Do you have some improv experience of 5 years or less?
Do you want to join us at AOI?
Just complete the form below and we’ll see what we can do!
If you’ve learned improv elsewhere, then you’ve trained in either Keith Johnstone’s Impro, the Chicago method, or at a school which mixes both of them together as if they were one. In Sydney there are all three types of schools, and you may not even know that there are different methods or which method you’ve learned. The latter of these — a mix of methods — is common in Sydney but the most difficult to fix, because for students that approach will have become muscle memory. Check our FAQ for more on the differences between methods.
Because change is difficult, we only accept students who have up to 5 years of improv experience. You can take our classes at the relevant level for your understanding of improv, and possibly skip classes if you already have the appropriate experience and ability.
To do this, you’ll take our Improv 1 class to learn the foundations, then you’ll need to take the remaining classes with us that you wouldn’t have taken elsewhere. For example, if you trained in the Chicago method and Harold at a reputable school, then you wouldn’t need to do that with us, but you could continue and learn our advanced Chicago techniques which aren’t taught elsewhere, along with our impro theatre games and Keith Johnstone method classes. And vice versa, if you’ve learned Theatresports but not the Chicago method and Harold, then you would take our Keith Johnstone classes and then our advanced Chicago classes which aren’t taught anywhere else. If you learned both methods mixed together — for example you learned Harold with Advance/Extend, or finding game with narrative or platform — then you may need to start again and take all of our classes in order to fix those conflicts. If you’ve only learned improvisation through acting classes, then the path is a little more complex, so contact us and we’ll figure out your best path through our programme.
So let’s get started. Tell us a bit about your interests and improvisation background so we can figure out which method(s) you’ve learned, and we’ll get in touch about how to get on board. Some schools have an improv audition for this, but we’re more interested in your understanding of the craft than seeing how funny you are. Welcome to AOI!