iO Chicago
04-14-2008, 10:33 PM
Come take a writing class at iO...
Jim Carlson's Sketch Writing for the Stage
This eight week elective will focus on writing a sketch comedy using the iO method of long form ensemble based improvisation and other tested techniques used in writing sketch comedy. You will write scenes during this class to be performed on Monday nights before Armando. The class will improvise and re-improvise scenes and write scenes from improvised ideas. You will be forced to trust your own instincts, and those of your ensemble members, while initiating bold scenes based on improvised material. It will allow you to improvise a scene, take a note, try the scene again applying the note, and discover what comes next. This class will be based on spontaneity as well as calculation. The first two weeks will be spent improvising in class on Friday, and creating ensemble. The last six weeks will involve class on Fridays and a show on Monday nights to try out material. There is a possibility that the Monday show might develop in to a run upstairs at iO. There will be a three week period of evaluation, then iO will decide. You must have completed at least Level 3 of iO Training or if you haven't completed level 3 at iO, then you should have completed at least a minor in theater or the entire program at Annoyance or the conservatory at 2nd City.
Cost: $300
Class size: 12
Time: Fridays 7-10pm.
Starts: 5/9 (8 weeks)
Teacher/Director: Jim Carlson
Jim Carlson has been improvising, directing, and acting in Chicago since 1995. He was on the iO house team Valhalla and currently plays in "Middle Age Comeback" on Sunday nights and the "Armando Diaz Experience" on Monday nights. Jim directed over 15 shows at the iO including "The Awesome Show," "The Goodtime Hour," and "The Awesome Show 2 'Still Awesome.'" He directed No Country for Old White Men for mainstage at Second City, and Disposable Nation and Immaculate Deception on the Second City etc. stage, Second City Las Vegas, Bobble Heads of State at Second City Detroit, two Second City touring companies, Second City's Lollapalooza show, "The Second City Political Show," and has spent some time at sea directing cruise ship comedy. Jim has taught improvisation at iO, Columbia College, Second City, and Writer's Theater.
Michael McCarthy's Writing Program
For the next session, we're sorry to announce that it will be the last session of classes that Michael McCarthy will be teaching. Hell be returning to LA to work on a pilot. To celebrate his success we're opening up all three classes to whom ever wants to take them. Here's the information on his wonderful classes:
Michael McCarthy's Writing Program is open to both writers and performers looking to develop their skills. By the end of the program you will have a professional writing portfolio as well as submitted material to ongoing shows on the Main Stage. The Writing Program is 24 weeks and is taught over three levels using both in and out of class assignments.
LEVEL ONE - Talk Show Portfolio
Learn to write jokes (or two-liners) based upon the events of a given week. From this basic skill, the student heightens and explores the process into writing monologues and then onto the more formidable process of creating all the elements for a state-of-the-art portfolio, suitable for submission to a given talk show in pursuit of a TV writing job, or to an agent in pursuit of literary representation.
-Begins Monday, 5/5 3-6pm in The DCT.
LEVEL TWO - Sketch Packet
Learn to write sketches, after the style of “Saturday Night Live,” using the show’s current cast. The basic components of a typical episode of SNL becomes the elements for the students’ own SNL portfolio: Cold Opening sketches, monologues, Weekend Update pieces, TV and film parodies, cast pieces, digital shorts, etc… With a special emphasis on rewriting and marketing said packet in the later half of this eight week course.
-Begins Tuesday, 5/6 3-6pm in the iO Annex.
LEVEL THREE - Sitcom Spec
Still the most popular way for agents to judge writers (and whether they’re worth representing) is creation of a script, written on speculation, of an existing situation comedy—the Sitcom Spec. This eight week course takes the student through all the various stages: pitching, outlining, writing, rewriting, and offers each student the opportunity to stage a live reading of his or her spec.
Cost: $300 per 8 week session
-Begins Monday, 5/5 6-9pm in the iO Annex.
THE PILOT CLASS -
In four short weeks you will learn the mechanics behind the pitching and creating of a television pilot.
-The first week, we’ll focus on the three stages of the treatment:
1) Describing the project in a sentence (25 words or less);
2) Describing the project in a paragraph (three to five sentences);
3) Describing the project in a page (three to five paragraphs).
-The second week, focuses on character descriptions.
-The third week, focuses on episode scenarios.
-And the fourth week, focuses on completing a detailed outline, for the pilot itself.
Each class is three hours. $150.00. No limit.
-Begins TBA
Call the iO Training Center at (773) 880-9993 to Register!
Jim Carlson's Sketch Writing for the Stage
This eight week elective will focus on writing a sketch comedy using the iO method of long form ensemble based improvisation and other tested techniques used in writing sketch comedy. You will write scenes during this class to be performed on Monday nights before Armando. The class will improvise and re-improvise scenes and write scenes from improvised ideas. You will be forced to trust your own instincts, and those of your ensemble members, while initiating bold scenes based on improvised material. It will allow you to improvise a scene, take a note, try the scene again applying the note, and discover what comes next. This class will be based on spontaneity as well as calculation. The first two weeks will be spent improvising in class on Friday, and creating ensemble. The last six weeks will involve class on Fridays and a show on Monday nights to try out material. There is a possibility that the Monday show might develop in to a run upstairs at iO. There will be a three week period of evaluation, then iO will decide. You must have completed at least Level 3 of iO Training or if you haven't completed level 3 at iO, then you should have completed at least a minor in theater or the entire program at Annoyance or the conservatory at 2nd City.
Cost: $300
Class size: 12
Time: Fridays 7-10pm.
Starts: 5/9 (8 weeks)
Teacher/Director: Jim Carlson
Jim Carlson has been improvising, directing, and acting in Chicago since 1995. He was on the iO house team Valhalla and currently plays in "Middle Age Comeback" on Sunday nights and the "Armando Diaz Experience" on Monday nights. Jim directed over 15 shows at the iO including "The Awesome Show," "The Goodtime Hour," and "The Awesome Show 2 'Still Awesome.'" He directed No Country for Old White Men for mainstage at Second City, and Disposable Nation and Immaculate Deception on the Second City etc. stage, Second City Las Vegas, Bobble Heads of State at Second City Detroit, two Second City touring companies, Second City's Lollapalooza show, "The Second City Political Show," and has spent some time at sea directing cruise ship comedy. Jim has taught improvisation at iO, Columbia College, Second City, and Writer's Theater.
Michael McCarthy's Writing Program
For the next session, we're sorry to announce that it will be the last session of classes that Michael McCarthy will be teaching. Hell be returning to LA to work on a pilot. To celebrate his success we're opening up all three classes to whom ever wants to take them. Here's the information on his wonderful classes:
Michael McCarthy's Writing Program is open to both writers and performers looking to develop their skills. By the end of the program you will have a professional writing portfolio as well as submitted material to ongoing shows on the Main Stage. The Writing Program is 24 weeks and is taught over three levels using both in and out of class assignments.
LEVEL ONE - Talk Show Portfolio
Learn to write jokes (or two-liners) based upon the events of a given week. From this basic skill, the student heightens and explores the process into writing monologues and then onto the more formidable process of creating all the elements for a state-of-the-art portfolio, suitable for submission to a given talk show in pursuit of a TV writing job, or to an agent in pursuit of literary representation.
-Begins Monday, 5/5 3-6pm in The DCT.
LEVEL TWO - Sketch Packet
Learn to write sketches, after the style of “Saturday Night Live,” using the show’s current cast. The basic components of a typical episode of SNL becomes the elements for the students’ own SNL portfolio: Cold Opening sketches, monologues, Weekend Update pieces, TV and film parodies, cast pieces, digital shorts, etc… With a special emphasis on rewriting and marketing said packet in the later half of this eight week course.
-Begins Tuesday, 5/6 3-6pm in the iO Annex.
LEVEL THREE - Sitcom Spec
Still the most popular way for agents to judge writers (and whether they’re worth representing) is creation of a script, written on speculation, of an existing situation comedy—the Sitcom Spec. This eight week course takes the student through all the various stages: pitching, outlining, writing, rewriting, and offers each student the opportunity to stage a live reading of his or her spec.
Cost: $300 per 8 week session
-Begins Monday, 5/5 6-9pm in the iO Annex.
THE PILOT CLASS -
In four short weeks you will learn the mechanics behind the pitching and creating of a television pilot.
-The first week, we’ll focus on the three stages of the treatment:
1) Describing the project in a sentence (25 words or less);
2) Describing the project in a paragraph (three to five sentences);
3) Describing the project in a page (three to five paragraphs).
-The second week, focuses on character descriptions.
-The third week, focuses on episode scenarios.
-And the fourth week, focuses on completing a detailed outline, for the pilot itself.
Each class is three hours. $150.00. No limit.
-Begins TBA
Call the iO Training Center at (773) 880-9993 to Register!