Twelve long-form formats over six sessions, two a night. Then two weeks building a format of your own, and a show at the end to put it on its feet. You play in every single run.
Starts
7 October
Nights
Wednesdays
Where
Carlton
Places
10 max
$560AUD
For all 8 sessions, 24 hours in the room, plus the show at the end.
Wednesday nights, 7:00pm to 10:00pm
7 October to 2 December 2026 (no class on 21 October)
Plus the show, Friday 4 December, 7:30pm at Club Voltaire
333 Drummond St, Carlton VIC
Strictly limited to 10 places, so you play in every format run
Improvisers who are comfortable in long-form and want to explore a new range of show formats. You do not need to have performed any of these twelve formats before. As we'll be learning two formats per session, you'll need to feel comfortable jumping in and experimenting with different show styles each week.
The twelve formats
Two a night for the first six sessions.
La Ronde Vignettes Monoscene Slacker Living Room Deconstruction Pretty Flower Four Square Close Quarters Crisis Bat Movie
Week by week
Six sessions of formats, then two making one of your own. The show comes after that.
1
La Ronde and Vignettes
Two ways of stringing short scenes into something that adds up. La Ronde hands the baton from player to player, Vignettes lets a theme do the connecting.
2
Monoscene and Slacker
One room, one continuous scene, and what happens to your patience when nothing is allowed to cut. Then Slacker, which does the opposite and lets the story wander off with whoever walks past.
Break week, no session on 21 October.
We pick up the following Wednesday.
3
Living Room and Deconstruction
A home base you keep returning to, and then the format that takes one scene apart and plays the pieces. Two very different answers to the question of where a show comes back to.
4
Pretty Flower and Four Square
Structure you can see. Pretty Flower grows out of a single centre, Four Square splits the stage into four worlds and lets you cut between them.
5
Close Quarters and Crisis
The two that ask for real emotional weight. Small spaces and high stakes, and how to hold a scene that has nowhere to hide.
6
Bat and Movie
Bat plays in the dark, so the whole show runs on listening. Movie borrows the language of film, with cuts, close-ups and a soundtrack. Both change how you use the stage.
7
Build your own format
Take what you have collected over the first six sessions and design something of your own.
8
Rehearse and refine
Run your format properly, break it, fix it. By the end of the night you have something ready to perform.
And then the show
The show is a ninth date, on top of the eight nights above. At Club Voltaire in North Melbourne, but it is a relaxed night rather than a big production, so treat it as the last step of the workshop rather than a performance you need to sweat over. Bring your friends and family along, they are very welcome.
Friday 4 December, 7:30pm. I'll go through the details with the group early in the course.
The cap of 10 exists for one reason. Twelve formats is only worth doing if you actually play all twelve, rather than watching half of them from the side of the room. Expect to be up for most of every session.
What you'll leave with
Twelve formats you have actually played
Not twelve formats you have read about. You will have been on your feet in every one, which is the only way the structure ever stops being theory.
An eye for what makes a format work
After twelve of them, the underlying machinery starts to show. You begin to see why a format asks for what it asks for, and what happens when you change one rule.
A format of your own, played in front of an audience
Something you designed, rehearsed and then actually performed.
The details
Discipline
Improv
Level
Advanced
Prerequisites
Comfortable in long-form (you should have performed or trained in it before)
When
Wednesday nights, 7:00pm to 10:00pm (7 October to 2 December 2026)
Where
333 Drummond St, Carlton VIC
Sessions
8 sessions (3 hours each, 24 hours in total)
The show
Friday 4 December, 7:30pm (an extra date after the eight sessions, at Club Voltaire in North Melbourne)
No session on 21 October.
We take a break week and pick up where we left off the following Wednesday, so it is still 8 sessions.
Your instructor
Dan Thomas
I've been teaching and coaching improv for the last decade, across Australia, England and the United States, and I regularly coach indie and house teams at TIC. I've directed and performed a lot of long-form, and Format Frenzy is the class I wish I'd had when I was trying to work out what all these shapes were actually for.
Real emotional depth, moderate swearing, supportive contact.
Content
Themes with emotional depth. Moderate swearing and implicit mentions of adult themes.
Physical contact
More emotionally supportive actions like a full hug or holding hands.
Example topics
Themes like close relationships, ethical dilemmas and societal issues. Dramas like "The Crown", emotional films and series like "Good Will Hunting" or "Fleabag", complex characters and ethical questions like Shakespeare, coming-of-age films like "Eighth Grade", moral complexity like an Agatha Christie mystery.
Suitable for
People comfortable with emotional engagement and moderate adult themes.
