History
The Spontaneity Shop, then known as The Old Spontaneity Shop was formed in 1996 by Tom Salinsky and Deborah Frances-White. Their first shows were at the Troubadour Coffee House in Earl's Court, and they moved to the Canal Cafe in 1999. From 1998-2000 they also ran shows and workshops at Oxford University.
Deborah Frances-White is a comedian and feminist writer who also delivers seminars to women in business on subjects including charisma, diversity and inclusion. She has both British and Australian citizenship. She hosts the podcasts Global Pillage and The Guilty Feminist.
Earl's Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in central London, bordering the sub-districts of South Kensington to the east, West Kensington to the west, Chelsea to the south and Kensington to the north. The Earl's Court Exhibition Centre was one of the country's largest indoor arenas and a popular concert venue until its closure in 2014.
In 1999 they presented a benefit concert at The Hackney Empire, directed by Keith Johnstone and Improbable theatre's Phelim McDermott. Joining the Spontaneity Shop cast were Tony Slattery, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Simpson, Neil Mullarkey and a number of other special guests. The money raised went to the Royal Court Theatre where Keith had once worked as a director.
Improbable is an English theatre company founded in 1996 by Lee Simpson, Phelim McDermott, Julian Crouch and producer Nick Sweeting. Improbable is funded by Arts Council England in London. According to their statement: "Improbable has grown out of a way of working that means being prepared to create work by the seat of your pants and the skin of your teeth, stepping onstage before you are ready and allowing the audience to have an integral part in the creation of a show."
Phelim McDermott is an English actor and stage director. He has directed plays and operas in Britain, Germany, Spain, the United States, and Australia. McDermott was a co-founder of the Improbable theatre in 1996.
Tony Declan James Slattery is an English actor and comedian. He has appeared on British television regularly since the mid-1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? His serious and comedic film work has included roles in The Crying Game, Peter's Friends, and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
In 2000 the company created DreamDate, the improvised romantic comedy which was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe. Hat Trick Productions, producer Dan Patterson and most recently Pozzitive Television have all attempted to get TV versions made but none has yet got past the pilot stage. Recently, the company sold the international rights to FremantleMedia who are currently trying to launch it in the United States.
Hat Trick Productions is a British independent production company that produces television programmes, mainly specialising in comedy.
Dan Patterson is a British television producer and writer, responsible for the production of both the British and American incarnations of the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the British satirical panel show Mock the Week with writing partner Mark Leveson. He has also written for episodes of both shows.
The company also developed the long form structure Tell Tales which presents a complete improvised play entirely in monologues.
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.
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found.. Improvisation, in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see Applied improvisation.
Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges. Developed by director Keith Johnstone in Calgary, Alberta, in 1977, the concept of Theatre sports originated in Johnstone's observations of techniques used in professional wrestling to generate heat, or audience reaction.
Viola Spolin was a theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life. These acting exercises she later called Theater Games and formed the first body of work that enabled other directors and actors to create improvisational theater. Her book Improvisation for the Theater, which published these techniques, includes her philosophy and her teaching and coaching methods, and is considered the "bible of improvisational theater". Spolin's contributions were seminal to the improvisational theater movement in the U.S. She is considered to be the mother of Improvisational theater. Her work has influenced American theater, television and film by providing new tools and techniques that are now used by actors, directors and writers.
Spontaneous Broadway is an advanced long-form improvised performance, based on audience suggestions. The audience typically submits titles of songs that have never been written, and the performers choose suggestions to create songs, the audience votes through acclamation on their favorite song, which is then used as the core of a brand new Broadway musical.
The Improverts is a long-running improvisational comedy troupe put on since its inception by the Edinburgh University Theatre Company which primarily performs at the Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh. They perform every Friday night at 10.30 pm during Edinburgh University's term time and every night during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at half past midnight.
The Bad Dog Theatre Company is an improvisational theatre company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and established in 2003. The theatre is eclectic and broad in its production of shows, with a focus on short-form improv, but it has branched out to include the work of other schools of thought in improvisation.
The Loose Moose Theatre Company (LMTC), is a theater company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was co-founded in 1977, by Keith Johnstone and Mel Tonken. LMTC has an international reputation for developing the theatrical style of improvisation and specifically the work of Keith Johnstone. LMTC is the birthplace of such improvisation shows as Theatresports, Maestro, Gorilla Theatre and Life Game.
Roderick A. "Roddy" Maude-Roxby is an English actor who has appeared in numerous films, such as Walt Disney's The Aristocats, where he appeared as Edgar Balthazar ; Unconditional Love; and Clint Eastwood's White Hunter Black Heart, playing Thompson.
The Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) is Wellington’s not-for-profit, community-based improvisational theatre group. WIT performs and teaches the skills of improvisational theatre at community venues around the Wellington region.
Patti Stiles is an actor, director, playwright, teacher and improvisation artist living in Australia.
Rebecca Northan is a Canadian actress, improviser, theatre director, and creative artist. She is known for playing the hippie mother Diane Macleod on the CTV & The Comedy Network sitcom Alice, I Think. She was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. She is a graduate of the University of Calgary, and an alumna of the Loose Moose Theatre Company where she did her improv training with Keith Johnstone.
Albert Howell is a Canadian improv comedian and poet. He has appeared in several films and television shows, and has received recognition for his screenwriting as well as for his improv work. and he is part of second city on the Norwegian breakaway
The Court Jesters is a professional improv company founded in 1989 and based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a subsidiary of The Court Theatre professional theatre company, acting as a second company within the theatre.
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc, performed in a theatre, or on radio or television. Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics —the earliest work of dramatic theory.
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers, typically actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον, itself from θεάομαι.
Dad's Garage Theatre Company, located at 569 Ezzard St in the Old 4th Ward in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1995 by Chris Blair, Marc Cram, Sean Daniels, John Gregorio, David Keeton, Joseph Limbaugh, Matt Stanton, and Matt Young. The small theater company has since achieved international recognition for original stage productions and Improvisational comedy. The current Artistic Director, Kevin Gillese, is a former director at Rapid Fire Theatre. Lara Smith is the current Managing Director.
Impro Melbourne is an improvisational theatre company in the Australian city of Melbourne. Formed by Russell Fletcher and Christine Keogh in 1996 it is now run by Artistic Directors Patti Stiles & Katherine Weaver, General Manager Rik Brown and Committee chaired by Vicki Kyriakakis. Impro Melbourne is an Incorporated Association.
Applied improvisation is the application of improvisational methods in various fields like consulting, facilitating, teaching, coaching, researching, generating or evolving ideas and designs, theatrical training and playing, medical and therapeutic settings or in social work.
