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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.
The group was established by performers of the "Micetro" that won the New Zealand Fringe Festival Best Comedy Award in 2003. WIT was legally established and had its first committee formed in August 2003. The first show season performed under the name was the "Battle of WITs" in December 2003. [1]
WIT continued to participate in the Fringe Festival and the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, and become licensed as an International Theatresports Institute group.
In 2008, WIT convened the first New Zealand Improv Festival, bringing together teachers and troupes from around New Zealand and Australia. [2] The festival became an independent trust in 2015, though WIT opened for the festival that year. [3]
The creative philosophy of WIT is based on the teachings of Keith Johnstone, and several of WIT's senior players have traveled to Calgary to undertake training at Loose Moose Theatre, which Johnstone co-established in 1977. Beyond the foundation of Johnstone, they also take influence from others including Viola Spolin, Del Close, Augusto Boal, and companies such as The Second City. [4]
WIT's specific objectives as listed in the incorporated society's founding document are as follows:
Major WIT shows include:
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.
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Second Nature is a long-form improvisational theatre troupe based in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California.
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