What is bang?
Funny you should ask.
bang is a studio dedicated to the ongoing study and performance of improvisation. Through exercises and games, our classes offer you the tools you need to create dynamic scenes and characters in the moment.
bang’s teachers are not only experienced improv instructors, they are also professional actors, writers, and directors.
bang was founded by husband-and-wife team Peter and Aliza Murrieta in 1995, making it one of the first of the new wave of improv schools to open in Los Angeles. Alumni of the Second City theater in Chicago, the Murrietas began teaching at Second City in the early ’90s. After moving to L.A., Peter was approached by the owner of The Improv to be the first ever improv teacher in their training program of stand-up classes. Following a stint there, Peter and Aliza expanded to teaching out of The Complex Theatre in Hollywood for several years, and by 1995 they opened bang as an improv conservatory in a loft space over a paparazzi photographer’s secret lair on La Brea and Beverly Boulevards in Hollywood. Within the first year, they decided that it was vital for their conservatory students to also learn onstage in front of a live audience. In 1996, they leased their current home from Catwoman Julie Newmar, opened the bang performance space, and the rest is history.
