by Alex B » July 13th, 2013, 11:49 am
Yo, welcome. There are five places that teach improv in Austin. Of those five, I can speak to the two training programs I've gone through:
ColdTowne theater on Airport blvd teaches Chicago-style long-form improv. They teach The Harold, and the canonical "textbook" is Truth in Comedy, by Charna Halpern and Del Close. A lot of the instructors have trained at iO, UCB, and Second City.
The Hideout Theater teaches improv in the style of Keith Johnstone (and his book Impro), with an emphasis on learning a narrative improv form (how to tell a story with improv). Two of my instructors here are in an international touring troupe called P-Graph, and I believe several instructors here have a strong background in traditional theater.
However, both theaters overlap a lot in focusing on the basics of good, committed long-form. So I wouldn't want pointing out a difference in philosophy (Del vs Johnstone) to mislead you to believe that the training experience is radically different. There's significant overlap.
I had a very positive experience with both programs, and I recommend both. Good luck.