Impro Theatre

Performing in the 2013 Green Show Wednesday, July 17 and Friday, July 19.

This is their fourth season in the OSF Green Show.

Plays in a range of literary genres improvised from audience suggestion.

Impro Theatre is an award-winning repertory theatre company specializing in improvisation. Many members of the company began work together in the late 1980’s as members of Theatresports. A shared passion for spontaneously creating plays led them away from improv comedy and towards a deeper exploration of devising actor generated plays. Impro continues to wrestle with what it means to publicly create narrative as a collective in real time. Company members are all working professionals who have appeared in feature films (Peggy Sue got Married, A Mighty Wind, He Was a Quiet Man, Multiplicity, Reno 911, Finding Amanda, Kung Fu Panda and West Bank Story, Thanks), directed, produced, hosted and acted in television shows (Sons and Daughters, World Cup Comedy, The Tick, Seinfeld, The Practice, ER, Gilmore Girls, Becker, That Showbiz Show with David Spade, LIFEGAME, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and worked in regional theatre and Off-Broadway. They share a commitment to developing the spontaneous nature of live theatre and pushing the boundaries of group improvisation. Recent runs include the Broad Stage, The Odyssey and the Carrie Hamilton at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Impro Theatre on Community: Our company members cut their teeth teaching improvisation in the 1990s to anyone who wanted to learn. We believe improvisation is a “populist” art form, one that allows anyone to create theatre, no matter what their experience or educational background is. In Los Angeles, our shows are frequented by students from the Asian American community, as many of our members teach classes run by “Cold Tofu” at Maryknoll cultural center in Little Tokyo and “Room to Improv” an Asian American company in the San Fernando Valley. We also reach out to the student communities at Pepperdine University and at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. We see ourselves as being a link in the tradition that celebrates the spontaneous nature of great theatre; a tradition that extends back through classical Commedia Dell’Arte and reaches forward to contemporary experimental performance. Other communities you would like to connect to The creative community within OSF has been one that our atelier classes have successfully connected to. We would welcome a chance to teach there again, as well as welcome holding a workshop for any and all in Ashland who are interested in improvising stories. We’d like to connect with Freestyle Rap subgroup of the Hip-Hop community. There is a kinship in the way they spin language and the way we do: the love of rhyme and rhythm, and the tightrope between device and discovery. We would also like to share our craft with seniors who may never have seen improvised full-length plays. We feel there is value in offering workshops for retirees, so they can try their hand at improvising in the style of Shakespeare. (It’s great for the health of the brain!)