Keith is the grand old man of performance improvisation. If you've ever laughed at Whose Line is it Anyway? then you have Keith to thank. He worked at the Royal Court Theatre in London in the 1960's, founded the Theatre Machine improv group and created the global phenomenon that is Theatresports. Keith has influenced thousands of writers and performers around the world and I've been lucky enough to work with him on three separate occasions over the last twenty years.
In 1989 a new girlfriend took (dragged) me along to Belvoir St Theatre in Surry Hills, Sydney to see Theatresports. It was a genuinely stellar cast that night that included Daniel Cordeaux, Ewan Campbell, Marko Mustac and Andrew Denton with Lynn Pierse as her strange uber-nun character Sister Mary Leonard. I left the theatre thinking, "I must do that."
Within a week I'd enrolled in a course and on Lynn's recommendation I bought Impro. Six weeks later I performed on the Belvoir Street stage for the first time. A few months after that I started my own theatre company (Instant Theatre) with two partners.
As I was still working for Unilever we decided to concentrate on the conference and seminar market with a specific focus on what Keith describes as 'status issues'. Instant Theatre successfully packaged up the lessons of Impro for the Australian corporate scene and my current business (Dramatic Change) is a direct evolution of that work.
Dramatic Change only exists because I was taken to the theatre then given a book to read.
I recommend Impro to anyone interested in creativity, narrative or especially Keith's very specific idea of 'status'. Over the next few posts I'm going to unpack that idea and apply it to the world of the freelance consultant.
