Improv, Acting & Sketch Comedy Classes in Long Beach

Come as you are. Get curious. Try something.

A group of six people gathered around a man on his hands and knees on a wooden floor, with various surprised and animated expressions, indoors with yellow curtains and greenery in the background.

The Playful Stage is a Long Beach improv school and creative community offering improv, acting, and sketch comedy classes for adults at every experience level.

Whether you're stepping onstage for the first time or looking for new ways to grow as a performer, you'll find classes built around creative play, real connection, bold choices, and the freedom to experiment.

Our goal isn't to make everyone perform the same way. It's to give you room to discover what makes you interesting onstage.

Black, Latinx & Queer-Owned Small Business in Long Beach, CA

Explore our classes

Upcoming Classes

Flyer for 'Improv for Personal Development' class at The Playful Stage, featuring a group of people on stage, with instructor Eric Price smiling in the foreground. Details include dates, times, location, and registration info.

Poster for 'House of Haunts' improv class, featuring a haunted house with ghostly figures and a 'Sold Out' stamp, includes instructor photo, date, time, location, and registration details.

Promotional flyer for The Playful Stage's Four-Week Improv Intensive, featuring a photo of four people participating in improv, with text details including dates, schedule, prerequisites, registration fee, website, and instructor's name.

Flyer for The Playful Stage's Scene Building improv class, featuring a photo of two people acting out a scene, with details about the class schedule, registration fee, instructor, and a quote from a student review.

Flyer for 'Improv Essentials' daytime four-week class on The Playful Stage, featuring a group photo of diverse people, event details, a quote from Student Review, and instructor Richard J. Martinez.

Poster advertising a performance class called 'Narrative Improv: The Improvised Play' at The Playful Stage, with a photo of three actors on stage, colorful background, and the instructor's picture. Details about class schedule, cost, and registration

Poster for 'Improv Essentials' course at The Playful Stage, featuring a group of smiling people in a performance space. Course details include dates, time, registration fee, instructor Richard J. Martinez, and a quote about improv environment.

Poster for 'Experimental Improv: Sound and Song' performance class at The Playful Stage, featuring a group of people on stage performing with two men in the front with arms outstretched, and a photo of the instructor Richard J. Martinez in the bottom

Course poster for 'Scene Building,' an advanced improv course at The Playful Stage, featuring a group of people performing improv on stage, with instructor Richard J. Martinez, running on Tuesdays from November 10 to December 15, 2026, 7pm to 9:15pm,

Upcoming Drop-Ins & Workshops

Flyer for 'Intro to Improv' free sampler class by The Playful Stage, featuring a group photo of diverse participants and instructor Richard J. Martinez, with event details and a quote about improv.

Flyer for a character development improv drop-in class at The Playful Stage, showing two women acting on stage and a woman smiling in the bottom right corner. Details include date, time, prerequisite, registration fee, website, location, and instruct

Poster for 'Spooky Danceprov,' a Halloween-themed improv and movement drop-in event. It features two people dancing in front of a spooky background with a full moon, bats, and barren trees. Event details include date, time, prerequisites, registratio

Event poster for Halloween Hijinks, a short form improv comedy show on October 28, 2026, from 7 pm to 9:15 pm, instructed by Richard J. Martinez, with a spooky Halloween background including a full moon and black silhouettes of bats and trees. The po

Event poster for 'Murder at the Monster Mash,' a Halloween-themed murder mystery drop-in event at The Playful Stage, scheduled for October 31, 2026, from 10 am to 1 pm, with preregistration required and a $40 fee. The poster features a photo of four

Upcoming Events

Event poster for 'Hot Coffee In My Briefs,' an improv, acting, and stepping-up comedy show at The Playful Stage on September 18, 2026, at 7:30 pm in Long Beach, California. Features photos of six cast members and two pairs of briefs with coffee cup p

A poster for 'The Playground,' an improv student jam night event, featuring a background with a chalk drawing on asphalt, a collage of photos of diverse people performing improv on stage, and details about the event including date, time, location, re

Poster promoting 'That's So Sketch,' an original sketch comedy show at The Playful Stage with photographs of six performers and two hosts, including their names and pronouns, event date and time, ticket price, and location details.

Flyer for Play & Sip Improv Jam Nights, featuring neon-colored comedy masks, a drink glass, and a photo of host Derod with the caption 'Hosted by Derod (they/them)'. The event details include $5 registration fee, two drinks minimum, bi-weekly on the

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Featured Blog Entries:

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Newsletter:

A woman and a man are clasping hands, looking at each other in a wooden stage setting. The woman has red hair, a green t-shirt, dark jeans, and a watch. The man has curly dark hair, glasses, a maroon polo shirt, a gray zip-up hoodie, and black pants.

Group of diverse actors on stage, making expressive gestures and faces, dressed in colorful costumes, against a black background, suggesting a theatrical performance.

Four women, two sitting and two standing, are making puppets and watching a puppet show in a room decorated with a moss wall and a clock. There is a table with puppet supplies and a yellow curtain on the side.

Two people, a man and a woman, are laughing and holding hands, appearing to dance or play together indoors in front of a blue curtain, with a clock on the wall.