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WELCOME TO THE HAPPIER VALLEY COMEDY SCHOOL COMMUNITY!

YOUR HAPPIER VALLEY COMEDY CONTACTS

guidelines for Happier Valley Comedy training center

gENERAL rEGISTRATION

When do classes open for registration? Classes and workshops publicly open for registration in the Friday newsletter one month before they begin.

​When do I get a "super secret" early registration email? Current Zen 1-3 students receive a “super secret” opportunity to sign up a four days before a class opens to the public in the Friday newsletter in order to provide them a guaranteed spot in the next level of class. Due to the nature of the program, Advanced Improv students do not receive early registration opportunities.

What if there is snow or inclement weather? The teacher will notify students at least three hours before class via email. A notice will also be posted on the front page fo the website, plus the HVC Community and HVC Facebook pages. Students can text or call teachers if in doubt.
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When should I sign up for a class? We STRONGLY recommend you sign up as soon as it opens for registration. Many classes fill up very quickly!

Which class should I start with? All beginners and those with a few improv classes under their belts begin at Zen 1. If beginners have taken the Zen of Improv One-Day Intensive, they can start at Zen 2. Graduates of other comedy schools and/or those with 1+ years of performing improv experience can begin at Zen 2 or, if they’ve taken the Intensive, at Zen 3. There are no exceptions.

​​What if I don't have the funds to register right away? This is no problem at all! Email us so we can pre-register you, set up a payment plan, and reserve your spot. If you need further assistance, ask about the HVC School Fun Fund. If the money is in the Fun Fund and you need it, it’s yours. If you'd like give or receive Fun Funds to go towards a HVC class, please email Pam.

What if I can't or prefer not to register online? If you have trouble registering online or would like to register over the phone, call Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006.  If you absolutely can’t do online or over the phone registration, please email us to register and pay the old-school way. 

​How do I unregister for or change my class? To cancel or change your class, please email us and we will notify Brown Paper Tickets and do the necessary paperwork on our end. Please keep registration changes to a minimum! There may be a fee associated with registration changes.

How and when do I receive a refund? If you need a refund due to change or cancellation, it’s strongly recommended that you check your credit card bill at the end of the month. Brown Paper Tickets refunds take 3 to 5 business days to process and has made refunding mistakes on rare occasions.

What’s the 50% Student Referral Discount? Refer a THROUGH LAUGHTER professional development workshop, and if your referral leads to a booking, you will save 50% off your next class! Talk to Pam and see the THROUGH LAUGHTER page for more info.

​Any other questions about registration? Email us please. 

The HVC Scholarship fun fund

What if I can't afford a class? In improvisation, we give and receive gifts onstage. Now we can do so offstage as well. If the money is in the Fun Fund and you need it, it’s yours. If you'd like give or receive funds to go towards a HVC class, please email us.

Class Completion requirement

How many classes can I miss and still move on to the next level? Each student may only miss two classes of each session in order to graduate to the next level. ​

Class Behavior

Are you going to kick me out if I’m a jerk?​ It’s extremely important to us that our school is a place where everyone feels free to fully express themselves without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe on account of biological sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, cultural background, religious affiliation, age, or physical or mental ability (to name but a few.) Given the nature of improvisation, we try to balance students’ freedom to explore new, risky, and potentially uncomfortable territory while at the same time maintaining your feeling of personal safety. It’s a tricky balance!

Our guiding principle is to assume good will from your instructors and classmates in class. This assumption of good will helps us turn missteps into learning opportunities. Let’s keep the dialogue open in and after class about what feels fun and “ease-ful” and what doesn’t. That said, if there is an issue with something that comes up in class, please don't hesitate to talk immediately to Pam or Scott, either in person or by email or phone. Please don’t hesitate to contact us; we want to hear from you.

Formal answer:  Happier Valley Comedy (HVC) reserves the right to remove and subsequently refuse access or service to any person who: a) either cannot or will not follow instructions from staff, or b) causes significant disruption to the function of the business. Our definition of disruption to the business includes: disrespectful or dangerous treatment of another person at HVC (including audience, students, and staff), actions that endanger or damage the physical property of HVC or our hosts, and any illegal activity. Our definition of staff includes: improv teachers, door and house managers, management, and any other person employed, volunteering or contracted by HVC. Short answer: Don’t be a jerk. (We know you won’t anyway!)

More information on this topic can be found in our Anti-Harassment & Issues of Respect Policy.

connect with the community: keep the fun going outside of the classroom!

Who does what?  In short:
School -> Pam 
Shows -> Scott
In long, Pam is the President of the company and oversees the Training Program (school and THROUGH LAUGHTER). Scott is the General Manager and Artistic Director and oversees all operations of the company/theater and everything show-related.
HVC School on Social Media

BRING THE JOYRIDE INTO THE WORKPLACE: OUR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PROGRAM

Do you provide professional development classes? The THROUGH LAUGHTER Program uses improv exercises to provide professional development. Pam goes into local businesses and colleges spreading the joys of improv as she facilitates workshops and retreats focused on communication training, team building, presentation skills, redefining failure and strengthening resilience, and so much more.
  • Student Referral Discount: If your THROUGH LAUGHTER referral leads to a booked workshop, you will save 50% off your next class! Talk to Pam for more info.
  • Click the “Professional Development” tab on the navigation menu above for more about our corporate development program, including short videos of workshops in action.

STUDENTS' BILL OF Responsibilities and rIGHTS

It’s extremely important to us that our school is a place where everyone feels free to fully express themselves without fear of being made to feel unwelcome or unsafe on account of Age, Creed (Religion), Sex, Sexual orientation, Gender identity, Gender expression, Family status, Marital status, Physical and/or Mental Ability, Race, Ancestry, Place of origin, Ethnic origin, Citizenship, Color, Military service, or Criminal record. Given the nature of improvisation, we try to balance students’ freedom to explore new, risky, and potentially uncomfortable territory while at the same time respecting your feeling of personal physical and emotional safety. It’s a tricky and untidy balance! Please read and bring a signed copy of this document to your first class, so we all can start - literally - on the same page.

We are gathering together to learn improvisation and/or personal storytelling. This process involves bringing our humanity to the stage in all its beauty and, sometimes, ugliness. Performing joy and, sometimes, sadness. Love and, sometimes, hatefulness. Let’s be clear: Bigotry has no place in improvisation. However, humanity has all the space in the world, and - news flash! - humans are messy and gloriously fallible. As those qualities may be brought to the stage, our classroom cannot be considered a “safe space.” It is, however, a brave, intentionally caring space of trust-building. Performers are advised to live our lives and bring that to the stage. As such, our classroom stage will involve moments of real life which may feel hilarious, tragic, angry, loving, hateful, boundary-pushing, boring, mean, fearful, fascinating, totally gross, complex, utterly raunchy, totally stoopid, shocking, deeply inspiring … and so on. There may be wonderful moments of improvised beauty in your class. There may also be fart jokes. You are agreeing to be open to all of it.

Though you may learn important life lessons in class, our classes are not therapy. Your teachers are only here to teach improv and/or storytelling standup. That said, this stuff is an emotional contact sport; emotions and content brought up and the learning curve may be uncomfortable for you. If you're someone who has recently experienced trauma or are in the middle of a vulnerable healing process, the most compassionate act may be to skip this class for now. In that case, you’re welcome to take advantage of the Compassionate Care Refund, which you can request up to 5 days before the second class in order to receive 100% refund from Happier Valley Comedy if you decide that this is not the right time for you to take improv class. (We’ll be here with open arms when you’re ready.)

In signing this Student Bill of Responsibilities & Rights, you’re agreeing that you’re aware of and willing to take responsibility in the boundary-expansion journey according to HVC’s #1 Rule: ASSUME GOOD WILL. When something challenging comes up, ASSUME GOOD WILL means that we trust that the person who challenged us means well, though their actions may not sit well. ASSUME GOOD WILL means always trying to see the positive, creative intent within a scene, trusting that your scene partners are doing their best to find the fun too. You are agreeing to ASSUME GOOD WILL from your instructors and classmates in order to help turn missteps into learning opportunities.

Happier Valley Comedy School’s Big Commitments
  • ASSUME GOOD WILL
  • Traditional workplace touching only (See below for more details.)
  • You can immediately step out of any scene, performance, rehearsal, or class at any time without explanation.
  • Better out than in when it comes to communication. Your class, teacher, and HVC Leadership (Scott & Pam) are all here for you. Let’s talk!

Central Responsibilities & Rights as an HVC Community Member
  • You have the right to define what feels fun and comfortable for you without judgment from others.
  • You have the responsibility for communicating your boundaries. You have the right to allow those boundaries to be respectfully expanded over time.
  • For improv classes, you have the right to be treated as a character onstage and a colleague offstage. Onstage, it is assumed that you are playing a character, not yourself. Offstage, students are expected to treat each other with the same respect as we would treat work colleagues.
  • While it’s the teacher’s responsibility to stop a scene/exercise if rules of conduct are broken or if something unsafe happens, you have the right to stop a scene and address it whether or not you’re in the scene.
  • You are responsible for using your most reserved judgment for what you say and do in class until a pattern of consent and trust has formed. A good rule of thumb for physical contact: If it's appropriate touching in a typical office, it's appropriate in the improv classroom. And typically, we don't touch each other in the office. And definitely, we don't ever use aggressive contact. The same thing goes for potentially offensive language. When in doubt, don't do it (then discuss.) If you're in a scene and have the thought, "I wonder if this is appropriate?" DON'T do or say it. But DO bring it up afterwards in order to establish a culture of trusting risk-taking in class. If your classmates set new boundaries for content and touch, you are responsible for respecting those boundaries, whether or not they line up with your own personal boundaries. In short, if a classmate says, “I’m not comfortable with that,” don’t ever do it.
  • You have the right to honest, constructive, thoughtful feedback from teachers and, when invited, your peers. 
  • You have the right to turn down a suggestion you feel is demeaning or unfun.
  • You are responsible for not “yucking” anyone’s “yum,” and you have the right not to have your yum yucked.
  • You are responsible for practicing the assumption that your scene partners are right and making them righter.
  • You have the right to have more fun than anyone.
  • You are responsible with providing yourself and your classmates with the compassion and patience to learn according to one’s personal timeline.
  • You have the right to remain laughing; anything you say can and may be used for comedic purposes. You have the right to have an audience laugh with you; if you cannot afford an audience, your class will provide one for you.
  • You have the right to love your work.

Let’s keep the dialogue open in and after class about what feels fun and “ease-ful” and what doesn’t. You have the right to speak to any HVC staff member regarding behavior by any person that you feel infringes on your or any other community member’s rights. You have the right to have this discussion held in confidence or to be shared in the manner agreed upon by you and the person to whom you make a report.  Exercising any of these rights will not adversely affect your ability to progress in classes, to be cast in or to be booked for shows. If there is an issue with something that comes up in class, please speak immediately to your teacher, Pam, and/or Scott, either in person, by email, or phone. Remember: Better out than in. We want to hear from you!

Happier Valley Comedy has an Anti-Harassment & Issues of Respect Policy, which covers many of these rights and responsibilities and includes several methods for reporting any concerns or issues you may encounter while participating in any HVC program. The full policy can be found here.

Notice of Nondiscrimination Policy as to students

The Happier Valley Comedy School admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religious affiliation, age, ability, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religious affiliation, age, ability, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other school-administered programs.

​Any more questions? we're here for you!

Contact Us
Download the Guideline Handout from Class (PDF)
Download the Student Bill of RESPONSIBILITIES & Rights (PDF)