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Learn From Chicago's Best at Stage 773's Improv with the Masters

By Ariel Cheung | March 16, 2015 5:54am
 Students during a 2014 Improv with the Masters class at Stage 773.
Students during a 2014 Improv with the Masters class at Stage 773.
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Provided/Stage 773

BELMONT THEATER DISTRICT — Stage 773's Improv with the Masters will offer lessons with not one or two of the city's top instructors, but eight.

Among them is Michael Gellman, The Second City and Victory Gardens Training Centers senior faculty member, who will move to Toronto soon after the Stage 773 classes, said creative director Brian Posen.

"These are the best of the best. To get this group together for one class is just phenomenal. There's nothing offered in any institution like this," Posen said.

After sold-out sessions in 2014, the spring session starts March 24 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. The three-hour classes will take place Tuesdays through May 12 and cost $350. Space is limited, but never fear: summer classes start July 14, with fall classes following Oct. 6.

"You get a wonderful smorgasbord of so many different styles, forms and takes on improv. If you take these eight people and look at the experience they have, you have hundreds of years of Chicago improv," Posen said.

Other master instructors from The Second City include Rachael Mason, The Second City head of advanced improvisation; Ryan Archibald, a Boom! Chicago performer and teacher at The Second City and iO Theater; Janna Sobel, an instructor at The Second City and other schools.

"Janna is one of the top people right now in storytelling, and Rachael Mason is one of the strongest female improvisers in the city," Posen said.

Students will also learn from Matt Elwell, president and CEO of ComedySportz; Dean Evans, one of NewCity's top 50 'players'; Dave Asher, The iO music director; and Jimmy Carrane, host of Improv Nerd and co-author of "Improvising Better: A Guide to the Working Improviser."

For more information, call Amanda Jane Long, Stage 773 director of programs and marketing, at 773-929-7367, ext. 110, or visit stage773.com.

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