Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone was born in Devon, England in 1933. In 1962 Keith directed the original production of "The Knack" written by Ann Jellicoe first performed at the Camden Arts Theatre, but soon moving to the Royal Court Theatre. Some references credit Jellicoe with a "co-director" role, but Keith is rarely given any credit for co-writing even though he made substantial contributions to both dialogue and stage directions now incorporated into published versions of the play. Johnstone himself was, at least in part, the inspiration for the character Tom, the character who rents the room and paints it in weird colours and hangs the chairs on the wall in the play. His imposingly tall and husky stature, though often disheveled and shambling, added to his charisma and winning smile always served him well with female admirers. His work with Royal Court Theatre actors developed the seeds of his theories and teachings about improvisation, but also to some improvisation performances on television in the UK that eventually appeared in North America as "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" starring Drew Carey and a small core of extremely talented improvisational actors and guest stars. In the beginning of the 1970's, Keith accepted a teaching position in Canada at the University of Calgary. He co-founded a theatre company that based its work in Impro, with Mel Tonken that is now world famous, the Loose Moose Theatre Company that began performances in a renovated building which formerly housed huge municipal water system equipment. In 1979 Keith Johnstone published a book entitled "IMPRO", which is now considered a seminal work on the subject of improvisation, and especially "TheatreSports" which has grown to a worldwide genre of competitive style improv performance companies. Keith retired as professor emeritus from the University of Calgary (as of 1996) and has been succeeded as Artistic Director of Loose Moose Theatre by one of the original cast of Loose Moose, Dennis Cahill.