Residents have yet another opportunity to take a class in 'making stuff up'.

Bermudian Toby Butterfield will be offering an eight-week course in improvisation, along the lines of the television show 'Whose Line Is It Anyway'.

Classes start today from 7 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. at the Bermuda School of Music at the old Berkeley Institute campus.

"I'd like to attract some new faces," said Miss Butterfield.

She discovered improvisational theatre while living in California for a few years.

"My early life had no theatre in it at all," she said. "I was in California getting my masters in psychology. I was aware of improv through the English television show 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'"

She started taking a community course. "That was in 1999 and I was hooked from the very first class," said Miss Butterfield. "I loved the creativity and playfulness of it, and I took years of classes and saw a huge number of shows."

She went on to train more seriously at the Bats Improv Centre in San Francisco.

"I performed for a year in San Francisco before moving back here," Miss Butterfield said.

She taught the art form in Bermuda for four years through Government's Community Education programme, before starting Improv Bermuda.

Improv Bermuda offers classes to adults as well as consultancy services to individuals, groups and organisations.

"Very few people in Bermuda have seen live improv," said Miss Butterfield. "The closest well known example is the television show 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?

"That show might make it seem scary, but learning to improvise is actually easy and a lot of fun.

"I design my classes to make everyone feel comfortable and playful so we all feel okay about taking risks."

The class is not necessarily for people who want to act. "I should tell you I have had no professional actors in my class," said Miss Butterfield with a laugh. "I have had a number of people who have been around the theatre arts. "They might have been involved back stage. It is a big leap for people to go from watching theatre to being in it. So I have had a few of those types of folks come and take my class. It was all they needed and now they are on the stage."

She said that shy people often screw up enough courage to come to the class, and then realise it is not nearly as scary as they anticipated. "Before you know it you get these advantages like feeling more confident, and so forth, without a lot of effort," said Miss Butterfield. "It may look like you have to be instantly funny but that's a myth. It's much more about creating the conditions for your natural tendencies to come out, your own natural creativity and instinct for invention and telling stories."

She said that while her students only perform in front of each other, they can eventually improve their skills enough to perform in front of an audience.

"It is an art form," she said. "You can keep doing it enough to shape your instincts so you could get up in front of people and create something really solid as a piece of entertainment."

In the class there is a big emphasis on feeling comfortable, especially from the beginning levels. "I use exercises all the time," she said. "I have taken the best of what I have experienced in my training. There are exercises that break down the worry level. They might be labeled childish or silly, but they really have a purpose. We are all doing things that are incrementally more embarrassing. We are all doing them together. One of the basic exercises is 'sound ball'. You stand in a circle. In an unplanned way you throw a noise at someone. They catch the noise and have to throw a different one back at someone else."

She tries to focus on story telling in her classes. "We are naturally inclined towards stories," she said. "You just sort of know how a story feels. You introduce a beginning, and we already have a sense of what might come next.

"When you see people improvise stories you think it is magic. We forget that this stuff is just in us. I am not getting people to do something that is new to them. I am getting them to realise how they already know how to do these things. If they feel like there is no risk factor and no pressure, they can just come forward and come out."

Miss Butterfield said she tries to nurture a supportive environment in her classes. "I'm supportive but so are the other students," she said. "Improv looks like magic because the other improvisers automatically support each other's ideas and commit to making each other look good."

She said improv can be as much a stress reliever as yoga or going to the gym. "We laugh a lot in class and enjoy ourselves but improv changes people beyond the two hours they spend in class," she said. "It's something I love as a teacher.''

For more information, contact Miss Butterfield at 505-7011 or improvtoby@yahoo.com. The fee is $125 for eight, two-and-a-half-hour sessions. Class size is limited.