Stage Left Studio
Comedy Classes in Sonoma County
Find a room to play, write, listen, and take a real creative risk. Choose improv or stand-up with Cheryl King in Petaluma and Santa Rosa.
Three Ways In
Keller Co-Work Space
The Astro Motel
Keller Co-Work Space
Start With the Right Kind of Scary
Comedy Is Not One Room.
Some people want to stop planning every sentence before they speak. Others have a story, complaint, or observation they want to turn into a set. Both belong at Stage Left, but they call for different kinds of practice.
Improv is collaborative and immediate. You learn through theatre games, scenes, movement, and careful listening with other adults who are also willing to try something before it is perfect. Stand-up gives you a closer look at material, timing, editing, delivery, and the point of view that makes a performer worth hearing.
You do not need a résumé, a polished act, or a reason that sounds impressive. You need a little curiosity and a willingness to see what changes when your creative work leaves the notes app and enters a real room.
Choose Your Practice
Play Together or Build a Set.
Both paths make more room for your own voice, but they begin in different places. Pick the experience that matches what you want to make now.
- Improv classes: learn to listen, respond, build scenes, and trust the next move with a welcoming ensemble. Explore adult improv classes.
- Stand-up classes: develop material, refine delivery, and hear what an audience actually follows. Explore Petaluma stand-up classes.
- Private coaching: stay with a specific scene, role, set, or deadline when focused one-on-one attention is the better fit. Explore private coaching.
There is no need to choose forever. The useful choice is the one that gets you into a room and working on the part of your creative life that has been asking for attention.
Led by Cheryl King
A Teacher Who Knows the Stage.
Cheryl has spent decades writing, directing, coaching, producing, and performing original work. She began a 13-year touring stand-up career in 1982, then founded Stage Left Studio in Manhattan in 2005 to give artists a place to develop new work and put it in front of people.
That experience keeps the work practical. You will get a clear place to start, direct feedback when it helps, and room to find what feels true to you. The aim is not to make every performer sound the same. It is to help you make braver, more specific choices in front of other people.
Meet Cheryl →
For Complete Beginners and Returning Performers
There Is a First Step.
Improv is open to adults who have never acted before, along with people returning after time away. Your first class is free, because the question is not whether the description sounds good. It is whether the room feels like a place where you can take a chance.
Stand-up also welcomes early drafts. Bring the first idea, the story you keep telling at dinner, the half-written set, or the material that works on paper but not yet onstage. The class works with the actual thing you want to make, not a generic version of what a comic should be.
Classes run in Petaluma and Santa Rosa, so you can choose the local room and evening that are easiest to make part of your week. Reach out for current stand-up dates or help choosing the right starting point.
Your First Visit
Come Curious. We Will Start There.
Wear something you can move in for improv, or bring the notes that have been following you around for stand-up. Either way, arrive a few minutes early and leave the pressure to be impressive at the door.
The point of a class is not to prove you belong before it begins. It is to give yourself a regular place to practise, make something, and meet people who are willing to do the same.
View All Class DetailsFrequently Asked Questions
Which comedy class should I choose?
Choose improv if you want to build confidence, listening, and spontaneous scene work in a group. Choose stand-up if you want to develop written material, timing, and a point of view for the stage. Cheryl can help you choose when you reach out.
Are the classes open to beginners?
Yes. Adults can begin without acting or comedy experience. Improv students can join anytime, and stand-up students can bring anything from a first idea to a set they want to strengthen.
Where do classes meet?
Improv meets in Petaluma at Keller Co-Work Space and in Santa Rosa at The Astro Motel. Stand-up meets in Petaluma at Keller Co-Work Space when scheduled. Each class page has the current details.
Can I try improv before I commit?
Yes. Your first improv class is free. It is a chance to meet the group, try the work, and see how the room feels before deciding whether to return.
Stage Left Studio
Make Room for Something Unexpected.
Choose a class, bring the beginning you have, and find out what happens when you give it a real room.