The worlds of technology and performance arts will come together next fall in a class college students will only find at Northwestern.

Multimedia improvisation, a new class offered through the Center for Art and Technology, will use digital media design to complement comedic improvisation — a topic that has generated interest among students.

“There are plenty of universities that offer classes in digital media design and others which focus on teaching improvisational methods, but this is the only course in any university which combines both,” said Kathryn Farley, a graduate student studying theatre who is one of the class instructors.

Farley said she will teach students how to combine improvisational acting techniques with digital media by projecting images onto a portable screen behind the actors. In the class, students will be challenged to develop characters and storylines instead of going for cheap laughs, she said.

“I often felt frustrated by the pressure to pursue quick laughs on stage, rather than having the patience to penetrate the material for deeper meaning,” said Farley, who has performed at two Chicago improv clubs, Second City and the Annoyance Theater.

Farley and Dan Zellner, a multimedia services specialist at NU, developed the experimental curriculum for the center. Zellner said he hopes the class will challenge students of all academic backgrounds to expand their ideas of traditional theater.

“I hope (students) take away a new concept for theater so that they don’t get too locked into one idea of what theater can be,” Zellner said.

Students will study theoretical perspectives on digital techniques while working on scenes they develop themselves, Farley said. The final performance will be a piece drawing on familiar Chicago characters, places and narratives to formulate a comedic tale of ambition and power.

Zellner said he is also planning to give students a chance to understand how their skills can be used in the acting industry by providing visits from experts, although none have been booked to come.

“The biggest division is between the theory itself and the applied part,” Zellner said. “You have to adjust your style (to the new medium).”

Zellner and Farley have received inquiries from nearly 30 students interested in taking the class from departments as diverse as computer science, history and mechanical engineering as well as performance studies and theatre. Only 15 spots are available, Farley said. Registration began this week for Fall Quarter classes and continues until mid-September.

“What I hope is that they have an appreciation for theater and what it can do as an art form (when) applied to other disciplines,” said Zellner.

Kurt Cason, a Weinberg freshman, said he hopes to bring a new perspective to the class because he’s not the typical performance student.

“A lot of great people in comedy come from different backgrounds,” said Cason, who is undecided about his major but came to NU planning to prepare for medical school. “A lot of inspiration can trace back from those origins.”