Welcome to the Unscrewed Theater Training Center. We have a full staff of instructors who also perform regularly at our theater, ready to teach you how to be funny on the spot.
Learn new skills and make new friends in a safe and supportive atmosphere. You don’t have to want to perform to get something out of our classes. Improv can help you get more out of your personal relationships, business relationships, and life in general.
The Unscrewed Theater Training Center has a broad curriculum of improv classes and workshops:
- Two tiers of weekly Improv Classes, taught by Unscrewed Theater Training Center Instructors on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and on Saturday mornings.
- Improv Appetizer Workshops, offering a taste of improv in a single session. New Appetizer every few months.
- Summer Teen Workshops, afternoon improv camps for teens ages 13-17.
- Guest Instructor Workshops, taught by the biggest names in the international improv community.
Our Improv Class sizes are limited to 12 students. Workshop size limits vary but are generally 12-16 students. Other than the Summer Teen Workshops, students must be at least 18 years of age. All classes and workshops (unless otherwise noted when you enroll) are held at Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E Speedway Blvd #39, Tucson AZ.
Improv Basics
Our class curriculum starts with Improv Basics, a weekly 2½-hour class lasting eight weeks and concluding with a Showcase performance (optional).
This introductory class explores the fundamental elements of improv. We focus on games and exercises that encourage trust, communication, agreement (“yes and”), active listening, character, status, and making your scene partner look good.
Enroll and pay in full, and you’ll also receive a FREE Unscrewed Theater T-shirt!
ImprovBlox
After completing our Improv Basics class, you can take ANY and/or ALL our new 8-week ImprovBlox sessions, in any order you’d like!
Each ImprovBlox is an intensive exploration of two of the skills you learned in your Improv Basics class, where we focused on games and exercises that encourage trust, communication, agreement (“yes and”), active listening, character, status, and making your scene partner look good.
Improv Basics
Improv Basics
Learn the fundamentals of improv, including agreement, listening, teamwork, and honest choices.
Spacework/Environment
Space/Environment
Learn tools to create a dynamic “physical” world that will propel you into the center of your scene. Spacework is an essential language of great characters, group mind, and successful scenes.Emotions
Emotions
Learn to express bold emotional choices that drive rich and relationship-driven scenes. You’ll learn how to express your emotional choice, make it matter, and hold on to it.Relationships
Relationships
You’ll focus on establishing clearly defined and dynamic relationships between characters, and how those connections will drive and heighten the action and direction of the scene.Characters
Character
Learn the building blocks for creating strong and memorable three-dimensional characters who can connect with scene partners and drive a successful scene.Group Mind/Game In The Game
Group Mind/Game In The Game
Team building with an end focus on the group mind. Find the scene that's already present, make everything matter, and trust that your scene partner is doing the same. Eliminate barriers between characters and egos.Scene Craft
Scene Craft
Build confidence in your skills to create and maintain scenes, working within an ensemble. Learning how your characters can relate to each other is the magical ingredient that will create compelling, relatable, and entertaining scenes.Training Center Instructors
Cris Candelario
Cris Candelario has been studying and performing improv for 11 years. Cris started teaching improv 5 years ago after wanting to pass on what he had learned thru workshops and summer intensives to others. Cris continues to attend classes and workshops across the country, taught by improv leaders and master teachers to bring this info back to Tucson to make the community stronger.
Cris regularly travels to improv festivals and other communities to learn the latest of both short and long form and brings this back in to the classroom. Cris has also taught professionally at the university level since 2001 and understands adult learning needs and expectations. Cris loves to teach and brings his fun and enthusiasm that you see on the stage, combined with his professionalism from the workplace, to a class that will both be fun and be challenging.
Chris Seidman
Chris Seidman has been a performing member of Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed since 2005, and an improv instructor since March 2013. For over a decade, he has studied improv theory and practice with a variety of Improv veterans, including educational directors of Second City and iO (ImprovOlympic). Not to mention collaborating with Unscrewed Theater’s well-versed and professional instructor team.
Chris believes the world would be a better place if everyone took an improv class. AND, it’s fun! Improv changes lives.
Scott Shaver
Scott Shaver was born Houston, Texas, and struggle to hide his thick southern accent. He has performed with Not Burned Out, Just Unscrewed for somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 years.
During the day Scott is better lit and works as a teacher.
Rob Sparks
Rob Sparks has been studying, performing and teaching improv for over twenty years starting at Grinnell College in the 90’s.
He’s a main stage player at Unscrewed Theater and has performed in well over 300 shows over the years. He’s studied with many nationally known improv teachers and brings a wealth of knowledge and love for the craft to his classes!
Jessica Spenny
Jessica Spenny has been at main stage player with Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed for over ten years and has been teaching for three.
She holds a bachelors degree in theater with a emphasis in directing from University of Michigan and combines a passion for performance with grounded, real world techniques in her classes!
Alan Trammel
Alan Trammel has been part of Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed since 2015. Over six and a half years of experience performing Improv. With over four years of teaching beginning to advanced improvisation skills to college students to adults, he focuses on short form games, scene-work, story telling, listening, and communication skills. He believes that basic improv techniques can be taken off-stage to improve personal and professional relationships for everyone. All you need is you.
Mike Vietinghoff
Mike has been studying, performing and teaching improv for almost 15 years. He is one of the founding members of Unscrewed Theater and performs weekly with the Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed: Tucson’s premier improv troop.
He firmly believes that the skills you learn in improv are directly applicable to everyday life as well!
Guest Instructors
Unscrewed Theater hosts some of the biggest names in the improv world for Guest Instructor Workshops. Workshops are generally held on weekends, and some include performance opportunities.
Past Guest Instructors
Amanda Blake Davis & Celeste Pechous
Laura & Rick Hall
Nick Armstrong
Karen Graci
Michael Gellman
David Razowsky
Rich Baker
Rolland Lopez
Gary Jacobs
Paul Vaillancourt
Jaime Moyer
Jill Bernard
Performances with Guest Instructors
YouTube playlist featuring performances with past Guest Instructors, workshop participants, and Unscrewed Theater house teams.
