Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, 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.
Robert Lepage is a Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director.
Henry Czerny is a Canadian stage, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in the films The Boys of St. Vincent, Mission: Impossible, Clear and Present Danger, The Ice Storm, The Exorcism of Emily Rose,Fido,Remember,Ready or Not and Scream VI and has appeared in numerous television programs in both guest and starring roles, including a regular role as Conrad Grayson on the ABC primetime soap opera Revenge.
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 theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm ironically based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
Kenneth Victor Campbell was an English actor, writer and director known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre".
The Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) is a not-for-profit, community-based improvisational theatre group in Wellington, New Zealand. It is run by a committee elected by and from its forty to sixty active members. WIT performs both long and short-form improvisation.
Patti Stiles is an actress, director, author, playwright, teacher and improvisation artist living in Australia.
Becky Johnson is a Canadian comedian, writer, actress, improviser, craftsperson and organizer.
Die-Nasty is a live improvised soap opera, running weekly in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada since 1991. Die-Nasty's improv comedy format features a continuing storyline and recurring characters, live music, and a director who sets up scenes for the audience in voiceover.
Mark Meer is a Canadian actor, writer and improvisor, based in Edmonton, Alberta. He is known for his role in the Mass Effect trilogy, in which he stars as the voice of the player character, Commander Shepard. His voice is featured in a number of other games from BioWare Corp., notably the Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age series. Meer stars as the voice of the player character William Mackenzie in The Long Dark from Hinterland Studio. He also works in animation, providing the voice for several characters in a series of cartoon shorts produced by Rantdog Animation Studios, and the voice of Horse in the Captain Canuck web series starring Kris Holden-Ried and Tatiana Maslany.
George Joshua Christian Dean is a Canadian actor and improvisor. He was raised in Edmonton, Alberta, where he performed in the improvised soap opera Die-Nasty and toured with improv company Rapid Fire Theatre.
Jan Randall is a Canadian composer, singer songwriter and professional musician. He has had an extensive career composing sound tracks, performing original songs, and improvising music for comedy theatre.
Alan Marriott is a Canadian voice actor, voice teacher and dialect coach.
Sean Power is a Canadian actor, writer, and director. Known primarily for his role as Marty, in which he starred opposite Jack Dee in the BBC comedy series Lead Balloon.
Paul Morgan Donald is a Canadian musician, composer, and actor based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is the musical director of Die-Nasty, Edmonton's long-running improvised soap opera. He has a long-running association with the River City Shakespeare Festival as both an actor and composer, and has worked at most of Edmonton's theatres including the Citadel Theatre. He has twice been honoured with the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award, as Director of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival production of Reefer Madness: the Musical, and as co-composer of Catalyst Theatre's Songs for Sinners.
David Toguri was an award-winning Japanese-Canadian choreographer, director and actor, based for most of his career in the UK. He died of cancer.
Drew McCreadie, born 1967, is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based actor, playwright and improvisor. He was the winner of Best Male Improvisor in Canada at the 2007 Canadian Comedy Awards. His play The Cat Who Ate Her Husband was first performed in Vancouver by Ruby Slipper Theatre Company, and won five Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards including for best new script and best play. Ruby Slippers Theatre Company also produced his Christmas farce The Hotel Bethlehem in December 2011, 2012 & 2013.
The word Improvathon is a portmanteau of the words improvisation and marathon and is used to describe and extended performance by a team of improvising performers. The format establishes a group of characters early on, who become part of a continuous plotline. Commonly, as well as scenes which progress the story, performers may participate in musical numbers and other challenges or games. The action is directed for both performers and audience by writers who develop the plot in response. Whilst some performers may take a break at some point during the event, traditionally some core cast members will participate for the entire duration, going one or two nights without sleep. The sleep deprivation reduces performers to their "lizard brain" state, where they become too tired to censor themselves, resulting in a unique and euphoric form of theatre. Many audience members stay for the full duration, sharing the sleeplessness with the actors. In Edmonton, Canada, where the concept was originally devised, it is known as a Soap-A-Thon.
Ronald Pederson is a Canadian (Métis) actor, comedian and theatre director who has worked extensively throughout Canada and in the United States. He has performed with most of Canada's major theatres including The Stratford Festival, The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Citadel Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, The Arts Club, The Vancouver Playhouse, The Young Centre, The Canadian Stage Company, The Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Soulpepper and The SummerWorks Festival. Pederson has also worked extensively in television and may be best known for his Canadian Comedy Award-Nominated work and his three seasons on Fox Television's MADtv.
Mischief Theatre is a British theatre company founded in 2008 by a group of students from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in West London, and directed by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. The group originally began by doing improvised comedy shows, but by 2012 they expanded into comedic theatrical performances that includes choreographed routines, jokes, and stunts.
