowd for ideas for songs and scenes.

We demonstrate Language Arts (public speaking, story telling), Cultural Arts (Theater, Music) and Character Building (Team Respect, Anti Bully Themes). use our study guides to further tie in our show to every day education plans.

At our club we usually deliver a 75 minute show and Q&A (90-minute total with time to eat a bagged lunch). the midtown Manhattan venue has tables and chairs for convenient lunch and show program. We can easily add a workshop component and we have lunch options as well.

For assemblies we usually run 45-minutes but this varies depending on school schedules (30-60 minutes). Our show is based on 5-minute segments called “games”. We often vary the show based on technical abilities of the school’s performance space and time needs.

WORKSHOPS

Step two is working with your students on the skills that make Improv great. While playing a series of warm-up games, we teach focus, listening, team, respect, public speaking, self confidence and more. We create a fun safe place for all to play. We try to calm those over the top (over actors) to listen and play better with the team, while drawing out the shyest among the students. We tie in a lot of corporate team building concepts (Psychological Safety) as well as social emotional learning.

RESIDENCIES

We have two type of residencies.

1. We work with a group of students on a weekly basis in or after school 8-15 weeks during the entire semester. This group of 10-20 students (recommended class size) learn a number of performance games as well as weekly warm-up and technique building games. These programs create leaders in your school. Each program ends with a performance. We currently run 12 programs in the area at schools and community centers in addition to our own growing public class program.
   
2. Our One-Week Residency combines many elements and is tailored to your school’s needs. We start the week with a show or two (depending on the size of your school). that afternoon we work with your teachers and teach them some games. Our Professional Development serves both as team building exercise and teaching games to use in the classroom. We then spend the rest of the week working with every class. We teach our intro to Improv workshop (30-45 minutes), working with those teachers to develop the power of YES AND…, Story telling and more. The Improv is a fun way to reinforce academic concepts. We finish with a follow up professional development program to discuss way each department can use these game to improv student relationships and production. (More about PDs below)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

We present team building workshops and shows all the time for major corporations. Teachers can really benefit from the Improv program in similar ways. In addition to building a strong team, sales, service and leadership skills, we teach team leaders to use these Improv games in their every day activities. Start a big meeting off with a fun energy passing game. Start the day with a laugh and a smile.

Why not do a fun game that gets the blood flowing and wakes up the individual before a big test. John Hopkins study a few years back demonstrated laughter in the classroom to increase test scores. Laughter increases important hormones that reduce stress and blood pressure. A laughing child is healthier and full of hope – more likely to listen and absorb information and concepts.