Improvised Shakespeare
2005-present · Chicago / Touring
Also known as Shakesprov, The Improvised Shakespeare Company show, ISC
A full-length fully improvised Shakespeare play, rhyming couplets, Shakespearean archetypes, iambic pentameter, from a one-word audience title.
Known for
- The Improvised Shakespeare Company formed in Chicago in 2005; has toured internationally including the Kennedy Center, Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Edinburgh Fringe.
- Structure: prologue of rhyming couplets → opening scene with Shakespearean archetypes → counterpoint scene with 'rude mechanicals' from a foreign land → multi-strand five-act arc with subplots.
- Performed in period-inflected language; no costumes, minimal staging, language does all the work.
- Direct spiritual descendent of both Harold (for structural listening) and Keith Johnstone's narrative improv.
Connected to
Schools & Theaters
io