Template:Short description

Template:Infobox stage production

The Compass Players (or Compass Theater) was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis.<ref>Adler, Tony, Theater, p. 815-7, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 The Encyclopedia of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press, Template:ISBN</ref> Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United States.<ref name="Coleman">Template:Cite book</ref>

HistoryEdit

Shepherd and SillsEdit

The Compass Players, founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, was the first Improvisational Theatre in America.<ref name="Coleman"/> It began July 8, 1955 as a storefront theater at 1152 E. 55th near the University of Chicago campus. They presented improvised plays.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Shepherd, in Mark Siska's documentary Compass Cabaret ’55, about the birth of modern improvisation, stated his reasons for founding the Compass Players, “Theater in New York was very effete and based on three-act plays and based on verbiage and there was not much action,” he said. “I wanted to create a theater that would drag people off the street and seat them not in rows but at tables and give them something to drink, which was unheard of in [American] theater.”<ref name="Siska">Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref name="Coleman"/>

Previously, Shepherd and Sills founded Playwrights Theatre Club, along with Eugene Troobnick, and employed improvisational theater forms, named Theater Games, originally created and developed by Sills' mother, Viola Spolin. These same games were employed to develop material for the Compass Players.<ref name="Adler">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Compass Players Original Promotion in Hyde Park Herald July 6, 1955 p10.png
Original announcement in Chicago's Hyde Park Herald shows first performance scheduled for Friday, July 8, 1955 at The Compass tavern, formerly at 1152 E. 55th (not to be confused with Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap to the east).

Evolution of ImprovisationEdit

Initially, scenes were presented only once, but some of the players grew interested in polishing material into finished pieces. For example, Mike Nichols and Elaine May created many of their signature scenes in this manner. Shelley Berman also found that he could create solo routines by showing one half of telephone conversations.<ref>See Stephen Kercher's book "Rebel With A Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America", University of Chicago Press, 2006. See also a review of this book by Warren Leming at http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_6.3/leming.htm.</ref><ref>This formative time in the history of American improvisational theater is the subject matter of a 2011 documentary "Compass Cabaret '55; see http://siskafilms.com/ and http://www.outofboundscomedy.com/compass-cabaret-55-film/.</ref>

Crystal PalaceEdit

The Compass Players also opened its doors at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis, where Theodore J. Flicker, Nichols and May, along with Del Close, codified a further set of principles to guide improvisational players.<ref name="Kercher">Template:Cite book</ref>

LegacyEdit

Sills would co-found The Second City<ref name="Coleman"/> and Shepherd would return to New York City to create and produce a variety of improv forms including his Improvisation Olympics (ImprovOlympic).<ref name="Bowden">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Coleman"/>

Nichols and May went on to New York, performing material largely derived from their Compass days.<ref name="Coleman"/> Close was featured in Flickers' Broadway musical comedy The Nervous Set, and afterwards developed his long-form improvisation the Harold.<ref name="Johnson2008">Template:Cite book</ref>

Notable alumniEdit

Template:Div-col

Template:Div-col-end
(Please note: the following sources were used to cite and authenticate the above list of Compass Players)

  1. Mark Siska's documentary Compass Cabaret ’55<ref name="Siska" />
  2. Janet Coleman's book The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy<ref name="Coleman" />
  3. Jeffery Sweet's book Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of the Second City and The Compass Players'<ref name="Sweet">Template:Cite book</ref>

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Further readingEdit

{{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}} Template:Chicago mtp

Template:Authority control