Updates on workshop term scheduling

Time flies, and our 2024 workshops program is almost done and dusted!

We'd like to draw the community's attention to our last few remaining workshop offerings of 2024, and the fact that we have some substantial changes coming in 2025.

The highlights of this post are:

• Term 6a starts next week, and is your final chance to take an 8-week term this year, and might be your final chance to gain eligibility for our February auditions

• Our final "B-term", Term 6b, starts next month with a very small number of classes offered

• Hobby & Community Track courses are now easier to access – after four months in the community instead of six!

• December intensives are happening for Improv Starter students

• We're killing the "A and B" term distinction in 2025, and will only be offering six course intakes per year

• Our full term schedule for the year can now be tracked much easier via a section above our class finder, plus a dedicated term schedule page

Term 6a 2024 starts next week

If you're keen to take a traditional 8-week improv or sketch comedy class, your choices are to start next week during Term 6a, or to wait until mid-January!

All improv levels are on offer, as well as our Intro to Comedy Writing Course*.

*For experienced improvisers who were unaware, we offer a 25% discount on our Intro to Comedy Writing course for folks who have completed our Improv Starter 3: The Game of the Scene course.

For our Improv Performance Track and Advanced Play students who are considering auditioning for one of our house team programs this coming February, please note that your Term 6a plans may directly impact your eligibility to participate in the auditions process.

We only guarantee auditions for F#*k This, I Quit to students who have completed our Premise Based Improv Formats advanced play elective by the end of 2024. This course is offered in Term 6a, and is your one and only chance to become eligible this year!

We only guarantee auditions for Harold Night to students who have passed Performance 2: The Harold – Group Work by the end of 2024.

While not a guarantee, there is precedent for letting a small cohort of active Performance 2 students audition "early", so it may be possible to take and pass Performance 1 during Term 6a 2024 and enrol for Performance 2 during Term 1 2025.

Our final "B" term – Term 6b 2024 – starts in November with extremely limited 4-week offerings

For the past few years we've struggled with our final 8-week term of the year, which began in November, took a break for the December holidays, and resumed in January.

Between warm weather, the silly season, and the inconvenience of a 3-week break in the middle of term, comedy education isn't always on everyone's mind.

So, instead of an 8-week term, we have a 4-week Term 6b which will begin and conclude before the holidays.

Offerings are extremely limited, with:

• A 4-week Improv Starter 1 Accelerator course which meets twice per week, condensing the same great course into half the time

• The return of The Improv Playground – our 4-week Hobby & Community Track course. These courses now have lowered prerequisites, as mentioned below!

• A 4-week Monoscene elective for Advanced Play students

We are open to offering additional options, including Accelerators, should enough demand exist.

Revised Improv Hobby & Community Track eligibility threshold – now easier to gain access

When we introduced our Improv Hobby & Community Track courses last year, we set the eligibility threshold to include students who had finished Improv Starter 3: The Game of the Scene – roughly equivalent to 6 months of experience in our community.

After careful consideration of the fact that Improv Starter 2: Character and Relationship is also a healthy challenge for some folks who have joined our classes primarily for hobby and community reasons, we've lowered all hobby and community course prerequisites to completion of Improv Starter 2.

As before, in this case it's not a requirement that you've passed the prerequisite, only that you've completed a course and received any grade.

December 2024 Intensive Courses

We are offering single-week intensive versions of Improv Starter 1 and Starter 2 during a December Intensive term.

As the name implies, these are intense, cramming the entire 24-hour curriculum into four consecutive days with 10am–1pm and 2–5pm sessions.

If you or a mate have a lot of daytime availability before the holidays, these courses can be a great way to start or continue your improv journey with a bang!

Term dates for 2025 – six big intakes, instead of 12 staggered "A and B" terms

For the first few years of our company, we offered six workshop terms per year – but eventually ended up with more classes on offer than we could possibly accommodate at our theatre on our Week 8 end-of-term student showcase days.

At the time, our solution was to offer twice as many intakes, with half as many courses starting during any given month. This staggered approach to scheduling took the pressure off the theatre, and allowed us to fit all of our showcases again.

Between the recent introduction of Theory Bar as a potential student showcase venue, and our split to run Improv Starter Track student showcases during Week 7 of term, with all other showcases during Week 8 of term, we've taken a lot of pressure off of the theatre – and we'll be reverting to traditional 8-week workshop terms that don't overlap.

The obvious downside for students is that, should you miss an intake, you're left waiting two full months for the next intake to roll around.

However, aside from that, the benefits for the office and the community are plentiful, including:

• A much simpler structure to explain and keep in your head

• A unified student body for community events and mixers, and general office-to-student communications. Previously we'd have the student body split in two, often offering "A-term" events and comms separately from "B-term".

• More breathing room for our workshops scheduling staff to intelligently plan courses and get ahead on our long-term course calendar. We can take input and feedback from the community about course offerings, making tweaks as necessary, without constantly being at battle stations each and every month of the year.

More visibility of term schedules on the website – with courses scheduled far in advance

It is now possible to see an exhaustive list of all of our upcoming term intakes, through the end of 2025.

By the end of October 2024, we hope to have specific courses scheduled, at all levels, for the entirety of 2025.

We'll leave a bit of breathing room on the calendar for extra courses based on unexpected demand, and various other simple modifications. But if you have limited availability in your schedule and are always waiting for your perfect course to roll around, this should allow you to plan and book with confidence.