Pretend Lunchtime Lecture Series | Ortalli | Lori | Schutte | Stiles

🏢 Online course
🕥 Thurs 4th June - Thurs 23rd July 2026, 12-12:50pm (UK time)
💰 £85

Step inside the minds of four of improv's top teachers with the Pretend Lecture Series, an 8-week deep dive into how great improvisers think. Join Patti Stiles, Katy Schutte, Feña Ortalli, and Inbal Lori as they let you behind the curtain and unpack shows in this online series.

Each teacher brings a show they love, breaking down choices, patterns, and instincts. Then, all four tackle the same performance, giving students four completely different perspectives on one piece.

Discover new approaches, sharpen your instincts, and transform how you watch and play improv.

Note: Each lecture will be recorded and made available to students for one week following the lecture, meaning folks from more timezones can access the course.

Feña Ortalli

Feña has over 20 years of experience in improvised theatre. Based in Madrid, he works as an actor and teacher in Global Impro and frequently takes part in international festivals. He founded Status Magazine and wrote three books (Impro: Dynamics of the Unexpected 1 and 2; and In Theory). Since 2001, he has performed in +50 cities worldwide. Don’t ask him to choose between football and impro, because he won't be able to answer.

Inbal Lori

Inbal Lori is a graduate of Jerusalem Art High School (1994) and Nisan Nativ acting studio (2000). Since then, She wrote and played for television and theater and has won prizes and scholarships for her acting and writing. Inbal started improvising in Tel Aviv in 2001. In 2015, Inbal moved to Berlin, and since then she has been teaching and performing all over the world in places like the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Japan, Nigeria, China, and all over Europe.

As of 2025, she is the artistic director of the “Berlin Impro Festival”. In a business context, Inbal is working and coaching companies like: Spotify, Disney, EY, Doberman, McKinsey, Rolls-Royce, Sky Sports and more.

Katy Schutte

Katy Schutte is an award-winning writer, improviser and teaching artist with over 20 years of experience. She has performed and taught improvisation in 30-something countries and is a Head Teacher for Hoopla, the UK’s biggest improv school. Katy authored The Improviser's Way: A Long Form Workbook (Nick Hern Books), and co-created touring climate hopepunk show We Built This City on Rock and Coal. She is currently improvising with Brand New Musical, Hell Yeah! and Screamplay, among others.

Patti Stiles

Patti is an actor, improviser, director, teacher, author and playwright who's been working professionally in theatre since 1983. She served her theatre apprenticeship at the world renowned Loose Moose Theatre and was trained by Keith Johnstone. She has an infectious enthusiasm for improvisation. Mix this with her insightful improvisation technique, strong narrative skill and her spirit of play, and it is no wonder she is responsible for inspiring many hundreds of people to improvise.

PWYC Places

One of the benefits of zoom based improv classes is that we can connect with folks from all over the world. We are pleased to offer five Pay What You Can (PWYC) places for this class, intended for participants based in countries where currency exchange rates make the standard £85 fee prohibitive. If this applies to you, we warmly encourage you to send us an email at hello@thepretendcompany.com

Scholarships

As well as the PWYC places, 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 or life experience that is under-represented on improv stages.

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.