TDRU
2315

Acting Comedy: Creating & Developing Comedic Personas Through Improvisation

College of Performing Arts: Drama

Non-Liberal Arts
Undergraduate Course
Degree Students
Acting Comedy: Improvisation
Spring 2025
Taught By: John Murphy
Section: A

CRN: 11703

Credits: 2

Using improvisation students create original comedic personas from their own research. The course focuses on the solo performer in the creation of in-depth comedic personas. It explores the boundaries of comedy through research, exercises and improvisations designed to identify the essence of why people laugh. As players recognize and develop comedic skills and techniques they look into special areas of themselves, meeting up with their own personal comedian(s). It builds on the universality of comedy tempered by character choices and the character’s particular way of experiencing their surroundings. The course involves exercises and improvisations to refine the senses, to foster authenticity and spontaneity, to strengthen concentration, to improve confidence, and to play with rhythm, tempo, aesthetics, and the qualities of movement. Course requirement: screen, stage, or live improv performance experience and the strong desire to communicate through humor. Students are responsible for finding and developing their own individual costumes.

College: College of Performing Arts (CO)

Department: Drama (DRA)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Studio (S)

Modality: In-Person

Max Enrollment: 16

Repeat Limit: N/A

Add/Drop Deadline: February 3, 2025 (Monday)

Online Withdrawal Deadline: April 15, 2025 (Tuesday)

Seats Available: No

Status: Closed*

* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 12:48pm EST 12/2/2024

Meeting Info:
Days: Tuesday
Times: 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Building: Johnson/Kaplan 66 West 12th
Room: 404
Date Range: 1/20/2025 - 5/6/2025