Improv’s history

Improvisation means to make something up as one goes; therefore it has been around forever. As a theatrical art form, improvisation would be as old as our early ancestors who would have acted out stories around a fire. Known as improv or impro, improvisation is a style of theatre where the actors work without a script and create characters, scenes and stories spontaneously. Often the improv actors get suggestions from the audience and use them to create the stories. Being able to improvise is seen as a crucial skill for any actor and it is taught in almost every drama institution. Improv lends itself to mainly comedy performance, but it doesn’t have to be. Playback Theatre, a form of drama therapy and Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are examples of a more serious improv performance.

Pre-20th century

While improvisation has existed since theatre itself, its more modern roots are traced back to Commedia dell’arte, an Italian type of improv theatre that dates back to the mid-1500’s. Troupes of comic performers would travel throughout Europe performing comedies that would have set scenarios with set characters most wearing half masks, but the performers would improvise their own dialogue and action. Commedia dell’arte was hugely influential. The 18th Century British Harlequinade theatre performance grew out of Commedia Dell’arte and this in turn lead to the Punch and Judy show.

20th century

Modern day improv theatre is largely due to the work of two people; Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone, who working separately, re-invented the art form in the 20th century.

Viola Spolin, a recreational director in Chicago, developed theatre games as a way to teach acting to children and adults. She herself was influenced by Neva Boyd, a sociologist who used game and improvisation to teach children language and social skills. Viola used games as a way to organically unleash people’s innate creativity and self-expression without feeling self-conscious. Her son Paul Sills built on his mother’s work and he and David Shepherd in the 1950’s formed a theatre group called The Compass Players. David Shephard and Paul Sills were influenced by Bertolt Brecht, the German theatre practitioner whose plays were highly political. 

The Compass Players was a cabaret revue show that somewhat mirrored Commedia dell’arte in so much as they would improvise a new play based on pre-determined scenarios. The Compass Theater grew into The Second City Theater, officially opening its doors on 16 December 1959.

The Second City opened in other cities such as Toronto and Los Angeles and is the birthplace for many North American comedy stars such as Bill Murray, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert.

In England during the 1950’s Keith Johnstone was a play reader for the Royal Academy for the Dramatic Arts (RADA). He believed that theatre had become pretentious and believed that theatre should be alive and vibrant like it was in Shakespeare’s day and not unlike a wrestling match where the spectators are actively shouting and being involved in the action. He formed a group Theatre Machine which he toured across Europe and they would perform improvised scenes for their audiences. Johnstone immigrated to Canada and co-founded the Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary in 1977 with Mel Tonken. He created the Theatresports format where teams of improvisers would compete against one another. He also went on to create other formats such as Micetro (Maestro), Gorilla Theatre and The Life Game, which are all licensed around the world today. Johnstone created many improv games and exercises as a way free up the actor and appear more natural in their acting.

In 1975 Playback Theatre was created where group members would act out stories from their own and/or audiences’ lives. This type of improv performance is considered psychodrama and a powerful way of helping people deal with issues that may be affecting their life.

In Chicago in the 1980’s Charna Halpern approached David Shepherd to work on his idea of Improvisational Olympics and in 1981 they created the Improv Olympic. Although they had to later change its name to IO as the International Olympics Committee came calling complaining about the name in 2001. Del Close came to partner with Charna Halpern in 1983 and became IO’s artistic director and put the theatre on the map. 

Del Close was a member of The Compass Players and a Second City director. He is another major influence on modern day improv theatre. Working with The Committee in San Francisco he created the Harold format, a popular format in North America for longer scenes and stories tied together by a common thread. This was the invention of what became known as long form improv. 

In 1984, Dick Chudnow founded ComedySportz, based on Keith Johnstone’s Theatresports format. ComedySportz is in many US states and in the UK and Germany.

In 1988 the English radio show Whose Line Is It Anyway? became a TV show and had a huge impact in popularising improvisation. An American version began in 1998. This has pathed the way for other improv TV shows such as the Australian show Thank God You’re Here, which premiered in 2006 and has been made in a number of other countries.

Today

Today improvisation is a prevalent art form with a presence in most major cities in the world with troupes and theatre companies continuing to develop new ways of performing improv. There are three main styles of improv performance: short form (games) long form (scenes) and narrative form (plays). Within these styles there are different approaches to improv. To over simplify things, Keith Johnstone’s approach is to focus on your partner and inspire them. At the Annoyance theatre, it’s screw your partner, make a strong choice yourself. Second City have a ‘Yes And’ focus based on Voila Spolin’s work. At IO you’ll hear ‘play close to yourself’. At UCB theatre you’ll be doing a lot of ‘finding the game’ in scenes. At the Covert Theatre we say forget styles and learn the principles of improvisation.

The principles of improvisation are relevant to all styles as principles are unchanging. The different styles are simply a difference in the way the improv performance is presented. There is no correct way of performing improvisation. Like any learning, you take what works for you and discard what doesn’t.