IMPROV COMEDY COOKBOOK: FIRST COURSE

Students will be introduced to the core skills of improvisation through hands-on experience! Limber up your brain, sharpen your tongue, and strengthen your funny bone over six weeks, culminating with a final performance on 12/1!

Guided by Stone Soupers Matt Davis, Ruby Jackson, and Andrea Harum Schiavoni, join us for the entire course, or drop in when you can.

ABOUT THE TEACHERS:

Matthew Brookhart Davis is an Emmy-nominated television editor and multi-talented creative professional with experience as a director, actor, animator, photographer, graphic designer, and radio announcer. A native of Sag Harbor, he began his media career at WLNG radio before earning a Film and Television Production degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Davis has worked extensively in comedy, editing for shows like Mad TV, Austin Stories, and TV Funhouse, where he also voiced puppets. He collaborated closely with Martin Short on Primetime Glick and the feature film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, serving as both editor and actor. Davis edited Amazon’s Alpha House, Hulu’s Triumph Election Watch, and Netflix’s The Crew, and was Emmy-nominated for his work on Who Is America. He also edited The Onion News Network, voicing President Lyndon B. Johnson, and appeared on The IFC Media Project. With a background in improv from Upright Citizens Brigade and five years with the troupe Stone Soup, Davis brings a sharp comedic sensibility to his work across both coasts, shaping everything from sketch comedy to streaming sitcoms with skill and precision.

Ruby Jackson is an award-winning visual artist and natural-born funny person. After a long and successful career as a sculptor, she turned to stand-up comedy after taking classes at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, New York, one of the nation’s preeminent regional theaters. She made her stand-up debut at the Ha Ha Hamptons Comedy Tour last April, and her film debut as the villain in The Premier, a comedy mockumentary which was screened at the 2024 Hamptons International Film Festival. She has since opened for a variety of comedians touring the area.

Andrea Harum Schiavoni has performed as a vocalist with multiple and varied groups since the age of 8, earned an undergraduate degree in music and journalism, and began acting in more recent years appearing in local productions of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Masha) directed by Allen O’Reilly, The Vagina Monologues and Love, Loss and What I Wore directed by Valerie DiLorenzo, The Premiere (Gail Weathers) directed by Sam Pezzullo, A Christmas Carol Radio Show (Ghost of Christmas Past/Tiny Tim/the Laundress & party guest) directed by James Arboth, Baby Grand (Anne) directed by William Zolla II in the LUV Short Play Festival NYC 2025 and the staged reading of Oregon (Morgan) directed by Allen O’Reilly. Andrea, also, fronts a rock cover band of her dearest friends.