FAQ

Life at the Improv is a platform for actors, improvisers, coaches, and anyone who's ever wanted to stand on a stage and feel something. We built it for the people who stay after class to run the scene one more time. For the coach who drives an hour to see a student perform. For the kid who doesn't fit in anywhere except on a stage.

You'll find an AI scene partner to practice with, a library of improv exercises, lesson planning tools for coaches, classroom games, script practice, a talent directory, audition listings, and a community board called The Wall. It's one place for all of it.

Everyone who takes the stage seriously — which includes plenty of people who are laughing the whole time.

• Kids & teens — XP, levels, achievements, daily prompts. It's a game and it's real work.
• Adults — Scene partner, journal, portfolio, auditions. The full thing.
• Coaches & teachers — Roster management, lesson plans, classroom mode, Stripe Connect payments.
• Studio directors — Manage multiple coaches, track students, use Classroom Mode on a projector.
• Casting & industry folks — Browse the Talent Directory, post auditions, search by type and skill.

Head to /signup.html. Creating an account is free. You get access to the exercise library, daily prompts, The Wall, and the AI scene partner right away. Some advanced features (like Classroom Mode, Stripe payments, and the talent directory) are part of the full platform.

If you're a coach, check "I want to teach" during signup to unlock the coaching tools.

Student accounts get the scene partner, exercise library, daily prompts, journal, XP system, script practice, and portfolio tools. You can find and book coaches, submit for auditions, and join The Wall community.

Coach accounts get everything a student gets, plus: a student roster, lesson plan builder, Classroom Mode, warm-up studio, homework assignment tools, Stripe Connect for getting paid, a coach profile page, and the ability to endorse students for the talent directory.

You can switch to Coach mode from your profile at any time.

Journey levels are how the platform tracks your growth. You earn XP by doing the work — practicing scenes, completing exercises, writing in your journal, finishing homework, earning achievements. As your XP climbs, you level up.

Your level is visible on your profile and in the talent directory. Coaches can see their students' levels in the roster.

The Scene Partner is an AI you can practice with whenever you want — at 2am, between classes, before an audition. It plays characters, runs scenes, gives notes, and knows the difference between "yes, and" and a block. It never cancels on you.

Open it at /scene.html.

Yes, in Rehearse mode you can describe any scene — "two characters, the breakup scene from a play about estranged siblings" — and the AI will set it up and play opposite you. You can also upload scripts in Script Practice and have the AI read the other parts while you practice your lines.

The AI won't reproduce copyrighted scripts verbatim, but it knows the emotional beats of thousands of plays, films, and monologues and can work with you in that world.

Free Improv — You set a scenario (or leave it open) and go. The AI says "yes, and" to everything. There are no notes, no stops — just the scene. Good for warming up or exploring.

Rehearse — You define the scene, the characters, and the goal. The AI plays a specific character and you work through the material together. You can pause and adjust at any time.

Acting Coach — After each exchange, the AI steps out of character and gives you notes. It'll tell you when you blocked, when you went into your head, what worked. You can ask it about specific techniques.

Yes. Toggle the speaker icon in the Scene Partner to enable TTS. The AI will read its lines aloud in a natural voice. This is especially useful when you want to practice without looking at the screen — more like a real scene. Browser must support the Web Speech API (all modern browsers do).

Yes. Click the mic icon in the Scene Partner to speak your lines. The platform uses your browser's built-in speech recognition — hit the button, speak, and it transcribes. This is the closest thing to an actual scene partner. No extra setup needed, no downloads.

In Acting Coach mode, yes — real notes after every exchange. It watches for blocking, one-upping, going into your head, rushing, not listening. It also celebrates what worked. In Rehearse mode you can ask "how am I doing?" at any point and get an honest answer. Free Improv mode is feedback-free by design — sometimes you just need to play.

The AI is fluent in Stanislavski (given circumstances, objectives, obstacles, actions), Meisner (repetition, emotional truth, living truthfully in imaginary circumstances), Spolin (theater games, audience, environment), UCB's "game of the scene," and general improv foundations (yes-and, listening, physicality, commitment). Ask it anything — "explain the want/obstacle/tactic structure" — and it'll teach.

The library launches with hundreds of exercises across categories: warm-ups, yes-and drills, listening games, physicality, character work, monologue prompts, ensemble games, and more. Coaches and the community keep adding new ones. Browse at /exercises.html.

Yes. Any logged-in user can submit an exercise to the library. Give it a name, description, category, group size, duration, and instructions. Once submitted, it goes into the library with your name on it. Other coaches can add it to their lesson plans and favorite it.

Yes. In the exercise library there's an "AI Generate" button. Tell it what you need: group size, skill level, goal (listening, physicality, ensemble, etc.), time available. It'll create a custom exercise you can save to your library, add to a lesson plan, or run right now.

Click the star on any exercise to favorite it. Your favorites show up in a tab at the top of the exercise library so you can find your go-tos fast. Coaches often favorite 10–20 exercises and pull from that list when building lesson plans on the fly.

Go to /lessons.html and click "New Plan." Give it a title, set the duration, and then add blocks — exercises, free-form notes, breaks, anything. Drag to reorder. Each block shows its time contribution so you can hit your class length exactly. When you're done, save it and it lives in your library forever.

Yes. When you save a plan you can set it to Public. Public plans are visible in the community lesson plan library where other coaches can browse and copy them. If you want to share a specific plan directly, there's also a "share link" option that gives anyone with the link read access.

Absolutely. Find a public plan, click "Copy to my library," and it's yours to edit. The original coach gets credit. This is how great curriculum spreads.

Go to /roster.html and click "Add Student." You can add them manually (name, email, age) or invite them by email and they'll create their own account and show up in your roster automatically. Once they're in your roster you can add session notes, track XP, and see their progress.

Yes. Each student record has a Parent/Guardian section where you can store a contact name, email, and phone number. This is only visible to you — students and parents don't see each other's stored info. You can use the "Invite Parent" button to send them a read-only progress summary email.

After every class you can write a session note on each student — what you observed, what to focus on next, what clicked. Note types help you categorize: Breakthrough (something landed), Working On (a skill in progress), Concern (needs attention), General (anything else). Notes are private to the coach and never visible to students.

Yes. From the roster, hit "Invite All" to send welcome emails to everyone who doesn't have an account yet, or use the envelope icon on individual students. The invite email includes a link to sign up and automatically connects them to your roster. You can also do Roster → Invite All for a bulk send.

Classroom Mode is a full-screen interface designed to run on a projector or TV during class. It's built for the front of the room — big text, high contrast, minimal UI. You can run games, spin emotion roulette, do spotlights on students, run warm-ups, and have the AI play a character in front of the whole class. Open it at /classroom.html.

Inspired by the AI from Interstellar, the TARS dials let you tune the AI's classroom behavior before you start. Adjust sliders for: Humor (dad jokes to roast), Energy (calm to chaotic), Warmth (professional to parent-friend), and Challenge (gentle to no-mercy). Good for matching the room — a 9am Saturday class needs different settings than a Friday night teen session.

You can set a character before class starts — anything you can describe. "A British butler who has seen too much." "A motivational coach who is barely holding it together." "A wise grandmother who only speaks in metaphors." The AI plays that character for the whole session and your students interact with it. Great for character work exercises.

Yes, if your students are in your roster and connected to the class session. The AI can call on students by name, reference their progress ("Marcus, you've been working on physicality — show us"), and personalize prompts. You can also give the AI a class list without student accounts — just type the names in the Classroom Mode setup.

Student Spotlight pulls up one student on the big screen — their name, a brief note (that only you see as the coach), and a personalized prompt or challenge for them. It's a structured moment to give individual attention without it feeling like singling someone out. The class sees the spotlight. Only you see your private note about that student.

Participation Check is a quick tool you run mid-class. It shows you a visual of who's been active and who's been quiet. Not a grade — just a reminder for you to pull in the students who've been hanging back. It's a coaching tool, not a tracking tool.

The games section at /games.html includes Speed Characters, Emotion Roulette, Whose Line (scene suggestions), One Word Story, Freeze Tag, Object Work, Status Games, and more. The AI can facilitate most of them as a host or scene partner. New games are added regularly.

Speed Characters flashes a new character archetype on screen every 10–30 seconds (you set the interval). Your job: become that character as fast as possible. It trains the snap-in-to-character muscle that improv and auditions demand. Run it solo, or put it on the projector for the whole class. A timer counts down in the corner so no one can hide.

Emotion Roulette spins a wheel (or randomizes a list) and lands on an emotion — "grief," "disgusted joy," "nervous excitement." You or your students have to play a scene or monologue in that emotion until the next spin. Great for emotional range work and breaking out of comfort zones.

The Warm-Up Studio at /warmups.html gives you a sequenced set of physical, vocal, and mental warm-ups you can run before class. Pick a duration (5 min, 10 min, 20 min) and the platform walks you through each step with timing. Works on the projector in Classroom Mode too. You can customize the sequence or use the default.

Yes — all chants, counting games, and call-and-response patterns the AI generates are original. We don't reproduce copyrighted song lyrics or melodies. The AI writes in the style of improv chants (repetitive, energetic, easy to learn fast) without borrowing from anyone's catalog.

Go to /scripts.html and click "Upload Script." You can paste text directly or upload a .txt or .pdf file. Then tell the platform which role is yours and it assigns all other parts to the AI. You can also just describe a scene and the AI will write sides for you to practice with.

After you deliver a line, the platform compares what you said (via mic or text) to the script and scores it. Three tiers: Exact (word-for-word), Close (meaning preserved, minor word changes), Missed (significantly different or skipped). Your score is tracked over sessions so you can see yourself improving. For audition sides, exact matters. For scene work, close is usually fine.

Exact = every word matches. 100 points per line. Close = the meaning is there, a few words differ. 70 points. Missed = significant deviation, or the line was skipped. 0 points. Your session score is the average across all your lines. You can replay just the missed lines for targeted drilling.

XP (experience points) is how the platform measures the work you're putting in. Do a scene, earn XP. Write in your journal, earn XP. Complete a homework assignment, earn XP. Coaches can assign XP values to specific tasks. You can see your total in your profile and on the leaderboard at /leaderboard.html.

• Completing a scene session with the AI — 10 XP
• Writing a journal entry — 15 XP
• Completing a homework assignment — 25–100 XP (set by coach)
• Running script practice — 20 XP per session
• Daily prompt response — 10 XP
• Earning an achievement — 50–200 XP
• Completing a homework streak — bonus XP

Achievements are unlocked by hitting milestones. First scene with the AI, 7-day journal streak, 100 lines scored in script practice, first homework assignment completed, first coach endorsement — those kinds of things. Each achievement gives XP and is displayed on your profile. Some are secret. Part of the fun is finding them.

Coaches can create custom XP rewards for their students — "earn 500 XP, get a free one-on-one session" or "earn 1,000 XP, pick the game for next class." The reward system is flexible and defined by the coach. Platform-wide rewards (profile badges, unlockable features) are also available at certain XP thresholds.

Your Actor Portfolio at /portfolio.html is a professional page you build over time — headshot, bio, training history, skills, coach endorsements, demo reel links, and a readiness score. When you're ready, it's visible to casting directors and industry folks browsing the talent directory.

The Readiness Score is a composite of your activity on the platform — how much you've practiced, your XP level, coach endorsements, portfolio completeness, and script practice accuracy. It's a rough signal for casting folks browsing the talent directory. A high score means you're showing up and doing the work. It's not a grade — it's a pattern.

Browse listings at /auditions.html. Each listing shows the project, role, what they're looking for, location (or self-tape), and deadline. Click "I'm Interested" to submit your portfolio. Industry folks who posted the audition can then review your profile and contact you directly.

The Talent Directory at /talent.html is where coaches, casting directors, and industry people can browse actor profiles. You control whether you appear in it — toggle visibility in your portfolio settings. Profiles include your headshot, level, training, endorsements, and skills. AI-powered search lets people describe what they're looking for and get matched to relevant profiles.

When a coach has a student in their roster, they can write an endorsement — a short statement about the student's work, growth, and strengths. Endorsements show up on the student's portfolio with the coach's name and profile link. They're written, not just star ratings. A genuine endorsement from a working coach means something.

When a coach marks a student as graduated, it adds a graduation milestone to their portfolio with the date and a note from the coach. It's a real moment — not just a platform badge. Graduated students can keep their roster connection or move on independently. Either way, that milestone stays on their record.

The networking section lives at /network.html — we call it the Green Room. You can browse by location, skill, level, or training background. The AI matching feature lets you describe what you're looking for in a scene partner or collaborator and surfaces relevant people.

Describe what you need: "someone in Chicago who does sketch comedy and wants to workshop original material" or "a training partner at the Teenager level who's working on Meisner." The AI searches the Green Room for members matching that description and shows you the closest matches. It's not just a keyword filter — it reads profiles and finds the actual fit.

Any member can propose a meetup — an in-person or virtual scene partner session, workshop, or jam. You set the location, date, and max group size. Other members can RSVP. Meetups show on a map so people can find what's happening near them.

When you're setting up an in-person meetup with someone from another part of town (or another city), the midpoint calculator takes both your locations and finds the geographic midpoint — then suggests coffee shops or rehearsal spaces near that spot. Because nobody wants to be the one who drove 40 minutes while the other person drove 5.

The journal at /journal.html is where you process the work. What scared you today? What clicked? What do you want to try next time? The prompt changes daily. You can write anything — it's private by default. Consistent journaling builds the self-awareness that makes you a better performer. It also earns XP, because the work deserves to be counted.

Only if you ask it to. There's an optional "Reflect with AI" mode where you can share a journal entry and the AI will respond with questions or observations. You trigger this — it never reads your journal automatically. Your entries are yours.

Write in your journal on consecutive days and your streak counter goes up. Streaks are tracked on your profile and earn bonus XP at 7, 14, 30, and 60-day milestones. Streaks reset if you miss a day — but you can pick back up immediately. The point isn't perfection, it's the habit.

Yes. Your journal is private by default. Your session notes (coach) are private. Your scene conversations are not stored beyond the active session unless you explicitly save them. We don't sell your data. See the full Privacy Policy.

By default, your profile is visible to logged-in members. You control what shows up in the public talent directory — that's a separate toggle in your portfolio settings. You can be "findable" without appearing in the talent directory. Your coach can see your roster record. Nobody else can see your session notes or journal entries.

Studios can see your public portfolio if you've opted into the talent directory. They cannot see your journal, session history, coach notes, or private contact information. You control what you share. If you submit for an audition, the casting contact gets your portfolio and your chosen contact method — nothing else.

All connections are encrypted via HTTPS/TLS. Passwords are hashed. Sensitive data is encrypted at rest. We're built on industry-standard infrastructure and we take this seriously — these are people's artistic lives, and some of them are kids.

Go to Profile → Privacy Settings. You can set visibility for: your profile (members only vs. public), your talent directory listing (on/off), your coach profile (on/off), and your Green Room presence (findable vs. hidden). Changes take effect immediately.

Connect your Stripe account in Profile → Coach Profile → Payments. Once connected, you set your hourly rate and session packages. Students can book and pay directly through the platform. Stripe handles the money movement; you get paid to your bank account on Stripe's standard payout schedule. Life at the Improv takes a small platform fee.

Stripe Connect is the payment infrastructure that lets coaches get paid through the platform without us ever holding your money. You connect your own Stripe account; payments from students go directly to you (minus the platform fee). It's secure, handles taxes, and works internationally.

You set your available times in Profile → Coach Profile → Schedule. Students browse your profile and request a session at an available slot. You approve or suggest a different time. Once confirmed, the student pays through the platform and the session is locked in. You get an email. They get an email. Everyone shows up.

Yes, and it's one of our favorite use cases. Add your club members to your roster, build season lesson plans, use Classroom Mode at practice, assign weekly homework with XP rewards, and track everyone's growth. Payments are optional — plenty of coaches use the platform for free with school clubs. If you're at a school that wants district-level access, reach out — we have an education setup.