Improv Class 201: Crafting Characters

When improvising, characters help filter ideas, emotions, and actions to move through a scene. This goes beyond looks or accents to motivation - their wants, needs, and perspectives. Characters in scenes build a unique world through their eyes, and this course will support you in utilizing traits, physicality, emotions, relationships, and specificity.

Improv 201 is open to anyone that has had previous improv experience. It consists of eight two-hour classes on Saturdays (August 17, 24, & 31, September 7, 14, 21, & 28, and October 5) from 11 am to 1 pm at Big Couch's Bywater location at 1045 Desire St., New Orleans, LA 70117. At the culmination of the course, attendees will put on an evening improv show.

A registration fee of $200 will cover all eight sessions, and scholarships are available to those who identify as Black/African American, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian American Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA+, and/or disabled, as well for those whom English is their second language. To inquire about scholarship opportunities, please email [email protected].

About the Instructor - Ellery Abel

Ellery Abel began her theatrical career in a community musical at the age of 5 with her first ever line “follow the yellow brick road.” A West Coast native, Ellery grew up in the Portland area with a passion for the performing arts. She joined her first improv troupe in 2017 while attending the University of Oregon. Shortly after moving to New Orleans in early 2022, Ellery arrived at Audubon Park one Saturday and was forced to choose between joining a yoga class and an improv jam. Ellery chose wisely and has been working with Big Couch ever since. When not improvising, Ellery can be found working as a scenic painter in the TV and film industry, at the gym teaching a fitness class, or enjoying a good book.

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