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Keith Johnstone is a drama instructor who has taught in England and Canada and more recently around the world. His teachings and books have focused on improvisational theatre and have had a major influence on the dramatic arts[citation needed]. Johnstone is a surname of Scottish origin related to Johnston. ...
Improvisational Theatre (also known as improv or impro) is a form of theatre in which the actors perform spontaneously, without a script. ...
Education
Born February 1933 in Devon, England, he hated his schooling, finding that it blunted his imagination and made him self-conscious and shy. As a play-reader, director and drama teacher at the Royal Court Theatre in London 1956-1966, he chose to reverse all of the things his teachers had told him, in an attempt to make his actors more spontaneous. For example, he would get them to make faces at each other, and be playfully nasty to each other, and would shout "Don't concentrate!" and "don't think!" and "Be obvious!" and "Don't be clever!". His techniques worked wonders in unfreezing people's imagination and spontaneity, and he went on to develop some important principles of acting and drama. 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Devon is a large county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. ...
Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan AD927 Area - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK) 50,346 sq mi - Water (%) Population...
A theatre director is a principal in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a play by unifying various endeavors and aspects of production. ...
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, in the Chelsea area of London noted for its contributions to modern theatre. ...
London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom. ...
1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...
Teaching and Writing Career In the 1970s he moved to Calgary, Canada to teach at the University of Calgary. There he co-founded the Loose Moose Theatre and invented Theatresports, which has become a staple of modern improvisational comedy. By a fairly convoluted route, Theatresports eventually gave rise to the popular TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". Keith has subsequently invented further improvisation "formats" including "Gorilla Theatre", "Micetro" or "Maestro" and "Life Game" which has been seen at the National Theatre courtesy of Improbable Theatre and on US Cable television. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...
Motto: Heart of the new west Area: 712. ...
It has been suggested that University of Calgary Faculty of Law be merged into this article or section. ...
The Loose Moose Theatre Company (LMTC), was co-founded in 1977, by Keith Johnstone and Mel Token. ...
Theatresports, or Theatre Sports, is a form of competitive improvisational theatre and is a trademark of the International Theatresports Institute (ITI). ...
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line?), is an improvisational comedy show. ...
Several countries have a National Theatre. ...
He has written two books about his work, "Impro" and "Impro For Storytellers". Keith still lives in Calgary and teaches all over the world.
Johnstone's Teachings Whilst he was running the Writer's Group at the Royal Court, began to teach that drama is about dominance and submission, and about people being changed by each other, a subject that previously had not been taught in the dramatic arts [citation needed]. He made this realisation partly as a result of reading several books by Desmond Morris. Dr Desmond Morris (born 24 January 1928 in the village of Purton, UK) is most famous for his work as a zoologist and ethologist. ...
Johnstone was the first theatre professional to introduce the term "status transactions" into modern theatre, believing that an alarmingly high proportion of comedy comes from the infinite tiny ways that people try to raise their social status and lower the social status of others. His teaching included exercises in which students would practice a low-status role by entering the classroom, and acting as though they were accidentally interrupting a very important meeting. The exercise was then repeated by the student. In Impro: Improvisation and the theatre, Johnston reports that the apoplexy and increased shows of deference that student acted out often triggered uproarious laughter in the class which he attributes to a deep-seated human interest in the acting out and renegotiation of status roles.
A major interest of Johnstone is the use of masks and costumes which represent different emotional states and social roles to improve students acting. He found these to be powerful learning devices, to the point where several fellow instructors reported that they were afraid to allow students to use them in class because some students got 'too much' into the parts of the masks. In Impro: Improvisation and the theatre, he spectulates that this effect occurs because masks allow students to let go of their day-to-day identity, especially after seeing and acting out their new identify before a mirror.
Bibliography - Johnstone, Keith (1979).Impro: improvisation and the theatre.New York: Theatre Arts Books. ISBN 0-87830-117-8
- Johnstone, Keith (1999).Impro for storytellers. New York : Routledge/Theatre Arts Books. ISBN 0-87830-105-4
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