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Improvisational theatre companies, also known as improv troupes or improv groups, are the primary practitioners of improvisational theater. Modern companies exist around the world and at a range of skill levels. Most groups make little or no money, while a few, well-established groups are profitable.
Although improvisational theater has existed in some form or another since the 16th century, [1] modern improv began with the teachings of Viola Spolin in Chicago, Illinois, USA and Keith Johnstone during the 1940-50s in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. [2] [3] Spolin's teachings led to the creation of The Compass Players, the first modern improvisational theater company, in 1955. The presence of The Compass Players, The Second City, and ImprovOlympic in Chicago created a strength in the form within the city that continues to this day. [4] New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Toronto are other major hubs of improvisational theater in the North America.
Many companies host improvisational theatre festivals or give improvisational theatre classes. Professional groups often perform a regular stage show acted by the most senior members. Along with this, they host "house" improv teams made up of improv students or graduates from their classes. In the past decade, professional improvisational theater groups have gradually started working more with corporate clients, using improvisational games to improve productivity and communication in the workplace.
Major Professional companies have branches in more than one city, have touring groups, and/or host large-scale improvisational comedy schools. Professional troupes are those not affiliated with a university or secondary school. Collegiate groups are those associated with a post-secondary educational institution. If a company performs more than one type of improvisational comedy, they are defined as using Multiple improvisational comedy types. If it is unclear what particular kind of improvisational comedy a group performs, they are defined as Improvisational. Those marked Semi-improvisational generally perform shows that are partially improvised and partially scripted.
The following is a list of noteworthy improvisational theatre companies [nb 1] from around the world.
Name | Group Level | Improv Type | Location | Date Established | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Bad Dog Theatre Company | Professional | Multiple | Toronto, Ontario | 2003 | |
Die-Nasty | Professional | Television | Edmonton, Alberta | 1991 | [5] [6] |
Ligue nationale d'improvisation | Professional | Improvisational | Quebec | 1977 | |
Loose Moose Theatre | Professional | Theatresports | Calgary, Alberta | 1977 | [7] |
Rapid Fire Theatre | Professional | Theatresports | Edmonton, Alberta | 1982 |
*
This group is no longer performing.
Name | Group Level | Improv Type | Location | Date Established | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Comedy Store Players | Professional | Improvisational | London, England | 1985 | |
Improverts | Collegiate | Theatresports | Edinburgh, Scotland | 1989 | |
Hoopla Impro | Professional | Multiple | London, England | 2005 | [71] |
The Free Association | Professional | Long-form | London | 2014 | [72] |
The Oxford Imps | Semi-Professional | Improvisational | Oxford, England | 2003 | [73] |
Showstoppers | Professional | Musical Theatre | London, England | 2008 | [74] |
The Suggestibles | Professional | Improvisational | Newcastle upon Tyne, England | 2001 | [75] |
The Spontaneity Shop | Professional | Multiple | London, England | 1996 | |
The Antics | Collegiate | Shortform | Sheffield, England | 2008 | [76] |
The Maydays | Professional | Longform | Brighton, England | 2003 | [77] |
Austentatious | Professional | Longform | London, England | 2011 | [78] |
Mischief Theatre | Professional | Multiple | London, England | 2008 |
Name | Group Level | Improv Type | Location | Date Established | Language | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tokyo Comedy Store | Professional | Multiple | Tokyo, Japan | 1994 | [79] | |
Seoul City Improv | Professional | Multiple | Seoul, South Korea | 2007 | [80] [81] | |
TBC Improv HK | Professional | Multiple | Hong Kong | 2014 | English | [82] [83] [84] |
The Improv Company | Professional | Multiple | Singapore | 2013 | [85] | |
Beijing Improv | Semi-Professional | Multiple | Beijing, China | - | English | [86] |
Zmack | Semi-Professional | Multiple | Shanghai, China | 2009 | English, Chinese | [87] [88] |
*
This group is no longer performing.
Name | Group Level | Improv Type | Location | Date Established | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Improv Bandits | Professional | Multiple | Auckland, New Zealand | 1997 | [89] [90] |
Improv Comedy Copenhagen | Professional | Multiple | Copenhagen, Denmark | 2014 | [91] [92] [93] [94] |
The Court Jesters | Professional | Multiple | Christchurch, New Zealand | 1989 | [95] |
Wellington Improvisation Troupe | Professional | Multiple | Wellington, New Zealand | 2004 | [96] |
Boom Chicago | Professional | Multiple | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 1993 | [97] |
IGLU Theatre | Professional | Multiple | Ljubljana, Slovenia | 2013 | [98] |
Narobov | Professional | Theatresports | Ljubljana, Slovenia | 2004 | |
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 – but it is also related to both the old French word "emprouer" and the English "improve", to improve. 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.
The Compass Players was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis. Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United States.
The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improvisational theater techniques were taught by Del Close and other members of the Second City, located in Chicago and later St. Louis. They used these techniques to produce sketches and improvised scenes. Its name is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, Scene II: "...to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise." In 1975 the troupe purchased and moved into its current location on Melrose Avenue.
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre is an American improvisational and sketch comedy training center and theatre originally founded by Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh.
Viola Spolin was an American 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.
Harold is a structure used in longform improvisational theatre that is performed by improv troupes and teams across the world. In the Harold structure, characters and themes are introduced and then recur in a series of connected scenes. It was first performed in California by The Committee in 1967.
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.
Theatre Strike Force is the University of Florida's premier improv and sketch comedy troupe. The group also goes by TSF. The style of improv performed by Theatre Strike Force is a combination long form and short form. They both teach and perform improvisational comedy. They have six house teams which include both forms of improv as well as a sketch team. There are four long form house teams which are cast every semester and usually have six to eight members. The TSF Short Form Team is cast every semester as well and usually has fifteen to nineteen members. TSF Sketch is the final house team and usually has twelve to sixteen members, cast each semester.
Philly Improv Theater, or PHIT, is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania comedy theater which formerly presented shows at The Adrienne Theatre in Center City Philadelphia. The theater currently operates a training center with programs in improv comedy, sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. PHIT's most notable alumnus is stand-up comedian Kent Haines, who was the 2008 winner of the Philly's Phunniest contest at Helium Comedy Club and has appeared on public radio show The Sound of Young America and Season 4 of Comedy Central's program Live at Gotham. In addition to Haines, other comedians from Philadelphia who appeared on stage at PHIT have gone on to perform at major comedy venues in cities like New York and Los Angeles, founded their own theatre companies, and appeared in touring productions for The Second City.
The Immediate Gratification Players (IGP) are a collegiate improvisational comedy troupe based out of Harvard College. They specialize in long form, free-form improvisation and are recognized as one of the top college troupes in the nation.
Fawad Siddiqui is an American actor, improvisational comedian, journalist and cartoonist.
The Committee was a San Francisco-based improvisational comedy group founded by Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson. The Myersons were both alums of The Second City in Chicago. The Committee opened April 10, 1963 at 622 Broadway in a 300-seat Cabaret theater that used to be an indoor bocce ball court in San Francisco's North Beach.
The Purple Crayon of Yale, or the Purple Crayon, is an improvisational theater group at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The group specializes in longform improv, such as the Harold. The Purple Crayon is Yale's second-oldest improv group, after the Ex!t Players, and the oldest collegiate longform group in the country. The Purple Crayon currently consists of twelve members, and is directed by Noam Scully '25 and Amara Neal '26.
Jason Hale is an American actor, international theatre director, and professor and chair of theatre at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.
Howard Alk was an American filmmaker based in Chicago, Illinois, and an original co-founder of The Second City theater troupe. In the 1960s he began to work in film with the Chicago Film Group, filming and directing documentaries, completing American Revolution 2 (1969) and The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971). He also collaborated for years with singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, producing films with him through 1981.
The Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), also known as the PIT, is a comedy theater and training center in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows combine improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up, theater, and variety. Each show is hosted by a combination of "house teams" of comedians hired by PIT and by outside comedians.
Chicago City Limits (CCL) is an improvisational theatre company in New York City.
Bovine Metropolis Theater was the first dedicated improvisational performance and improvisational comedy theater in the Denver Metro Area. It is located at 1527 Champa Street, Denver, Colorado.
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