The Game of the Scene

Name: The Game of the Scene
Start: 2026-08-20T15:00:00.000Z
End: 2026-10-08T17:00:00.000Z
Location: The ICC Theatre

Next class:

Thursday20 August17:00

The ICC Theatre

1/8
Thursday20 August17:00 – 19:00
2/8
Thursday27 August17:00 – 19:00
3/8
Thursday3 September17:00 – 19:00
4/8
Thursday10 September17:00 – 19:00
5/8
Thursday17 September17:00 – 19:00
6/8
Thursday24 September17:00 – 19:00
7/8
Thursday1 October17:00 – 19:00
8/8
Thursday8 October17:00 – 19:00

Class description

The Game of the Scene - Part 1 is a focused 8-week course designed to build your skills in recognising, initiating, and heightening the comedic idea at the core of an improv scene — what we call the game.

In this course, you’ll learn how to identify unusual behaviour or patterns, articulate clear comedic premises, and develop scenes by logically or emotionally heightening that premise. Whether the comedy comes from a strange character, a bizarre world, or an unexpected emotional reaction, you’ll learn how to spot it, commit to it, and play it all the way through. We’ll also explore the emotional side of gameplay: how to react honestly and push emotional stakes to raise the energy and comedic payoff of the scene.

The course is inspired by the Upright Citizen Brigade theatre and their approach to game and premise-based improv. Through side coaching, tag runs, time dashes, premise initiations and support work, you’ll be guided toward playing smart, funny, satisfying scenes that are as rewarding for the players as they are for the audience.

You’ll learn:

How to identify and initiate a clear comedic premise

Spot and frame the first unusual thing

How to play “If this is true, what else is true?”

The difference between logical and emotional heightening

Tools for recognizing unusual patterns or character behavior

How to emotionally commit to a character or game

How to use edits (tag outs, cut tos, time dashes) to heighten the scene

The course run for 8 weeks (1 class per week lasting 2 hours).

Included in the Game of the Scene course are the following:

A free field trip with your fellow students and teacher to see a show at the theatre

An ICC Student card that gives you free entrance to Sundays shows and discounts at the bar at the ICC Theatre

Two free MainStage show tickets

Eligibility and more: Students who have completed Character or a higher-level course.

This is a stand-alone course that compliments but is not part of the ICC Training Centre curriculum. This course does not replace ‘Advance Scene Work’ or ‘The Show’ course. Therefore, it is not a mandatory requirement to complete ‘The Game of the Scene’ course in order to be eligible to take the ‘Advance Scene Work’ course.

Practical Information: All of our courses are conducted in a safe and very supportive way by our experienced ICC teachers. Participants are kindly requested to bring personal water from home for all classes. We highly encourage students to sign up at least one week before class starts.

Instalments: Pay a deposit of 60% of the total price now and 40% up to two days before the course starts!

Teachers

Øyvind Fossum

Øyvind, with the name that cannot be pronounced, is an experienced improviser from Norway. Øyvind is an alumni of the ICC school of improv. He took the Character twice. To this day it is still unclear whether he failed it or just really took a liking to the Character. Since levelling up from the talent pool, Øyvind has become a permanent member of two house teams at the ICC Theatre. The Fallen Sundays, doing improvised musicals. As well as the audience-driven, Mixtape. With his indie team Band of Unicorns, Øyvind has performed all over the place. From smokey bars, to house parties and as palate cleansers in-between fine dishes at restaurants. He has attended improv workshops with recognised teachers from abroad and played at festivals outside of Denmark. Improv gave and continues to give Øyvind so many laughs and so much joy. As such, he is passionate about giving both the laughs and the joy of improv to others through his teaching.