The Crunchy Frog Collective

Crunchy Frog Drop-in Workshops

The CFC classes are intermediate-level drop-in workshops. It's for those with already some experience in impro and performance who want to hone their scene work, story-telling or musical impro skills.

You do not need to book for these classes, just show up on the day.

Every week will explore a different aspect of improv. Below I've got a list of who the teachers will be and, where I have the information, what the topic of the day will be. However, the classes will always run and it will always be with an experienced teacher who will push your impro skills into new areas.

What: The Crunchy Frog Classes - improvisation classes
Date: Every Sunday from April 25th to July 11th 2010.
When: 2:30pm to 5:30pm
Where: The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street (off Brick Lane), London E1 5LJ. It's 10-15 minutes walk from Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East, and Whitechapel tubes. Click here for a map.
How Much: £10
Email: dylan.emery@thestickingplace.com

Class teachers and topics
April 25 - Dylan Emery - improvising songs
May 2 - Paul Foxcroft - Instant Schtick! (or Quick Characters On a Budget) - an exploration of quick and dirty methods for creating someone new and distinct.
May 9 - Dylan Emery -staging - how to make yourself look amazing
May 16 - Phil Whelans - your time, and how to take it. Stop scenes going by in a shouty blur.
May 23 - Phil Whelans - status: boring but important or exciting but irrelevant? Neither. And not boring but irrelevant either, before you ask
May 30 - Phil Whelans - improvising songs
June 6 - Phil Whelans - clown school in one afternoon
June 13 - Cariad Lloyd - Making your scene partner look brilliant (and yourself in the process)
June 20 - building and ending a scene - the core of story-telling
June 27 - improvising songs
July 4 - Dylan Emery - learning tricksy skills - gibberish, dubbing, speaking in one voice, scenes in rhyme, etc
July 11 - Dylan Emery - in-class impro show

What does improvisation cover?
For those weeks when it's not specified, here is a more general description of what this is all about. Some of the skills you'll learn:

Creativity - learning how not to block your own ideas
Co-operation - how to add to each others' ideas to create a story
Gibberish - see how little communication is verbal by improvising completely understandable scenes in a fictitious language
Status - how people interact and how to bring it to the stage
Narrative - creating coherent stories on the fly
Stagecraft - how to direct yourself on stage
Music - special singing, drum circle and musical story-telling workshops

A Brief Biography of Dylan Emery

Dylan has been teaching and performing improvised comedy and music since 2001. He is a co-founder of short-form impro troupe Grand Theft Impro and co-founder of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, in which he plays the role of the writer.

He has improvised all around the world, including at the the Royal Court's fifty-year celebrations, at the Olivier, The Bristol Old Vic, and for BBC Radio 1,4 and 7.

As part of Ken Campbell's School of Night, he was in the improvised Shakespeare show In Pursuit of Cardenio and the troupe now regularly performs their 'hard bardics' - improvised poetry, playwrights and esoteric madness.

Dylan has also taken the corporate shilling, teaching improvisatory skills to companies including BP, Diaggeo, the NHS and Unison.

He trained primarily under Alan Marriott and Ken Campbell, supplemented by a host of other teachers including Keith Johnstone. He also runs the only website in the UK devoted to all things improvised: www.thecrunchyfrogcollective.com.The place you are at now...

A Brief Biography of Phil Whelans
Phil Whelans is one of the most experienced, talented and hilarious improvisers in the UK. He did not write this biography but I can tell you it's true.

As well as being a member of veteran short-form outfit Grand Theft Impro, he has performed impro shows in Toronto, Seattle, San Franciso and New York but mostly in London, where he has performed in Theatresports at the Donmar Warehouse, Court in the Act and Eddie Izzard's Impro MD. Phil was invited to improvise at 2001's Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival (CBCTV) and recently made Gibberish: an Impro TV pilot for Celador TV.

Phil's TV performing credits include The Jack Docherty Show (Ch5), Preston Front, Punt and Dennis (BBC), Jo Brand through the Cakehole, Brasseye, Phil Kay is feeling... and The Lost Chord with Bill Bailey (Ch4). His writing credits include The Brian Conley Show, Lily Live and 2DTV (LWT), The 11 O'Clock Show, The Big Breakfast, Your Face or Mine, Armstrong and Miller (Ch4), The Live Floor Show, Velvet Soup, Revolver and TV to Go (BBC).

How it all began: Madness and Laughter