Our Method: Improv Empowerment

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Samantha Jones didn’t come to improv through comedy clubs or party games.
Her introduction was a bare stage in college: speak as yourself, then shift instantly into new characters on command. Ten characters. Three minutes. No script. No escape.
Around the fourth shift, something broke open—instinct stepped forward, fear vanished, and creativity returned with the total commitment of childhood. That moment became the foundation of Improv Empowerment.

Improv Empowerment is not about being funny. It’s about being free.
Developed over three decades of acting, directing, and teaching, the method blends the core philosophies of Spolin and Meisner with Jones’s own work as a professional performer. The result is a high-energy, emotionally intelligent approach to improvisation that draws as much from acting technique as it does from ensemble play.

We train adults to access instinct, truth, and presence under pressure.
We strip away performance masks and replace them with connection, courage, and play. Students don’t just become better improvisers—they become more confident humans who can trust themselves anywhere: onstage, onscreen, in meetings, in life.

Hudson Valley Improv is not a comedy club pipeline.
It is a place to remember who you were before the world told you how to behave.

We don’t teach you to “act like” anything.
We teach you to act from something—your instincts, your honesty, your weird, brilliant, wild self.

Samantha has taught since 1993, working with children, seniors, executives, performers, and military units. She uses the method in her own TV, film, and theatre work: this is not theory—this is practice.

Improv Empowerment isn’t a skill set.

It’s a way of life.

If you’re searching for something deeper than quick laughs—something that returns you to your creative core and makes you braver along the way—welcome.

This is why we train.

This is why we play.