dig deeper
on your improv

ColdTowne Theater offers elective courses with community leaders and guest instructors, sometimes on niche topics, always with goal of offering improvisers a fun path towards well-roundedness. Now available:

Duos Improv w/Chuy Zarate & Asaf Ronen (starting Oct 7)

Silly Situations: Clown Level 2 w/CB Goodman (Oct 14 & 15)

Advanced Scenework Bootcamp w/Michael Jastroch (starting Oct 22)

ESTEVAN J. (CHUY) ZARATE is an actor/director/coach from San Antonio TX that has been improvising for audiences for 33 years. He is a member of The Big Bash at The Hideout Theatre, The Known Wizards (Merlinworks faculty troupe), Stool Pigeon at ColdTowne and more duos than he can count. He teaches all styles and formats being that he has a very eclectic tool belt to reach into. If there is a scenario to be performed in, he has probably performed it. With specialties in improv singing and grounded/character-driven scenework, Chuy has coached hundreds of kids, teens, students and adults for years to multiple successes. ****** ASAF RONEN is the author of Directing Improv: Show the Way By Getting Out of the Way. He regularly performs, teaches and produces in Austin, was Education Director at The Institution Theater for eight years and is currently the Conservatory Director at ColdTowne Theater. He is also a Producer and Education Director of Austin’s annual Out of Bounds Comedy Festival. He has taught and performed improvisation in Canada, Great Britain, Norway and in twenty-eight of these United States with such groups as the B. Iden Payne Award winning Confidence Men (improvised plays in the style of David Mamet) and imp (mostly silent improv). He was also producer on TRUST US, THIS IS ALL MADE UP, a documentary on legendary improvisers TJ & Dave that premiered at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival in 2009. In 1999, Asaf founded the improv website, YESand.com of which he is Editor-in-Chief.

DUOS IMPROV
WITH CHUY ZARATE
& ASAF RONEN

This class is for pairs of improvisers who are already performing as a duo, or would like to. (We’ll have a Duos Class in January for those looking to be matched up into Duos.)

Come see what happens when you bring clown energy into improvised scenes. In this 2-day clown intensive we play with emotions, relationships, and status to begin to lay the groundwork toward creating your own material. Through partner and ensemble exercises we will discover what unlocks your mischievous pleasure, the joy of getting into trouble, and how playing with your friends can lead you into the silliest of situations.

Saturdays, 10am-12:30pm
starting October 7th

6 WEEKS (no class on November 11th)
+ a Showcase on Sunday, November 19

NOTE: THE $225 COST OF THE CLASS IS PER PERSON.
YOU WILL NEED TO REGISTER BOTH IMPROVISERS.

CB GOODMAN is the Founding Director of Grackle Jack Productions based in Austin, Texas. Her work incorporates disparate source materials, clown, bouffon, drag, physical theatre, and puppetry and has been presented at venues in Austin, New Orleans, Charlotte, Atlanta, and New York City. Her current show, In The Beginning received Best Clown, Top Grossing, and the Jill Miersch Award at the 2023 Frigid New York Fringe. CB has trained with clown teachers Philippe Gaulier, Aitor Basauri, Mick Barnfather, and Shannan Calcutt as well as theatre companies Complicité, Atlantic Theatre Company, and SITI Company. She has been teaching clown infused classes since 2014, winning the Teaching Award at Southwestern University in 2020. She also directs and designs for local colleges and theatre companies.

SILLY SITUATIONS
clown level ii
WITH CB GOODMAN

This class is for students who have previously taken Foolish Freedom- Intro to Clown (or have permission from the instructor).

Come see what happens when you bring clown energy into improvised scenes. In this 2-day clown intensive we play with emotions, relationships, and status to begin to lay the groundwork toward creating your own material. Through partner and ensemble exercises we will discover what unlocks your mischievous pleasure, the joy of getting into trouble, and how playing with your friends can lead you into the silliest of situations.

Saturday, October 14th
& Sunday, October 15th
1pm – 5pm

With a Showcase on Saturday, October 21st

MICHAEL JASTROCH is a comedic actor, writer, and improv instructor, formerly based out of Austin, TX, and presently living his “Van Life” dream of traveling the country and working out of Walmart Parking lots. As one of the founders of ColdTowne Theater and a member of the seminal improv groups ColdTowne and The Frank Mills, Michael has won several awards for his work, including “Best Comedy Group ” in the Austin Chronicle Reader’s poll and the B. Iden Payne award for “Outstanding Improv Ensemble.” His improv and sketch comedy podcast Victrola! was named one of Austin’s “Best Comedy Podcasts” and nominated by Austin Chronicle readers as one of the city’s best comedy groups. Michael has taught improv comedy for the last seventeen years and has been nominated and won “Best Improv Teacher” and “Best Improv Coach” a whole bunch. He’s taught his improv workshops all over the country, including at the Magnet Theater in NYC, the Oberlin College Improv Festival, The Oklahoma Improv Festival, the Phoenix Improv Festival, The Dallas Comedy Fest, The Alaska State Improv Fest, and the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival in Chapel Hill.

ADVANCED SCENEWORK BOOTCAMP
WITH MICHAEL JASTROCH

Prerequisite: Level 2 or higher in an established improv school.
Whether your goal is solid storytelling or pure chaos, the root of any good improv show is solid, two-person scene work. This 8-week intensive focuses on the fundamentals of creating believable, lived-in universes, giving players the tools to answer the audience’s burning question: “Why the fuck are we watching this?” Players will work on making active choices with a deep commitment to honesty and listening and will drill simple techniques to create interesting scene starts every single time, with a heavy focus on building powerful and emotionally dynamic relationships between the characters and creating fun, playable games. The intensive will also include plenty of individual feedback and diagnostics, tons of stage time, and in-depth homework assignments designed to chisel you into hardened improv steel.