History

It all started back in 1988.

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.

Timeline

• 1988 Founded in Los Angeles.
• 1990 Hosted the First West Coast Stanislavski Open. LATS/IT invited the best improv and Sketch groups of Los Angeles to come play Theatresports. Among the groups were: The Groundlings, Latins Anonymous, Culture Clash, Cold Tofu, Specific Hospital, and LA Connection.
• 1992 Hosted the Theatresports Bowl. 8 teams from all over North America compete in Los Angeles as the artistic alternative to the NFL Super Bowl.
• 1994 Hosted the World Mug in conjunction with the World Cup. As an official arts partner with the World Cup, they performed in 9 different venues around Southern California including the exciting final at the Geffen Playhouse. With 22 leagues from around the world it was truly a global event. Teams from Australia, South Africa, Denmark, Holland, England, Canada, the United States and the championship team for World mug ‘94 New Zealand.
• 1993 they produced their own television pilot shot at the World Famous Laugh Factory.
• Six first-place victories over the last ten years at international Theatresports Tournaments.
• They have also performed at a number of theatre festivals including the Edmonton Fringe Festival, the Orlando Fringe Festival, The Big Stinkin’ Improv Festival in Austin, Yes And in New York, The “Iron improviser” in Calgary, The “Improstival” in Paris, as well as Amsterdam, London, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland Festivals. Most recently one of our players was one third of Team US that competed in Germany last summer as part of their World Cup Arts Program.
• Shakespeare Unscripted receives standing ovations at NY Improv Fest in 2001 and Chicago in 2002 and The Out of Bounds West Improv and Comedy Festival in 2007.
• In 2003 Los Angeles Theatresports changed its name to Impro Theatre (IT). The reason being that they had become a repertory theatre company with a mission to perform and teach unscripted theatre in a variety of formats and styles.
• In 2003, Impro moved to their current space in Los Feliz on Vermont.
• In 2004, Michele Spears, Edi Patterson, Lisa Fredrickson and Jo McGinley performed Shakespeare Unscripted and Tennessee Williams Unscripted to rave reviews in the Paris, France “Improvistival.”
• In 2006, Jo McGinley, Nick Massouh, Kristina Robbins and Rob Rodgers performed Tennessee Williams Unscripted at the improv festival in Amsterdam, Holland to standing ovations.

 

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.