Guest Masterclass: Shortform & Calvinball

Play Out Loud – Short Form Mastery & the Wild World of Calvinball

Step into a weekend built for bold choices, mischievous energy, and full-body laughter.
In this two-day intensive with international improv artist and educator Hayley Kellett, you’ll sharpen your skills in short form games and dive into the glorious, rule-bending chaos of the Calvinball mindset.

Across two dynamic full-day sessions, you’ll explore techniques for fearless play, audience connection, rapid adaptability, and the kind of joyful spontaneity that turns scenes into unforgettable moments.

🎨 Day 1 The Art & Joy of Short Form
Join us for this one-day intensive dedicated to mastering the joy of short form improv games. Practice getting the best suggestion, incorporating audience participation and dialing in on identifying the rules so you can use them to your advantage or playfully break them. This jam-packed joy-ride is for improvisers with a mischievous sense of play, a willingness to take risks and those who love delighting others with their onstage choices.

🤝 Day 2 – Calvinball: Embrace the Ever-Changing Game
Welcome to a format where the only stable rule is that the rules won’t stay the same.
You'll learn the format "Calvinball" — a game whose mechanics shift as it’s played. This session invites you to explore improvisation through the lens of surprise, invention, and playful anarchy.

You’ll experiment with:

• Creating (and abandoning) rules on the fly
• Following your impulse even when the “game” mutates mid-scene
• Building joyful confusion that somehow feels like structured chaos
• Collaborating with partners through rapid pivots, bold declarations, and imaginative leaps

This session celebrates invention, resilience, collaborative mayhem, and the ability to make rapid, intuitive choices that elevate a scene from ordinary to wildly memorable.
If you love formats that stretch your creativity in unexpected directions, this day is for you.

Schedule:

Sat June 13: Short Form Intensive

• 10am–1pm Short Form workshop
• 1pm–2pm Lunch break*
• 2pm–5pm Short Form workshop continued

Sun June 14: Calvinball

• 10am–1pm Calvinball workshop part 1
• 1pm–2pm Lunch break*
• 2pm–5pm Calvinball workshop part 2

*You can bring your lunch or head out — the Summerhall café & pub are just upstairs!

• Arrive early: please plan to arrive 10 minutes before class so we can start and end on time.
• Dress comfortably: wear movement-friendly clothes that cover you fully (we’ll be moving throughout the space).
• Bring water: a reusable water bottle is encouraged — hydration fuels creativity!

We recommend participants have completed Improv 101 (Intro to Improv) or attended several drop-in sessions of equivalent experience. Bonus if you have attended 102 (Intro to Shortform) as well.
Ages 16 and up.

Hayley Kellett has spent over a decade helping improvisers and teams of all kinds tap into creativity, collaboration, and joyful risk-taking. They are a co-founder of The Making-Box in Ontario, where they use applied improvisation to help organizations—from Google to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Shopify, and universities across the country—become more adaptable and imaginative.

Beyond their work with companies, Hayley passionately volunteers to bring improv into women’s prisons, community groups, and programs for adults with developmental exceptionalities.

A Second City Tour Co. alum and longtime Canadian performer, Hayley has understudied six Second City Mainstage shows, toured internationally from Alaska to South India, served as President of the Guelph Comedy Festival for a decade, and earned recognition including:

• Guelph Top 40 Under 40 (2017)
• Canadian Comedy Award Nominee (2015)
• YMCA-YWCA Woman of Distinction (2018)
• Guelph LGBT2QI+ Community Award Nominee

Career milestone: once performing a Halloween Hoedown with Colin Mochrie — and yes, it was as delightfully bonkers as it sounds.

Hayley’s teaching is joyful, supportive, inclusive, and deeply rooted in helping improvisers discover what makes them shine.

Prices:
1 Day: Earlybird £60 (use code DAYFUN at checkout) / Regular: £72
2 Days: Earlybird £108 (use code WEEKENDFUN at checkout)/ Regular: £132
Earlybird discounts until 23 May

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