Our Method: Improv Empowerment

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Improv Empowerment is a rigorous, human-centered approach to improvisation that trains adults to perform with presence, instinct, and emotional truth under pressure.

Founder Samantha Jones first experienced the power of improvisation during her formal actor training. On a bare stage, she was asked to speak as herself, then instantly shift into a new character each time her teacher, Beverly Brumm, clapped her hands. The exercise continued relentlessly. When Jones ran out of ideas, Brumm kept clapping.

There was no script and no safety net. As the pressure rose, fear fell away and instinct took over. Jones found herself inhabiting people, animals, and physicalities she had never consciously imagined. For the first time since childhood, she was creatively free. That experience became the foundation of the Improv Empowerment method.

Developed over three decades of acting, directing, and teaching, Improv Empowerment blends core acting technique with ensemble practice. Influenced by Viola Spolin and Sanford Meisner and grounded in Jones’s professional performance work, the method treats improvisation not as a comedy trick, but as a disciplined, embodied practice.

The training arc includes performance early. By Level Two, students are already working in front of an audience. This is intentional. The relationship between performer and audience sets the tone for every show, and learning to hold that relationship with clarity, generosity, and trust is a core skill—not an advanced add-on.

We train adults to listen deeply, respond honestly, and lead with connection in real time. Students don’t just learn to perform—they learn to empower the room. They arrive onstage prepared to support their fellow performers and the audience alike, creating an environment where everyone feels invited into the play.

Hudson Valley Improv is not a comedy-club pipeline.
It is a training environment for people seeking depth, structure, and freedom in equal measure.

We don’t teach people to “act like” characters.

We train them to act from honesty, impulse, and connection.

Jones has taught since 1993, working with children, seniors, executives, performers, and military units, and applies the same method in her own television, film, and theatre work. This is not theory—it is practice.

Improv Empowerment is more than a skill set.
It’s a way of life.
Join us.