Improv in English in Istanbul: What Exists in 2026

Improv in English in Istanbul is a small scene. Istanbul has a strong Turkish-language improv community, an established network of English-speaking Toastmasters clubs with short impromptu speaking, and a handful of English-language drama groups, including our weekly English Drama Lab in Pera and Kadıköy. Most of what you will find online about English improv in the city dates from 2015 to 2018, so check that any group is still active before you plan around it.

This guide is for two groups of people. Expats and international residents who want to do improv in a shared language, and Turkish speakers who want to practise English through something more alive than a conversation club. In both cases, most people in the room are not native English speakers. That is normal, and it is part of the point.

What exists right now

Turkish-language improv: istanbulimpro

The most visible improv organisation in the city is istanbulimpro, based in Kadıköy with its own stage. Its training is in Turkish. According to its site, the apprentice programme runs for eight months, once a week for three hours, with a free introductory session, and it also organises an international improv festival. If your Turkish is good and you want a long, structured improv training, this is the serious option. It is not an English programme and does not present itself as one.

English improv groups: check the dates

Search for "English improv Istanbul" and you will mostly find older material. Yabangee, the expat magazine, profiled an English-language improv group called The Clap in July 2017, rehearsing on Wednesdays in Taksim at the time. Daily Sabah wrote about English improv in the city in 2015 and about the improv and comedy scene in 2018. We could not confirm current activity for these groups. Expat Facebook groups and Meetup are the best places to ask whether an English jam is running this season.

Toastmasters: impromptu speaking in English

Toastmasters is not improv theatre, but it is the most structured English-language speaking practice in Istanbul, and part of every meeting is impromptu. Table Topics asks members to answer an unexpected question for one to two minutes. At the time of writing, Istanbul Toastmasters meets in Beyoğlu, Bosphorus Toastmasters in Caddebostan, and Istanbul Asia Toastmasters in Kadıköy. Guests are welcome. If your goal is prepared speeches with feedback, this is a strong place to start.

English-language drama workshops

Then there are drama workshops run in English, where improvisation is one of the main tools alongside scene work, voice and movement. That is where we sit. More on this below.

What improv does

Improv games ask you to accept what your partner offers, build on it, and keep the scene going without knowing where it will end. A few research findings are relevant.

In laboratory experiments with random assignment, a short improv session increased participants' comfort with uncertainty and their positive mood more than a scripted activity did (Felsman, 2019; Felsman, Gunawardena & Seifert, 2020). In a larger study across 14 US schools, teenagers who took part in a 10-week improv programme showed significant drops in social anxiety and in intolerance of uncertainty (Felsman, Seifert, Sinco & Himle, 2023, The Arts in Psychotherapy). The students whose tolerance of uncertainty grew most also showed the biggest drops in social anxiety.

For language learners, this matters because the hardest part of speaking a second language is often not knowing the word. It is not knowing what comes next, and freezing because of it. Improv practises exactly that moment, over and over.

What improv doesn't do

We think you should know the limits before you sign up for anything, including our programme.

• The evidence is still thin. The school study had no control group, and the participants were teenagers, not adults. Adult evidence comes from a small pilot (Krueger, Murphy & Bink, 2019, Journal of Mental Health) and short lab sessions. Promising, not proven.
• It does not switch off nerves. One study found no direct short-term effect of improv on public speaking stress (Casteleyn, 2019, Research in Drama Education). Another found speaking performance improved, but modestly (Casteleyn, 2019, L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature).
• It does not teach grammar. In a four-month comparison, foreign language anxiety fell in both a drama-based and a regular English programme, slightly more in the drama group (Galante, 2018, RELC Journal). Drama is a good complement to a course, not a replacement.
• It is not therapy. If social anxiety seriously limits your life, see a qualified professional.

What improv does well is give you weekly practice of speaking without a script, in front of people, with someone who keeps changing the situation.

How English Drama Lab works

English Drama Lab is our weekly English-language drama workshop for adults. It runs in Pera on Saturdays at 15:00 and in Kadıköy on Mondays at 20:00, with a maximum of 12 people. Attendance is flexible: a new scene is built every week and you can join in any week. The facilitators are conservatoire graduates.

A session moves through three parts: warm-ups and trust games with language play; improvisation and character work, including status games; and group improvisation and partner scenes where the tools come together. There is no script to memorise. The level we ask for is B1 or above, which in practice means you can hold a conversation in English. Rooms usually mix international residents with Turkish speakers who want to work in English.

If you are newer to English, our A1+ English Drama Lab for beginners is coming soon; see beginner English drama in Istanbul. If you mainly want to present or speak up at work, see public speaking in English in Istanbul. For the format in detail, see English improv in Istanbul, and for teams, our corporate programmes.

Related reading: Public speaking in a second language · Making friends in Istanbul through drama · Team building in English: theatre and improv

Frequently asked questions

Are there improv classes in English in Istanbul? Yes, but few. Istanbul's main improv school trains in Turkish. English-language options include drama workshops that use improvisation, such as our English Drama Lab in Pera and Kadıköy, and occasional jams announced in expat groups. Much of the online coverage of English improv groups is several years old, so confirm a group is active before you go.

Do I need to be a native English speaker to do improv in English? No. Most people in English-language groups in Istanbul are not native speakers. For English Drama Lab, the level we ask for is around B1: if you can hold a conversation, you can take part.

Is improv the same as Toastmasters? No. Toastmasters centres on prepared speeches and evaluation, with a short impromptu section called Table Topics. Improv is scene work with partners, without preparation. They complement each other well.

Will improv help my English? It gives you regular practice of speaking without a script, which is where many learners freeze. It does not teach grammar, and research on drama and language anxiety shows only a modest advantage over regular classes. Use it alongside a course, not instead of one.

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Sources: istanbulimpro · Yabangee, The Clap, 2017 · Daily Sabah 2015 · Daily Sabah 2018 · Istanbul Toastmasters · Bosphorus Toastmasters · Istanbul Asia Toastmasters · Felsman 2019, University of Michigan · Felsman, Gunawardena & Seifert 2020, summary · Felsman et al. 2023, The Arts in Psychotherapy · Krueger, Murphy & Bink 2019 · Casteleyn 2019, Research in Drama Education · Casteleyn 2019, L1-Educational Studies · Galante 2018, RELC Journal