Improv for Everyone!

The Improv Nashville Comedy College is a two-part education. The introductory portion teaches the student the fundamentals of improvisation, builds confidence, creativity, fun, trust, and communication skills!

The intro courses also prepare students to audition for the Comedy College, which features courses in advanced Improvisation, Sketch Comedy, and Musical Improv.

Each class runs six weeks starting after each session's free workshop and lasts two hours. There are five sessions of classes held each year.

The Improv Nashville Comedy College

The Comedy College offers advanced study in improv, sketch, and musical comedy. An audition is required for enrollment.

Comedy College graduates may create performance teams which will be given a regular monthly show time alongside our existing casts. In addition, students enrolled in the Comedy College may perform in 'Behind the Scenes' shows.

Each class meets for six weeks, plus a seventh meeting to review progress, and requires the previous course or instructor approval.

Improv Nashville Faculty: You're IN good hands!

Improv Nashville's founders are also its teaching team! Trained in Boston, Los Angeles and beyond, our teachers have performed in hundreds of shows and taught hundreds of students over the years.

Each Improv Nashville instructor presents our core philosophy in rich and interesting ways that apply both to improv performance and life in general.

Scott Field - Co-Founder

Scott has performed in over 200 shows with the mainstage troupe at Improv Boston from 1997 through 2001. Scott was also featured in long-form showcase shows Blue Screen and Election!, appeared as a guest cast member in TheaterSports and Micetro shows, and performed three First Night shows in Worcester. Scott has studied improvisation with Will Luera, artistic director of Improv Boston, and taken many workshops at IB taught by guest performers and directors including Amy Poehler and Keith Johnstone.

Scott graduated from Swarthmore College and earned a Master's at St. John's College. He has been a middle school history teacher for over nine years.

Emily Volman - Co-Founder

Emily first studied improv at The Groundlings, has since studied musical improv and comedy writing at The Second City LA and taken various workshops with instructors from iO West, The Second City Chicago, Bassprov and Upright Citizen's Brigade. She has performed with different improv troupes in Los Angeles and co-founded Improv Nashville in 2005.

Emily has a B.A. in Music from Loyola Marymount University, has been writing and performing in traditional theatre for over 22 years, is a professional jingle and voiceover artist, having been heard on various commercials from Pepsi to Vermont Tourism and is a freelance writer for the local magazine Nashville PAW.

Cindy Carter

Cindy began her Improv career in Jackson, Mississippi first, as a performer with the group "Capitol City Improv" and later, she co-founded the improv troupe, "Glue". After moving to Birmingham in 2003, Cindy performed and co-wrote sketches for the sketch comedy group "Happy Nowhere". She is now a cast member of Improv Nashville.

Through various workshops, Cindy has studied improv under Improv Olympic's Charna Halpern, the Annoyance Theater's Mick Napier, and members of the Upright Citizen's Brigade and Second City. After graduating in broadcast journalism with a double minor in theater and dance, Cindy has been a journalist in several cities and choreographed numerous Equity and high school musicals along the way. She's also taught improv in Jackson, Birmingham and Nashville.

Intro to Improv A

The student who enrolls in this six-week course is assumed to have little or no stage experience doing either improv or traditional theater. The emphasis is on building confidence, becoming a team player, and having fun.

Students are introduced to the fundamentals of improvisation, storytelling, and listening.

The class creates confident individuals and a bond among them through fun.

This class meets once a week for six weeks. Each class session is two hours.

Intro to Improv B

The student who enrolls in this six-week course is assumed to have taken Intro A, or an equivalent class elsewhere. The emphasis is on strengthening the student's core improv skills, especially improvised scenework.

This class serves as a gateway to the more advanced Comedy College courses. As such, it provides an overview of the ideas the Comedy College courses explore in more detail.

This class meets once a week for six weeks. Each class session is two hours.

Free Improv Workshop

Our 2 hour free workshop is open to anyone! This fun-filled two hours offers a sample of our Intro Sequence.

Participants are introduced to the fundamentals of improv through theater games similar to those seen on 'Whose Line is it Anyway?'

We run five free workshops per year, each on the weekend before the start of a class session.

Monthly Workshops

Each month, Improv Nashville will offer a special workshop aimed at developing specific skills, having fun, and elevating your play style.

These workshops may be taught by special guests or by members of the Improv Nashville cast, and are open to anyone who has completed Intro A or has permission of the instructor.

Past topics have included: Confident Scenes, Game of the Scene, Tag-out Mechanics, Advanced Physicality, and more!

Summer Camps

Would you like to boost the self-assurance and performance skills of your young actors, speakers and debaters? By hiring Improv Nashville to come to your school and hold an in-class, after-school or weekend workshops, you will be giving your students a gift that will last much longer than their school days.

Our experienced and professionally trained workshop leaders know how to build up your young artists in a safe, supportive surrounding where they will learn the fundamentals of improvisation, listening, self-confidence and developing creativity through the use of theatre games and exercises.

Improv 101: Scenework

This course focuses on creating powerful two person scenes. The bulk of the work gets at the physics of scene beginnings. Students will hone their ability to take care of themselves, start anywhere, and stay committed to what they start with.

In addition, the course helps student focus on hearing offers and developing playfulness, following themes, and exploring scene tangents.

Improv 201: Characters

Students in this course create characters with certain values, points of view, physical mannerism, and emotion. The goal is to develop the ability to instantly and confidently develop a believable character.

By the end of the session, students will be able to layer strong characters into solid scenes.

Improv 301: Physicality

The uniqueness of the Improv Nashville approach is the emphasis on physicality, a term that encompasses object work, creating and detailing environments, and creating stage pictures that 'wow' the audience.

This approach enables ensembles to have great action sequences involving the entire cast, kick up the fun, and add depth and subtlety to all scene work.

Improv 401: Longform

In this course, students study the essentials for creating Improv Nashville's signature longform, a one-act play called The Homunculus.

This course covers monologues used to open and close the structure, 'The Round' used as a beginning structure to create a story line and characters, the mechanics of scene editing, such as tag-outs and sweeps, and finding the game in scenes.

Improv 501: Genres

The Improv Nashville style is to play smart. There is no better way to do that than to add genres into the mix. In this final course, students learn some of the important genre basics, from playwrights to movie directors to historical periods.

This knowledge gives the ensemble so much more to hang a story on and build great characters from. At the end of the course, Comedy College graduates will perform their own Homunculus for a live audience.

Sketch 101: Sketch Beginnings

Starting to write is hard. This class will get you through it! Through the use of writing and improv exercises as well as class discussions, you will begin to discover and love your comedic point of view.

You will also learn about the comic premise, the basics of a sketch scene lasting 3 to 5 minutes, and how to create characters. No previous writing experience needed.

Sketch 201: Sketch Structures

There are seven common sketch frameworks, and this course covers them all. You will be writing and writing and editing and editing!

Using the tools from the previous class and lots of readings, you will create a number of polished sketches, ripe and ready for the stage.

Sketch 301: Show Production

This class is all about putting together a sketch show! By the end of six weeks, you will have a number of finalized sketches, cast them, rehearsed them, and put them on stage.

You will work together with your class to produce a 30 to 45 minute sketch show for a live audience. It is a lot more work than an improv show!

Musical Improv 101: Musical Primer

In this course, students learn to play a variety of well-known musical games with skill and confidence. Exercises in musical theory, rhythm, rhyme, song structure, and creating memorable songs will be covered.

Quartet, trio, duet and solo exercises provide a solid foundation in the principles of song creation, following the established agreements of improv and introducing practical knowledge of musical forms, styles and tricks of the trade.

No previous singing or musical improv experience necessary.

Musical Improv 201: Complete Songs

This course reinforces the basics while showing you when to start and end songs, find a hook, and generate melodies. You will work on generating content, using emotion as a starting point and working in both solo and group contexts.

In addition, you will play with more sophisticated musical games and acquire harmonic techniques for the singing improviser.

Musical Improv 301: Musical Styles

Each week you will sing in style! Adding the ability to hit the highlights of a range of musical styles will really kick up your musical improv to a whole other level.

Musical Improv 401: The Musical Improv Show

A Comprehensive workout for actors who sing well, this course offers an advanced approach to all manner of musical improv games.

We will further delve into structure and learn how to create your own structures as well as solidifying the more common ones. This class culminates in a performance.

Elective Classes

The monthly Elective Class, a more advanced version of the Montly Workshop, is limited to Comedy College Students. The elective course is designed to give the various Improv Nashville casts and Comedy College students additional opportunity to hone skills and play with new people.

The goal is to create higher quality actors and build community within the company.