Improv on Impulse — 8-Week Improv Class in Bethesda

In eight Monday nights, you’ll learn to walk onstage with no script and no plan and trust that what happens next will be worth watching.

This isn’t the improv of quick wit and one-liners. It’s improv built on something simpler and sturdier: your honest reactions to another person. You already know how to do that. This class teaches you to do it onstage.

What you’ll learn

• To enter a scene authentically before the first word is spoken
• Four techniques that let your physical and emotional impulses, not your planning, drive the scene
• To let dialogue, relationships, and plot emerge from honest reactions instead of mental templates, because your spontaneous reactions never lie

No experience needed — really

This work doesn’t build on improv technique. It builds on instincts you were born with: reacting honestly to another person, reading a room, following a feeling. Beginners often thrive here precisely because they haven’t yet learned to override those instincts. And like every class we teach, this is a supportive, no-fail room.

“I had a lot of fun and really loved the message that reaction is more important than planning ahead.” — Carrie Benton, improviser

Already have improv experience? You’re welcome too. This work complements verbal training rather than repeating it.

When: Mondays, 7:00–9:30 PM September 21, 28 · October 5, 19, 26 · November 2, 9, 16 (No class October 12)

Where: Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Avenue, Bethesda, MD Cost: $400 (20 hours of instruction)

Ages: 18 and over

Seats: 14

Why eight weeks

A single workshop gives you a taste. Eight weeks gives you a transformation.

You'll work with the same group every Monday, building trust and creative chemistry week by week. Each session is two and a half hours — enough time to warm up, dig in, and discover something you didn't expect. By the final night, you'll be creating scenes, characters, and stories together — things none of you could have imagined on night one.

What happens in class?

You're on your feet from minute one. Each session builds on the last — starting with games that loosen you up, then moving into exercises that develop listening, spontaneity, and storytelling. No lectures. No sitting and watching. Just doing.

You won't perform alone. You won't be put on the spot. You won't have to be funny.

Who takes this class?

Lawyers. Teachers. Engineers. Nurses. Parents. Retirees. People who just moved to the area. People who saw something about improv online and thought, why not.

They come to have fun, meet new people, get sharper at thinking on their feet, and grow in ways adult life doesn't usually offer.

What students say

"Anyone can do it. Blissfully, 'talent' or being funny isn't required. All I needed was the desire to have fun. Gary takes care of the rest. Going to improv class is a highlight of my week, and no, I'm not a recluse!" — Julie S., student

"Gary's class is like an adult summer camp. The warm-up exercises are a hoot. The classes give me a chance to forget about my responsibilities and focus solely on what's right in front of me. What a luxury!" — Renee Panagos, student

"In Gary's class I've played a father, son, husband, massage therapy student, burglar, and deli worker. I've been in a submarine, on the moon, in a cemetery, on a fishing pier, and at a wedding. That's just a tiny sample of what one can expect." — Mark Bleich, student

"The workshop was life-changing. I walked out with an entirely new perspective on improv. I felt freer on stage than I ever have." — Brian Sweeney, improviser

About the teacher

Gary Jacobs is artistic director of Precipice Improv Theater and Bethesda Improv Theater. He has been teaching improv for 42 years in the DC area. In 1989, he founded the area's first weekly, year-round drop-in improv class — a Sunday tradition he still leads today. In 1995, he founded Precipice Improv Theater, a company devoted to improvising full-length comic plays — now in its 31st year. His teaching has taken him from Boston to San Francisco to Christchurch, New Zealand.

Getting there

Parking: A municipal lot attached to Imagination Stage, the venue for the class.

Transit: Twelve-minute walk from Bethesda Metro

What to wear: Comfortable clothes you can move in