Year-Round Education Classes
Musical Theatre Skills
A 2 hour weekly class for teens and pre-teens

Instructor Claire Gratto is a theatrical performer, teacher, playwright, and director from Rochester, New York. Claire graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Studies and a minor in Vocal Music from Ithaca College in 2023. Since then, Claire has served as a teaching artist at the Hangar as well as directed the Hangar’s Next Gen Musicals Frozen JR. and The Addams Family Young@Part. Additional theatrical work includes music direction for Willy Wonka Jr. with Trumansburg Middle School, the Geva Theatre Center’s Summer Academy, and Blackfriars Theatre in Rochester, New York.
Improv & Sketch Comedy
A 90 minute weekly class for teens and pre-teens
Improv 101
A 2 hour weekly class for teens and adults
This introductory class will teach students the fundamentals of improv comedy. Through the use of improv games, group exercises, and scene work, students will be introduced to the core tenets of long-form improv with a focus on characters, building a strong base reality, listening, agreement and playing to the top of your intelligence. These concepts will act as the building blocks for subsequent classes as students learn to develop their comedic voice. Improv comedy is a wonderful tool for performance and for listening to and learning from the people around you. Students will come to see that they and their scene partners are geniuses and poets when you take the stage!
The course is 6 weeks long, culminating in a class show at the Hangar Theatre for a ticketed audience of friends and family on Thursday, December 4. Classes are 2 hours long, with one 5-minute break in the middle. Please check all the class and show dates, as we advise you not to miss more than 2 sessions total. The final session will include the performance, with the class meeting at our regular time for preparations.
Instructor Ilan Kaplan teaches improv and acting at all levels, from performers on main stages in NYC, to grade school students, to corporate clients. Ilan co-founded and servesas artistic director of the improv theater and school Funny’s Improv and taught a weekly improv workshop at the NYC offices of Meta (Facebook). He once taught improv to Punkie Johnson (SNL)!
FINANCIAL AID/SCHOLARSHIPS
Financial aid available for all Hangar Education programs. Click on the Scholarship Request Form link to receive aid!
We also offer the chance to purchase a class for a student as a pay-it-forward initiative. For additional questions or to contribute to our Pay-it-Forward fund, please email education@hangartheatre.org