A Guide to Keith Johnstone's Maestro Impro(tm) (Paperback or Softback)

This guide is for all those wishing to train in and produce Maestro Impro™. It is a fantastic format to experience Impro Keith Johnstone style and receive all of the personal and group benefits that go along with it. Maestro Impro™ player/directors develop in storytelling, spontaneity, joyful failure, confidence, teamwork, playfulness and so much more.

In the late 1950's Keith Johnstone was experimenting with Theatresports™ in London England. It was first produced in Calgary, Canada in 1977, from there spread around the world and is now played in over 90 countries.

Maestro Impro™ was developed in the early 1990s and is now played popularly worldwide.

The International Theatresports™ Institute was created by Keith to entrust and manage his Impro formats.

The ITI grants performance rights to groups wishing to train on and perform the Keith Johnstone formats of Theatresports™, Maestro Impro™ and Gorilla Theatre™. Money from royalties goes to member benefits, building the Impro community and managing the trademark and legacy. Keith himself has never taken any profit from the licensing of Theatresports™.

ITI members have select access to the Maestro Impro™ Guide but it is also available for purchase to anyone.

Keith Johnstone (1933 - 2023) a pioneer of improvisational theatre and creator of Maestro Impro(c) (or Micetro(c) Impro), Theatresports(TM), Gorilla Theatre(TM), and The Life Game(c). His first book Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre (1979) has been translated into over a dozen languages and is often called "the improviser's bible." His second book Impro for Storytellers (1999) is a primary text for improvisors across dozens of countries. Keith began at the Royal Court Theatre as a young, unknown, unconventional playwright, he advanced to associate director and then became head of the RCT Studio for professional actors and an influential member of the famous Writers' Group. The RCT Studio was a "scientific laboratory" for Keith where he could investigate the nature of spontaneous creation, acceptance of first impulses, and the deliberate lowering of performers' inhibitions. It was here where he discovered four actors that transformed his discoveries into public performance and who would become The Theatre Machine, Britain's first pure improvisational troupe. He co-founded Loose Moose Theatre Company which became the central laboratory for Johnstone's mature work. It was here Maestro Impro(TM) was developed after an experiment in Utrecht, The Netherlands. An ensemble improvisation show featuring a large cast and directors. The show structure is an elimination format where a mix of improvisers are randomly chosen to play scenes with each other. Two Directors set up scenes and (if necessary) direct the players when needed. All scenes are scored by the audience based on how much they enjoyed it. The players given the highest scores continue while those with lower scores leave the show, eliminated after each round until only one improviser remains. This player is The Maestro.

Shawn's home base is Canada which he is rarely in. He works with people in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australasia and Africa 9 months of the year. Broadly speaking, Shawn teaches workshops and performs. More specifically he engages performers, businesses people, health care professionals, education experts, scientists, toymakers, dancers, psychologists and even the military in various forms of improvisation and movement to make their world a little better. Over the past three decades Shawn has been asked to teach in 43 countries. Memorable visits include Universities in Oxford and Cambridge, a roofless building in Peru, the National Theatre of Iceland, and Opera of Norway, a Favela in Brazil, palaces in Germany, circuses in Poland and Colombia. Shawn is proud to be one of the few Impro teachers authorized by the International Theatresports Institute to teach Keith Johnstone's formats Theatresports(TM), Maestro Impro(TM) and Gorilla Theatre(TM).

In 1987 Steve stumbled onto improvisation at Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary. Spontaneity, play and accepting ideas made sense to him but his responsible side said "go back to school". He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Calgary with Keith Johnstone as his acting teacher. Today Steve teaches Keith's half (trance) mask technique and Impro. He integrates full masks, puppetry, and clowning into improvisation courses and shows topics around the world.He shares his time between Banff, Canada and Stuttgart, Germany. In Canada, He produces and performs nature and children's theatre writing and devising plays for schools, museums, zoos and national parks. In Germany he plays improvisation and scripted theatre with Improtheater Stuttgart. Current projects include a play about dementia, a kid's touring show about climate change, teaching and developing improvisation formats locally, and performing in regular Impro shows.Steve is proud to be one of the few Impro teachers authorized by the International Theatresports Institute to teach Keith Johnstone's formats Theatresports(TM), Maestro Impro(TM) and Gorilla Theatre(TM).