For any questions about classes and payment plans you can reach out to our Training Center Director, Amey Goerlich, at Amey@chaosbloom.com.
We ask that you have previous training if you’d like to register for levels 2 and above. Registration is open to everyone for any level so don’t worry if you haven’t studied with us before. You must be at least 17 years old to take our classes. Any refund requests must be made 7 days before the start of the class.
Improv, Sketch, Clowning, Standup Classes
Saturday Jan 18th 12-4pm $150
(NO USE OF INTERN CREDITS FOR THESE CLASSES)
"Sketch to Improv" workshop. It has 16 students maximum and after I talk about writing sketches through improv, I will get 4 students at a time to improvise a scene. When each scene is over, all the students and I(mostly me) talk about how to make a sketch from the improvised scene that was just done - how to build up the comedy, build on the characters and create a story for this new sketch, we're making. Then we do the scene again, as a more prepared comedy sketch. At the end of the class, the students do improvs again and this time, work on their own to make them into sketches. Then they perform them and I give them notes.
Sunday January 19th 12-4p $150
(NO USE OF INTERN CREDITS FOR THESE CLASSES)
"One Line Premise" workshop. Each student must bring in a one line premise for a comedy sketch like "What if a guy was $10 short of being a millionaire" and the group and I(mostly me, again) break down each premise and I will help them see how they can write it as a scene. And a feature of this workshop is that I want them to go home and write a comedy sketch from their premise. Then they email it to Amey and Kevin will email his notes for each students sketch. This workshop is a writing workshop and we will not be improvising or performing
WHEN: Sundays 1/5-1/26 5:30-8p
COST: $200
Would be great if you took intro to clowning but ok to start here too.
Clown-prov, the intersection of clown and improvisation. This convergence will supercharge your improv scenes with physicality, authenticity, stage presence, deeper audience connection, and game. In this class, we will discover the symbiotic relationship between clown, improv, and devised comedy. Whether you want to create a silent scene set to music or upgrade your improv, this class will equip you with the tools to become a more well-rounded and versatile performer.You will learn essential clown-prov techniques and also gain knowledge about creating a semi-scripted show.
Bios
Alissa Ahlberg
Alissa is a clown/improviser in the Boulder/Denver area. She has trained at the Atlantic Acting School, the People's Improv Theater in NYC, Rise Comedy, and Bovine Metropolis. Alissa brings childlike wonder to her performance, with the wit of a studied professional. She’s a silly goose and a master of characters. She has been performing for over 20 years, but if you ask her Mom, she’d say Alissa has been perfecting the art of play her entire life.
Julianna Beckert
Julianna’s roots started with performance art, and music. Even when she meant to be serious, comedy always played a role in her performances. She found her way to improv in 2017. She’s studied sketch and a variety of improv forms with Rise Comedy and Second City. She now brings the culmination of her experience to her clown-prov.
LEVEL 2: Take a 4 Week 2 1/2 hour Modern Clowning Cass with Juls & Lis
with a performance on the Thursday after your last class 8pm.
SUNDAYs Jan 5th-Jan 26th 5:30-8p
WHERE: Chaos Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway
COST: $200
Sunday 1-3p Jan 12th & 19th ($40) With Nico Zaunbrecher
Power and Status—An Embodied Introduction: This workshop offers a
deep dive into Keith Johnstone’s improv principle of “Status”. Covers how status
is embodied in nonverbal behavior, how it is different from “power”, how status is
useful in scenes, and how it helps us understand personal relationships and culture.
For beginner through advanced performers.
Dr. Nico Zaunbrecher has performed, directed and taught improvisational theatre in over 400 shows over the last 25 years. Starting with the still-running Cult of the Stage Monkey at University of Louisiana–Lafayette in 1999, he went on to complete a Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale, focusing on culture, theory and history of improvisation and spontaneity. He has taught communication and performance at Lenoir-Rhyne University, South Louisiana Community College, and Southern University, and published research on improv and social theory in the journals Theatre Topics and Human Studies. He is currently Artistic Director of Silverbacks Improv Theatre, Curriculum Designer for Boomerang Comedy, and one-half of the improv duos Two for the Road, Lonelycrowd, Antic Disposition and Encounter En-Canto.
January 12th/19th/26th 1-3pm
at Chaos Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway
The Power of Mask Work for improvisors: Allowing the body to express what the face can not.
Wearing a mask in theater training means committing fully to your physical self. Your entire body becomes the instrument for conveying thoughts, emotions, and narratives.
In this workshop you will:
• Learn how to create dynamic and engaging characters with physical expression rather than words.
• Find the truth of unexplored personas within yourself: personas you can use to come alive on stage.
• Gain confidence with instinctual movement, rather than thought.
• Discover how to use your body, the breath, and the space around you to convey the inner life of a believable character.
• Learn methods to portray heightened emotions.
• Read your scene partner more deeply.
Michael has studied acting and scene study at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. He is one of the founding members and performs for the contemporary Clown Troupe Idiot Theatre. He performed with the Commedia dell’Arte troupe Tut Zanni at Denver’s Savoy Theatre. He directed the one act play “You Go,” at the Wheat Ridge Theatre Company’s stage. Mike is an improvisor performing in Denver, and has written and performed sketch comedy with the group Midnight Snack in Denver and with the Parker Players in Parker, Colorado. He has studied Narrative Improvisation with the group PGraph in Austin, Texas.
The Art of Flirting with Bethany Roberts & Maddie Roger’s
January 26th 1-3p ($20)
The purpose of this class is number one to have fun. Flirting does not have to be romantic, it is just a fun way to interact with people and make friends. I’ve been social dancing for 10 years and have danced with over 1000 strangers that I never have met before, so I am an experienced flirt. I thought it would be fun to teach you all some of the things that work for me.
This class is founded in CONSENT. The beauty of flirting is, it is a way to gauge if someone is interested in interacting with you without being explicit. It is like dipping your toes in really cold or really hot water to see if you want to go in.
This class involves these categories: Eye contact, Conversation, and Physical Touch.
Eye contact is the first way to see if someone is interested in you. In college, my friend and I had this phrase called “Trap 'em with your eyes”. We would look at people from across the room and smile. That alone 9/10 would get them to come over and talk to us. Eye contact is powerful. In dance, one of the ways you ask people to dance with you is by making eye contact. After eye contact comes conversation, then sometimes some flirty physical touch
Sundays February 9th/16th/23rd 1-3pm at Chaos Bloom Theater
$60
Basics of Mime work and spacial work.
We will explore the 3 key elements of space work. The object's form, the object's location in space, and the object's relationship to your body.
We will learn exercises that can help build muscle memory for existing in well formed spaces.
We will explore the idea of specificity in object work that is separate from accuracy.
Discovering your space and discovering your character through environment.
We will show how specificity and process are often more important that accuracy of object work.
We will learn exercises that focusing on discovering things about our characters and relationships through specific object work.
Using environment to slow your play while deepening your connections, characters and stakes.
We will focus on scene work that centers on object work to establish characters, stakes or themes.
We will practice exercises that will help us maintain object work throughout the scene.
We will explore the ways in which subtle choices about object work can have a large impact on our scenes.
practice playing with an environmental focus.
We will use exercises and scene work to highlight perspectives around object work
For example it is often more important to build context and create attitude around an environment to project where the characters are living than it is to mime the objects accurately in the space.
Puppetry with Natalie Lien-Bowdish & Jared Ramirez
Sunday March 2nd/9th/16th 1-3pm
Chaos Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway
Join Denver comedy locals, Natalie & Faron as your guides amid the thrilling and profound experience of externalizing your self expression through the freeing art of puppetry. Whether you are new to puppets, improv, or performance in general, these tenured instructors are here to take you step by step “by hand” into furthering your artistic enrichment via puppetry. The course will cover puppet manipulation 101 as well as touch on the clown pedagogy Faron & Natalie apply to their specific brand of high-excitement audience interactive puppetry techniques. You will leave this class with a deep well of puppetry resources as well as confidence to go out there and be your authentic weirdest self on stage.
Improv Salon Initiations w/ Asa Erlendson
Sunday March 23, 30th and April 6th 1-3pm
This three-part workshop on Initiations will look at the starts of scenes through multiple lenses, ranging from the interpersonal to the physical and spatial as well as the verbal. The second part will continue the work of the first, but it will primarily focus on initiating premises. Fun! Suitable for beginners or advanced players who want to revisit a fundamental aspect of a scene: the start.
Now with an extra day!
Improv Salon: Developing Solo Show Ideas ($60)
April 13th/20th/27th 1-3pm
Facilitators: Alice Gillette and Bryan Richard Martin
Workshop Lab: Developing Solo Show Ideas
Class description: In this workshop, you and other stage performers will explore techniques for generating fresh ideas and how to transform them into a more refined piece that you can present in a solo performance. Join us to enhance your creative process and develop your work-in-progress!
This workshop can be helpful to you if:
You're embarking on your first solo project and feeling stuck.
You want to discover how to generate ideas and transform them into a performance.
You’re eager to meet fellow artists who are also creating solo pieces.
You’re enthusiastic about fostering community, sharing your work, and participating in constructive conversations about ideas in a collaborative environment.
In this workshop, we will participate in a variety of engaging activities including:
Getting to know each other better as artists.
Learning about a constructive conversation framework based on Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process, which is designed to enrich the workshopping phase of artistic creation.
Practicing new techniques on how to generate ideas for solo performances.
Collaboratively and individually workshopping our ideas. This may take different shapes: sometimes, the facilitators will provide live direction for your performance with classmates acting as the audience, while at other times, you may engage in guided group discussions about the work you’re experiencing.
By the end of this class, you can expect to gain:
A new way to generate ideas for the stage.
A workshopped 1-5 minute work-in-progress solo comedy piece.
Sharper skills in both giving and receiving constructive, artistic feedback.
Collaborating with others is a powerful way to gain deeper insights into yourself. Your next great idea is already within you, just waiting for the perfect moment to emerge. This workshop offers a unique opportunity to uncover your creative ideas in a collaborative environment, allowing you to develop them into works-in-progress alongside a supportive community of fellow artists.
About the facilitators:
Bryan Richard Martin is a multidisciplinary artist and musician whose work has been featured in publications like Rolling Stone, Vice and NPR. Alice Gillette is an artist and writer known for her “startling yet goofy” performances, as coined by Denver Westword. If you’re not busy on the first Sunday of (any) month, you should join her at Uncanny Valley, a free clown jam in Denver, Colorado.
Improvised Rapping with Megan Miles
Sunday April 27th & May 4th 1-3pm
At Choas Bloom Theater 70 S Broadway
Join Megan8Miles for 2 hours of Freestyle Fun! Explore basic rhyming techniques, storytelling, finding the beat, rap battling and more! Whether it's your first time on the mic, or your 50th...this workshop will challenge your rap skills, build confidence, and most importantly...allow you to have fun!
About the Instructor: Megan8Miles has been freestyle rapping since 2011. She co-created Denver's Original Hip Hop Improv Team SuperBaby. She performed in her first rap battle in 2012, and went on to compete in an additional 10 battles. In 2016, she moved to New York where she studied improv and sketch comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade. Megan was also an original graduate of Freestyle Love Supreme Academy (A Hip Hop Improv School Co-Created by Lin Manuel of Hamilton).
In the Spring of 2024, Megan competed in Denver's "Who Got The Juice" Freestyle Rap Battle, which was judged by Charlie Clips (Wild N' Out) and SuperNatural (Godfather of Freestyle Rap).
In the Fall of 2024, She was also a contestant in Denver's $5280 Body Bag Battle competition.