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Pan Theater

Performance improv classes 

at Pan My New Class

Lisa, Mary, Virginia, Melissa, Anna - Awkward Face - 2011 - Pan Theater

I’ve just started a new short form performance class at Pan Theater. It’s been a few months since my last class participation, and boy, have I missed it! 

I have taken two classes at Pan before this one. Each time it has been a whole different group of people, but unfailingly everyone is of one accord: let’s hone our improvisational skills and 

HAVE FUN !!

Everyone in the classes is open, eager and friendly. We’re all equal, no matter our previous experience, and we are there to work together (not that it feels like work at all!) and to learn from the instructor, each other, and even ourselves. You just never know what might come out – of YOU!

Mary, Virginia & Alan - Awkward Face - 2011 - Pan Theater

Alan Coyne, the instructor of my class, is a member of Awkward Face, one of Pan’s performing troupes. At our first class, we played games designed to make you think on the spot, be spontaneous, and work interactively. Alan played along with us, encouraged our wildest imaginations, and laughed along with the rest of us.

The students are diverse in age, occupation, and probably every other way you can think of. We come from different areas of the bay. Doubtless, many have different reasons for wanting to learn and practice improve.

For me, improv is both a creative and a social outlet. Where else could I meet so many people who, just like me, are there to let go and explore where we can take a moment? I don’t even know many of their names yet, but they feel like old friends.

I guess to put it into a sentence, improv makes me feel like a kid on the playground, and this class is the recess I look forward to all week.

Delan McLoren
Short Form Training Troupe Student
Fall 2011