Masterclass in Teaching Improv | Katy Schutte & Chris Mead

🏢 Online course
🕥 Tues 10th March - 14th April 2026, 12-2pm (UK time)
💰 £220 

Two of the UK's most sought after improv teachers have joined forces to create an online course intended to take your improv facilitation to the next level.

Through a series of lectures, exercises, self-study and feedback sessions - Katy & Chris will help you super-charge every aspect of your pedagogical process from ideation through writing your syllabus to what it takes to sell workshops. 

Katy & Chris have been working together for well over a decade, both onstage as Project2 and online, running the beloved International Improv Station community (from which this course originated). They have pulled together a mountain of experience, theory and practice to create these six sessions.

We'll cover:

• How to start teaching improv
• Setting up your workshop spaces & warm-ups
• Picking exercises that deliver learning objectives (as well as a huge library of improv games to choose from)
• Side coaching and feedback
• What to do when things happen in the room that you need to respond to as a teacher
• How to create an honest space where as many people as possible feel welcome
• The values and practice of professionalism in improv

There will also be cameo appearances from their dogs - Pooka and Radio.

Katy Schutte

Katy has performed and taught improvisation in thirty-something countries across five continents. She is a Head Teacher and Curriculum Writer for Hoopla, the UK’s biggest improv school and a member of the Arvon creative writing teaching team. Katy authored The Improviser's Way: A Longform Workbook, published by Nick Hern Books. She was one of The Maydays from 2004-2022, is half of sci-fi improv duo Project2 and performs with the League of Improv, Brand New Musical and Hell Yeah! among others. She is an actor and award-winning playwright and screenwriter.

Chris Mead

Chris Mead is a renowned improv director, performer and teacher from the UK. He is a senior teacher at Hoopla, London's largest improv school, where his classes regularly sell out months in advance. He is also the co-founder of The Pretend Company which teaches theatrical improv and stage craft to both improvisers and actors. Internationally, he is one of the European circuits most in demand practitioners - visiting festivals in over 25 countries to teach, coach and perform. He wants improv to be evermore compassionate, theatrical, playful and fun. He is known for his thoughtful teaching, joyful stage presence and absolute commitment to pushing the art form forward.

Scholarships

If you'd like to take this course but can't currently afford the full fee, we'd love to hear from you at hello@thepretendcompany.com - we will strive to make the course available to you, either by reducing the fee or giving you a fully-funded scholarship place. We particularly encourage you to do this if you feel that you have a perspective that isn't fully represented at a facilitation level.

Refund policy

We regret we cannot refund tickets once bought. We will gladly help you find another improviser to sell them to, but we can't take responsibility for actually reselling them. So please factor this policy in before you buy.