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, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. 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.
Gregory Everett Proops is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his work on the UK and US versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He has also voiced the titular character on the US version of Bob the Builder: Project: Build It in series 10 to 14.
The culture of San Francisco is major and diverse in terms of arts, music, cuisine, festivals, museums, and architecture but also is influenced heavily by Mexican culture due to its large Hispanic population, and its history as part of Spanish America and Mexico. San Francisco's diversity of cultures along with its eccentricities are so great that they have greatly influenced the country and the world at large over the years. In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek voted San Francisco as America's Best City.
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.
Friday Nite Improvs, or Friday Night Improvs (FNI), was a long-running weekly improvisational comedy show staged on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The show functioned as an improv jam, performed by improv actors who don't normally work together. FNI was unique in that, in addition to the audience's providing improv suggestions, the performers are all pulled from volunteers in the audience. FNI ended in 2014. A student improv group, Ruckus, has succeeded FNI as a resident improv group on the University of Pittsburgh's campus.
Jeffrey Bryan Davis is an American actor, impressionist and comedian. He is known for his work as a recurring performer on the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? From July 2016 until October 2019, he has starred as the Goblin Hero Boneweevil on the VRV Direct original production HarmonQuest.
BATS Improv is a non-profit improvisational theatre company in San Francisco. Founded in 1986, their unique style of acting-based improvisational theatre is well known in improv circles around the world. BATS is the largest improvisational theatre company and school in Northern California.
Jeffrey Weissman is an American actor. He has appeared in dozens of motion pictures and TV shows, most notably as George McFly in Back to the Future Part II and III and as Teddy Conway in Pale Rider. He has guest starred spots on Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Max Headroom, Dallas, The Man Show, and with Dick Van Dyke on Diagnosis: Murder and as Screech's Guru on Saved by the Bell.
Nelson Ascencio is a Cuban-American actor and comedian. Ascencio is most notable for his membership in the recurring cast of comedians on sketch comedy series MADtv and for playing Flavius in The Hunger Games film series.
Erik Marcisak was born on March 17, 1978, in Queens, New York. He is an American writer, sketch comedy producer, and actor. Marcisak was named one of Back Stage’s Top Ten "Comedy Best Bets" in 2005 for producing the controversial sketch comedy show Saturday Night Rewritten which used the previous night's Saturday Night Live as a creative jumping-off point for an entirely new sketch show that was written, rehearsed, and performed within 8 hours the next day. Saturday Night Rewritten ran in New York City from 2003-2006.
Milton "Mel" Stewart was an American character actor, television director, and musician who appeared in numerous films and television shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for playing Henry Jefferson on All in the Family and for playing section chief Billy Melrose on the television series Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Stewart is sometimes credited as Melvin Stewart or Mel Stuart.
Jerry Shigekazu Tondo is a Japanese-American actor and voice actor. He is known for providing the voice of the character Chien-Po in the animated film Mulan. Other titles Tondo has contributed to include Gung Ho, The Secret Saturdays and Mulan II.
The Un-Scripted Theater Company, was an improvisational theater company in San Francisco, California. The company performed many kinds of improv formats, such as comedy, mystery, drama, adventure, and musicals, each presented in 4 to 6 week runs each season, each with its own director, format, and vision. Un-Scripted specialized in narrative and genre-based "single-story" improvised theater.
SAK Comedy Lab (SAK) is a 250-seat Improvisational Comedy (Improv) theater in downtown Orlando, Florida. SAK's most notable alumnus is actor Wayne Brady, who has played as a guest player in several SAK shows since finding fame as a performer on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Let's Make a Deal, Chappelle's Show, and other projects. SAK's regular performers are referred to as the SAK Ensemble.
Fratelli Bologna is a business theater company based in San Francisco.
The Lobby was an improvisational comedy group based in Southern California. Unlike many improv groups, which are composed of many members who perform on a rotating basis, The Lobby was a small, close-knit group. The audience got to know each of the players and feel they were part of the group. The Lobby also irregularly put up a podcast, which further allowed their audience to connect with the players.
Denny Delk is an American actor. He is best known for providing the voice of Murray in the Monkey Island series as well as a range of voices in LucasArts games.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is an American improvisational comedy television series, and is an adaptation of the British series of the same name. It originally aired on ABC and ABC Family from August 5, 1998 to December 15, 2007, hosted by Drew Carey. A revival of the show, hosted by Aisha Tyler, began airing on The CW on July 16, 2013.
Cole Stratton is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, writer and producer, best known as one of the Co-Founders of SF Sketchfest, the San Francisco Comedy Festival and the co-host of the Pop My Culture Podcast.
