FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Salaams J. DeRosa
510-463-1750
connect@improv-central.com
www.improv-central.com

Improv Central Activates the Power of Improv for Everyday Life

New storefront in Alameda puts our improvised lives center stage

ALAMEDA, Calif., September 12, 2025 – Over the last six decades, improvisational comedy has gone mainstream. From The Second City in Chicago to The Upright Citizens Brigade in New York to The Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles, improv’s spontaneous and unscripted format has delighted millions and launched the careers of such household names as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Carell. Now, Improv Central, which today inaugurates a unique storefront space at 500 Central Avenue in the heart of Alameda, is taking the power of improv and applying it in new and powerful ways for everyday people.

Improv Central’s mission is to connect people with one another through improv experiences that make navigating our unscripted lives more joyous and fulfilling. “My vision is to curate a supportive, in-person space where folks can return to engagement and connection in a world where we feel increasingly isolated and deeply fear being unprepared, imperfect, and incorrect,” says Improv Central’s founder Claire Slattery, an accomplished performer and business leader and an Alameda native.

”We all live unscripted lives,” says Slattery. “Yet we do not have an easily accessible place to develop improvisational instincts for real-life moments at home, at work, and in our communities. At Improv Central, we don’t ready ourselves to get it right but rather to meet life’s unpredictable moments with greater confidence, creativity, and courage.”

Improv Central is a community hub, not a performance space. It is a member-supported neighborhood business that offers a full program of classes, workshops, and events that fall into three focus categories: Connect (think family play-based class), Craft (think creativity workshop), and Career (think speaking without the corporate cringe). For $39 per month members can attend one class monthly and bring a friend for free. For $89 per month members can join up to six classes monthly, bring a friend for free to each class, and book the Improv Central space twice per year for private events. For $139 per month members have unlimited access to all programming including special workshops and four total yearly private event bookings. A two-week Newbie Pass is available for $29 and class bundles are also available for non-members. Membership sign-up can be found at www.improv-central.com/join-us.

Slattery is an Alameda native who has returned here 20 years after graduating from Alameda High School. She studied Drama and Communication at Stanford University, then worked as a professional actor, improviser, and teaching artist at such Bay Area theatrical mainstays as We Players, California Shakespeare Theater and American Conservatory Theater. Slattery later held business leadership positions with San Francisco’s premiere comedy and training organizations Killing My Lobster and Speechless, Inc.. In the process, Slattery shifted focus from performing to presentation coaching and facilitating, contracting with Google to train individuals and teams to give more effective and entertaining presentations on stage, in meetings, and online with improvisational tools and techniques. Immediately prior to founding Improv Central, Slattery brought her expertise to scale enterprise-level adult learning and development strategy at The Nature Conservancy.

Improv Central is located in a historic building that was formerly the South Pacific Coast Railroad’s 5th Street Station. With support from the City of Alameda’s Facade Grant Program, Improv Central has upgraded the building and breathed new life into a long-vacant storefront in Alameda’s West End.

About Improv Central

Improv Central is a new storefront space in Alameda whose mission is to connect communities through powerful improv experiences that make navigating our unscripted lives more joyous and fulfilling. It is a member-supported small business with a full slate of classes, workshops, and events. Improv Central is dedicated to providing a supportive, non-performance space for everyday people to reengage and connect with themselves and with their community through the power of improv. Its aim is to curate a safe space where everyday people feel more resourced, resilient, and ready to respond with improv skills and tools that make life’s unscripted moments ones we not only want to experience, but enjoy. For more information please visit www.improv-central.com.