Classes taught by Shawn

Beginning Improv
Level 1 (6 Weeks)

Short Form Improv
Level 2 (6 Weeks)

Harold Long Form Improv
Level 2 (6 Weeks)

Long Form
4 Week Workshop

Character/Scene
4 Week Workshop

Breaking the Rules
4 Week Workshop

Instructor Shawn Westfall

Shawn WestfallBorn and raised in Indiana, Shawn Westfall has performed improvisational comedy for over 10 years with a number of professional improv troupes, including Loose Screws in Honolulu, Hawaii and The Oxymorons, a nationally recognized improv troupe in San Antonio. A former member of both DC ComedySportz and DCUPS (DC Unscripted Players), Shawn founded a sketch comedy troupe, Pretentious Actors Collective (P.A.C.), which played to audiences in Northern Virginia and Washington, DC. Most recently, he was the founder and creative director of bright young things, an improv troupe specializing in long-form improv that played to audiences in Washington, DC (headlining at the DC Improv) and New York City. Shawn has also performed stand-up comedy in Texas and throughout the Washington, DC area, and has opened for comedian Adam Ferrara at the DC Improv.

He's been the exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv for over three years, where's he taught classes in beginning improv, advanced short-form and long-form improv, as well as improv workshops focusing on character, long form, and non-traditional improv techniques. His classes (and the numerous DC Improv shows they've generated) have been featured in the pages of The Washington Post, The Washington Post Express, Washingtonian magazine and The Georgetowner, as well on Washington Post Radio, DC 101, and WTOP Radio

Shawn is also a writer and editor whose work has been published in newspapers, literary journals and magazines in Utah, Texas and Hawaii. Currently, Shawn works as a copywriter for an advertising company, and lives in the Columbia Heights section of Washington, DC.