History

It all started back in 1988.

1988 Impro Theatre/LA Theatresports (LATS) is founded in Los Angeles. Begins a ten-year residence at Theatre/Theater.
1989 Triple Play first performed. A play, a film and a musical improvised in three acts each.
1990 LATS hosts the First West Coast Stanislavski Open and invites the best improv and sketch groups of Los Angeles to come play Theatresports, including Culture Clash, The Groundlings, Latins Anonymous and Cold Tofu.
1993 LATS television pilot is shot at the World Famous Laugh Factory. Company member and future Whose Line is it Anyway? star Brad Sherwood’s team takes first place.
1994 LATS hosts the World Mug in conjunction with the FIFA World Cup at nine Southern California venues including the Main Library with guest Branford Marsalis and the final at the Geffen Playhouse. Twenty-two teams attended including Australia, South Africa, Denmark, Holland, England, Canada, the United States and the winning New Zealand.
1995 Wayne Brady joins the company.
1989 to 1999 Six first-place victories at Theatresports Tournaments including Ventura, San Diego, New York, San Francisco, Edmonton and Amsterdam.
1999 LATS begins a critically acclaimed run of Shakespeare UnScripted at the Globe Theatre in West Hollywood. Shakespeare UnScripted later receives standing ovations at NY Improv Fest in 2001, Chicago in 2002, the Paris, France “Improvistival” in 2004, and The Austin Out of Bounds Improv Comedy Festival in 2007.
2000 Improbable Theatre’s production of Keith Johnstone’s LIFEGAME premieres Off-Broadway. The cast includes Artistic Director, Dan O’Connor and Associate Artistic Director, Brian Lohmann. Lifegame is later produced by LATS in Los Angeles.
2003 LATS changes its name to Impro Theatre and expands operations to twin spaces in the Los Feliz area on Vermont.
2004 IT performs Tennessee Williams Unscripted and Shakespeare Unscripted in Paris, France to a standing ovation.
2005 Mike McShane directs Shakov as part of Edgefest in Los Angeles.
2006 IT performs Tennessee Williams UnScripted in Amsterdam, Holland to a standing ovation. IT players compete in Germany as part of the World Cup Arts Program. IT company members improvise Shakespeare in Rep at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. An UnScripted Carol (improvised Dickens) premieres at the Antaeus Theater.
2007 Sondheim UnScripted premieres at Theatre/Theater in Los Angeles.
2008 Shakespeare UnScripted receives standing ovations at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Brian Lohmann is chosen to present a workshop on Shakespeare through Improvisation at the “Page, Stage, Engage” Shakespeare conference at New York University, and teaches for the Public Theatre Shakespeare Lab. Dan O’Connor takes Sondheim UnScripted to Melbourne, Australia. Jane Austen UnScripted premieres to sold-out houses in Los Angeles. Shakespeare UnScripted opens for the Independent Shakespeare Festival at Barnsdall Park in Hollywood.

A History of Impro Theatre

Forrest Brakeman, Ellen Idelson and Dan O’Connor founded Los Angeles Theatresports in 1988. All three hailed from San Francisco, but from very different backgrounds. Forrest Brakeman was a comedian and member of the long running “Faultline” improv and sketch comedy group, which included Greg Proops and Micheal McShane of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Ellen Idelson was an actor and part of the burgeoning guerilla theatre scene of San Francisco and a member of the acclaimed “Dude Theatre”. Dan O’Connor was a recent graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and had also trained at the American Conservatory Theater.

In 1986 Dan was invited to take the first “Theatresports” workshop in San Francisco organized by Bay Area comedy group Fratelli Bologna and taught by Seattle Theatresports member Rebecca Stockley. Over two weekends the class was submerged in Theatresports and the work of Keith Johnstone. The culmination of the workshop was a sold-out performance at the New Performance Gallery and thus Bay Area Theatresports was born.

In 1988 Brakeman, Idelson and O’Connor found themselves in Los Angeles wanting to do something different. Idelson and O’Connor had just come from Bay Area Theatresports, although Idelson took the circuitous route of going to the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard first before finally deciding to come to back to her native Los Angeles, and Brakeman had just finished directing a number of LA improv groups.

On tour performing Theatresports in London, O’Connor met actor Jeffrey Weissman who was a member of an improv group that just so happened to be based in… Los Angeles. What’s more they too were looking for something new. Back in L.A phone calls were made to gather a number of other Southern Californian performers from various groups and invited to take the first class. Barbara Scott and Rafe Chase of BATS were brought down to teach the first weekend workshop which concluded with the first public performance of LA Theatresports at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood.

The small but mighty group began blending their knowledge of theater, improv and comedy, building on the work of Keith Johnstone and bringing their vastly different backgrounds and skills to shape LA Theatresports. They began teaching classes and workshops. Very quickly they began to draw a diverse group of students to this new type of training. They included…actors who needed to practice their craft between jobs, writers who needed to find new ways to unlock their imaginations and pitch their stories better, lawyers who wanted to be able to think quicker on their feet, and even two rocket scientists who just wanted to have fun.

Early on the company began experimenting with different forms and formats of Improvisation in addition to Theatresports. This was a way to challenge players to continue to take risks on stage and to try to constantly improve their skills. What developed was a focus on formats that told a story.

The company began exploring narrative in various styles and genres with Forrest Brakeman’s format called “Triple Play” in 1990. Triple Play was a play, a movie and a musical completely improvised. Each style done in three acts alternating with the other genres. Example: A Tennessee Williams play, a Spielberg movie, and a Sondheim musical.

Next they began creating full-length improvised plays: “Shakespeare Unscripted,” “Dickens Unscripted,” “Shakhov” (A Chekhov and Shakespeare 2 act play) and Musicals: “The Hell Show,” “Cattle Call,” and the longest “Carnal Peaks” (A “Soap” which once ran for 26 weekly episodes). As well as “Moral Kombat” an improv format about comedic redemption, the seven deadly sins, and audience suggestions.

In addition to Theatresports, they also performed other Keith Johnstone formats “Life Game,” “Micetro” and “Theme and Forfeit.”

To reflect their various form and formats they changed their name to Impro Theatre in 2003.

What is Theatresports?

Keith Johnstone, author of IMPRO, created Theatresports in 1976 in his acting classes at the University of Calgary, to inject a theatre audience with the passion displayed by sports fans.

Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone is a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary, and The Co-founder of the Loose Moose Theatre. He worked for ten years (1956 - 1966) At England’s Royal Court Theater; at various times he was their chief play-reader, was responsible for the educational work, directed the Royal Court Theatre studio, wrote and directed plays, and became Associate Director of the theatre. He founded The Theatre Machine improvisational Group in England which toured in many countries. Keith taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art until he left England, and has taught or given Workshops at major European Theatre Schools and Universities. He is the Author of many plays presented in North America and Europe, and has Directed in several theatres internationally. Keith is the author of “Impro” (Methuen) one of the key books on improvisation, which is translated Into several languages; and also “Impro for Storytellers” (Faber and Faber, (UK)), a guide to teaching improvisation and Theatresports. He also writes a newsletter which is sent to Theatresports internationally. Keith is the inventor of many new forms of improvisation, including Theatresports, Gorilla Theatre and Micetro Impro which, along with his techniques, are now being used worldwide.