The Best Improv Classes In Dover

I was speaking with a client from Dover recently, about the importance of the space within which an improv workshop takes place. Everyone always gets the obvious requirements, that the space be private, that the space be safe to move in, that the space be flexible (free of heavy, immovable conference tables) and that the space be large enough for the group of people who will be participating in the workshop.

A less intuitive, but no less important requirement of a space for an improv comedy workshop, is that there be nothing in the space that's more interesting than the workshop itself. Since most of my workshops fall into the category of professional development that's a pretty tall order!

I remember one workshop I taught, actually in Delaware, that a marketing agency was responsible for. For some reason they had placed signage all over the conference center that we were doing the workshop in. Walls, windows, even the chairs that people were sitting in had signs on them.

It was extremely distracting in the room and it hurt the impact of the workshop. You don't want something like that.

Maybe my best example of this simple truth doesn't have to do with a workshop but does have to do with live improv entertainment. I had booked some shows on a cruise line maybe a decade ago and sent a cast out to do the performances when I worked at the UCB Theatre. The cast was tremendously talented and the ship gave them this amazing room to perform in: A glass walled ballroom on the top of the of the vessel that had glass windows 360° around.

So the audience would sit in the center of the room and the cast would perform in front of them, but if the audience wanted to they could look around and see what was happening in the spectacular vista that is the ocean. In the first performance of the first week of touring on this cruise line, the show starts and as soon as the first scene is underway someone in the audience stands up and points and says, "Look! Whales!"

And the entire audience stood up and marched themselves over to the side wall and looked at the whales while the show went on behind them.

So it's very important when you're setting up an improv event to make sure that the people coming to the event have a reasonable chance of focusing on the intended subject matter. I've seen things like buffets, open bars and live music hurt improv events in fashions similar to the whales, but I've never seen a funnier example!