Keith Johnston Research Paper

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Keith Johnstone Keith Johnston is a British man best known for inventing the improvisation system. He was born in Brixham, England in 1933. His works and life progressed from a country that didn’t accept his style of drama, England. To a country that adopted his style of drama, England. According to The keith Johnstone - Profile by Ron East, Keith Johnstone's inspiration came from his “Painful experience with the British Public school system.” He experienced problems with the school systems in Britain at that time due to his shyness and difficulties with speech. His teachers underestimated him due to the way he was and went as far as denying him of university training and was “declared unsuitable.” The first turn around in his life was when …show more content…

Furthermore he then progressed to working with the Royal shakespeare Company where he started to explore his ideas more. According to Keith Johnstone - Profile by Ron East “My teachers felt obliged to destroy our spontaneity… so why not reverse their methods.” He began to introduce spontaneousness and improvisation into theater. His interest in improvisational play grew and he then developed this idea and this became the base of his works. He then incorporated his idea as public performances in a company he established called Theatre Machine. His company went global and was recognized internationally. However, unfortunately his works were not accepted in Britain. It was popular amongst the younger audience but wasn’t seen as legitimate by the british theatre establishment. Luckily in 1967 he was invited to bring his workshops to British Columbia and he decided to stay. During his stay there he started teaching at the university of Calgary. Then he further developed his ideas of improvisation when he co- founded the Loose Moose Theatre. His style of drama was Theatresports improvisational comedy. This style was used all over the world and was later even used at London’s National

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