Comedy Workshop

Catalog description

This course will begin with an exploration of the classic structures of stand-up comedy. The concepts of set up and punch, acting out, and heightened wordplay will be employed. The techniques used to create and become comic characters—using your past, the news, and the current social environment to craft a comic routine—will be studied. Discovering what is recognizably funny to an audience is the labor of the comic artist. The athletics of the creative comedic mind and one’s own individual perspective on the world that surrounds you will be the primary objective of the first semester. We will also study theories of comedy through the writings of Henri Bergson (philosopher), John Wright (director), and Christopher Fry (playwright). In spring, the course will be designed for collaboration through improvisational techniques. Long- form improvisational games, such as the Harold technique, and performance techniques for comic sketch writing and group work will be studied. Exercises to develop the artist’s freedom and confidence in a collaborative group setting will also be employed. The ensemble will learn to trust the spontaneous response and their own comic madness, as they write, perform, and create scenarios together. At the end of the second semester, there will be a formal presentation of the comedy devised during the year. Acting Shakespeare