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Improvisational Theater
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv or impro in British English, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script. Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product. Improvisational techniques are often used extensively in drama programs to train actors for stage, film, and television and can be an important part of the rehearsal process. However, the skills and processes of improvisation are also used outside the context of performing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clive Barker (editor)
Clive Barker (29 June 1931 – 17 March 2005) was a theatre performer, acting coach and a co-editor of '' New Theatre Quarterly''. Theatre professional Clive Barker was born in Middlesbrough, the son of a steel worker. He trained to be a stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic School and afterward joined Joan Littlewood's theatre group. There he had important roles in Brendan Behan's '' The Hostage'' (1958) and ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' (1963). His debut as a director was Shelagh Delaney's '' The Lion in Love'' (1960). At the end of this career, he had become an "innovative spirit at the heart of theatre studies", according to the obituary in ''The Guardian''. He bridged the gap between on the one hand theatre studies at British universities, and on the other the professional theatre; many previous theatre scholars (among them Allardyce Nicoll) had called for well-versed academics who had practical experience as theatre artists. Barker's actor training book, ''Theatre Games'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josephine Forsberg
Josephine Forsberg (January 28, 1921 – October 3, 2011) was an American comedian, teacher and author. Biography Josephine Forsberg, ex-wife of film director Rolf Forsberg, was hired by Paul Sills and Viola Spolin to join the original Second City in 1959 as the female understudy and Spolin's teaching assistant. She became an expert in improvisational techniques for the theater, and by the mid 1960s she had taken over most of Spolin's and Sills's classes, as well as Spolin's children's theater company. From that point on most of the young performers that wanted to go onto the Second City stage studied with Forsberg for at least a year. These included Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Betty Thomas, Shelley Long, George Wendt, David Mamet, and Robert Townsend. In 1971, Forsberg opened up an official school of improvisation called Players Workshop, hiring her nephew Martin de Maat and her daughter Linnea Forsberg to teach alongside her. In terms of accepting students who were not necess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Del Close
Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was one of the influences on modern improvisational theater. Close was co-founder of the ImprovOlympic (iO). Life and career Early life Close was born on March 9, 1934, in Manhattan, Kansas. He ran away from home at the age of 17 to work in a traveling side show, but returned to attend Kansas State University. At age 19 he performed in summer stock with the Belfry Players at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. At age 23 he became a member of the Compass Players in St. Louis. When most of the cast—including Mike Nichols and Elaine May—moved to New York City, Close followed. He developed a stand-up comedy act, starred as the Yogi in the Broadway musical revue ''The Nervous Set'', and performed briefly with an improv company in Greenwich Village w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theatre director and comedian. He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their experience. He is one of 21 people to have won all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). His other honors included three BAFTA Awards, the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. His films received a total of 42 Academy Award nominations, and seven wins. Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his improv partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols and May. Their live improv act was a hit on Broadway, and each of their three albums was no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elaine May
Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and director. She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols before transitioning her career, regularly breaking the mold as a writer and director of several critically acclaimed films. She has received numerous awards, including a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2022. In 1955, May moved to Chicago and became a founding member of the Compass Players, an improvisational theater group. She began working alongside Nichols and in 1957, they both quit the group to form their own stage act, Nichols and May. In New York, they performed nightly in clubs in Greenwich Village alongside Joan Rivers and Woody Allen, as well as on the Broadway stage. They also made regular appearances on television and radio broadcasts. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Shepherd (producer)
David Gwynne Shepherd (10 October 1924 – 17 December 2018) was an American producer, director, and actor noted for his innovative work in improvisational theatre. He founded and/or co-founded the Playwrights Theatre Club, The Compass Players, the Canadian Improv Games, and the ImprovOlympic. Early life and education Born in 1924 in New York City to an old money family, Shepherd grew up with left-leaning sensibilities. He was the son of Louise Tracy (Butler) and William Edgar Shepherd, an architect. His paternal grandmother was the sister of socialite Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt. He studied English at Harvard and received an M.A. in the History of Theater at Columbia. Disenchanted with what he perceived as a European dominated theater on the East Coast, Shepherd gravitated to the Midwest. Career Playwrights Theatre Club In 1953, Shepherd co-founded the company along with Paul Sills and Eugene Troobnick, of the Playwrights Theatre Club in Chicago. The theatre was noted for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Sills
Paul Sills (born Paul Silverberg; November 18, 1927 – June 2, 2008) was an American director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City. Life and career Sills was born Paul Silverberg in Chicago, Illinois, to a family who believed in the teachings of modern-day Judaism. His mother was teacher and writer Viola Spolin, who authored the first book on improvisation techniques, ''Improvisation for the Theater''. Spolin in turn was the student of play therapy theorist Neva Boyd. In 1948, Sills enrolled in the University of Chicago, where he established himself as a director, co-founding Playwright's Theater Club. There, with fellow actors Ed Asner, Edward Asner, Byrne Piven and Zohra Lampert, they blended Spolin's improvisational techniques with established theater training. In 1955, Sills and David Shepherd (producer), David Shepherd founded the Compass Players, the first improvisational theater in the United States, where he directed Shelley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has become one of the most influential and renowned in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City. The Second City has produced television programs in both Canada and the United States, including '' SCTV'', ''Second City Presents'', and '' Next Comedy Legend''. It has been a starting point for many comedians, award-winning actors, directors, and others in show business, including Joan Rivers, Del Close, Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Candy, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, Mike Myers, Nia Vardalos, Steve Carell, J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of United States cities by population, third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. As the county seat, seat of Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents. Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a Chicago Portage, portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Compass Players
The Compass Players (or Compass Theater) was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis. Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United States. History Shepherd and Sills The Compass Players, founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, was the first Improvisational Theatre in America. It began July 8, 1955 as a storefront theater at 1152 E. 55th near the University of Chicago campus. They presented improvised plays. Shepherd, in Mark Siska's documentary ''Compass Cabaret ’55'', about the birth of modern improvisation, stated his reasons for founding the Compass Players, “Theater in New York was very effete and based on three-act plays and based on verbiage and there was not much action,” he said. “I wanted to create a theater that would drag people off the street and seat them not in rows but at tables and give them something to drink, which was unheard of in merica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (U
''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson. The three major versions of the show are the original 1988 British radio programme (from which all subsequent versions are adapted), the British television programme, which ran from 1988 to 1999, and the American television programme, which ran from 1998 to 2007 and was revived in 2013. All three versions were produced by Patterson and Leveson and have a continuity of cast (for example, both the British radio and television shows were hosted by Clive Anderson, while several performers from the British television show then starred in the American television show). Each version of the show consists of a panel of four performers who create characters, scenes, and songs on the spot, in the style of short-form improvisation games, many taken from theatresports. Topics for the games are based on either audience suggestions or predetermined prompts from the host. The s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
