Summer Weekend Intensive: Stage Combat for Improv

Often in improv, characters find themselves in situations which in a stage play would end in a physical confrontation, but without planning and choreography, how can improvisers find ways to create these moments in ways that are both safe for them, their scene partners, and the audience?  

In this one day intensive, students will learn a shared vocabulary that they help to create with their scene partners to perform combat moves safely. Through exercises and practice, students will work to understand their bodies on stage, how spacing and audience perspective affect performance, and how to play with those tools.  The prerequisite for this class is Level Four Improv at Stomping Ground Comedy Theater or equivalent training at another theater with permission from the Training Center Director. This class does not include a showcase. 

Please note that completion of this course does not authorize or certify students to train or coach others in stage combat.  

Topics in the Course Include:

• Knowing when it is safe to make contact with a fellow improviser
• How to "sell" a no-contact combat move on stage, keeping safety first!
• Understanding spacing and audience perspective in performance.
• Using bodies in space to tell stories on stage.

About the Instructor:

Audrey is a director, performer, and teacher who has been improvising since 2013 and teaching Improv since 2018. She has trained at improv theaters throughout the country. At Stomping Ground, she has taught in the Training Center, the Improv for Life program, and summer camps through the Youth Program. Audrey is currently going into her final year of her Master's of Fine Arts in Performance at the University of Louisville. She is a nerd about all things stage and movement. Audrey is a stage combatant and choreographer, leading to her work in Stage Intimacy; she has been studying Intimacy Choreography for the last five years now. 

This is a one day weekend intensive held Saturday, July 11 from 10am-5pm. The instructor is Audrey MacNeil. All sales are final. Classes are non-refundable but enrollment can be deferred to a future class. All students must adhere to policies in the Stomping Ground Student Handbook. Must be 18 years or older.

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