Acting Techniques: Improvisation & Character Development

Improvisation is a valuable tool for actors to use while exploring a role. It allows you to be fully engaged during your performances, which in turn helps create nuanced, authentic performances. Taught by a professional acting coach, this course is designed to make you feel comfortable improvising while strengthening your active listening, adaptability, and ability to imagine.

The course begins by exploring the foundational principles of improvisation and how to apply them within the context of scripted scenes. You'll then work on how to develop the character you are portraying, using improvisation to inform your character's identity, motivations, and tactics. Through analysis, guidance, and exercises, you'll learn to apply improvisation to help develop character relationships, discern script tone, and craft your emotional and physical interpretation of your character. You'll also learn to take advantage of moments before your scenes and use the spaces between dialogues effectively in your performance.

Improvisation encourages actors to embrace the unknown without a predefined plan. The goal of this course is to practice risk-taking in a safe space, so that you'll have the confidence and courage to do so in auditions and in life.

What you will learn:

✔ Use improvisational techniques to add depth to your acting 
✔ Enhance scripted scenes by improvising the moments before them and infusing dialogue with spontaneity 
✔ Strengthen your character development skills 
✔ Improve your acting skills by learning to embrace mistakes, listen actively, and react authentically