The Hideout teaches five levels of improv classes, and we thought it might be illuminating for you to hear from the students in their own words.
Here’s Shruti Saran, a current Level 5 student
“Big Booty Big Booty Big Booty, Ooohhh Yeah!”
“Big Booty number four”
“four to the five”
“five to the nine”
“nine to the booty….”
And so began a level four improv class.
We were warming up, getting the silliness flowing with this ridiculous counting game, and relying on the synergy of large rear ends and numbers to get us in the right mindset for scene work. This is why I love improv. It grants me a few hours a week to be incredibly silly with other people in a space where we are challenged to shape our silliness into something that is better, more entertaining, and usually somewhat coherent – a scene.
Through improv, I have had the opportunity to be a broad range of characters. I’ve acted young, old, pregnant, you name it. In one instance, I played a sexy windmill, something I’d had no past experience with. I’ve learned how to think on my feet, discover character relationships on stage, commit to my character’s goal, introduce tilt, “yes and”, work with the collective input of other improvisers, and conclude scenes in a way that is satisfying to myself and the audience. It is so rewarding to build a scene that is cogent, interesting, and humorous to those watching, especially when you began on stage with neither you nor your fellow improvisers knowing who the heck you were in the what how you were doing anything was happening.
Improv has also been a fascinating journey into my own head. I’m always surprised by what comes out of me in class, realizing that those thoughts were probably floating around in the peripheries of my brain. I also love watching to see what my classmates decide to do on stage. “Aha!” moments run rampant in improv class, and I love it when a brilliant scene leaves me stunned, thinking, “how on earth did they come up with that?” In level one and two, it was so difficult to let go of the natural tendency to want, desperately, to be funny or witty. The need to fill silence and say something immediately was also very pressing, for me at least. Part of progressing through classes at the Hideout was learning that scenes evolved best when you worked intuitively on stage, and that silence could be as satisfying to the audience as talking. When I learned this, the funny and witty moments appeared naturally. It seems so obvious now.
People take improvisational theatre classes for all sorts of reasons. I moved to Austin about one year ago and started taking classes because it looked really fun, I wanted to challenge myself and cultivate a new skill, and I was interested in meeting new people, having just moved to a new city. Improv was challenging, sometimes, but never scary. The Instructors at the Hideout Theatre have built a fun curriculum that is designed to ease you into improv comfortably, even if you’ve never performed before. Ultimately, however, my experience at the Hideout has been defined by the people I’ve met there, who are so entertaining and non judgemental, as well as really, really smart. Improv is a wonderful social catalyst on top of all the other skills it helps cultivate, and I will never forget some of the awesome evenings I had with other improvisers, singing karaoke, watching shows, or just chatting the night away at the Dog and Duck Pub.
Shruti “Stilletos” Saran
Begin the journey that Shruti went on today by signing up for level one.