Improv is live theater that is totally made up. The performers don’t know what scenes, stories, and characters they’re going to create until they step on stage. Comedy that has never existed before and will not exist again.
The audience is involved as well. Your suggestions provide the inspiration for a show to be created on the fly.
Every evening is the opening and closing night of that show. It’s engaging, surprising, and absolutely
hilarious.
Improv: Origins, History
Origins
The foundations of modern improvisational theater are the Commedia dell’Arte – an improvised kind of popular comedy in Italian theaters in the 16th–18th centuries, based on stock characters. Actors adapted their comic dialogue and action according to a few basic plots (commonly love intrigues) and to topical issues. Commedia dell’arte troupes were typically made up of professional actors who traveled from town to town, performing in open-air venues such as marketplaces and squares. The actors wore masks and elaborate costumes, and each specialized in playing a particular stock character.
History
The art of Improvisation has a rich history and has been used in the performing arts, particularly in acting and music traditions, for centuries. Today, many drama training institutes incorporate Improvisation into their curriculum.
The three pioneers of modern Improvisation for the theater in the 20th century are Viola Spolin, Keith Johnstone, and Del Close. Their work has shaped Improvisation into a professional art form in its own right. Spolin and Johnstone are credited with developing modern short form Improvised performances, which have influenced popular television shows like “whose line is it anyway?” On the other hand, Close is recognized as the creator of the Harold, a style of long form improvisation.
11/7/1906- 11/22/1994
3/9/1934 –3/4/1999
Keith Johstone
The modern improvisational theater was invented by the British Keith Johnstone in the middle of the 20th century. According to his own statements, he experimented with his “Theater Machine” and created a concept called Theatersport, since the censorship in Great Britain demanded that plays be checked before they are performed. Allegedly, theater sport could then easily be booked as a sporting event. Later Johnstone immigrated to Canada and founded the still existing “Loose Moose” theater.
The Compass Theater
The various forms of improvisational theater practiced today can almost without exception be traced back to the student drama group “The Compass”, founded in Chicago in 1955. This committed group revived the principles of the Commedia dell’Arte and – inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s theatrical theories – performed socio-critical, satirical improvisations based on so-called “scenarios”. In addition, short scenes were improvised according to the instructions of the audience.
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