The inaugural Global Improvisation Initiative (GII) Symposium launched on May 12-13, 2017, at UC Irvine and Chapman University, in collaboration with the Coup de Comedy Festival, and was a success in every way.

 

It brought together 37 presenters from 10 different countries, over 100 attendees from all walks of life, representatives from Impro Theatre, Groundlings, Second City Chicago, and ComedySportz, as well as pioneer of impro Keith Johnstone and Aretha Sills, the granddaughter of Viola Spolin!

 

After 2 full days of extraordinary workshops, roundtables, and presentations, the GII’s goal “to activate an international exploration about the art and impact of improvisation in depth and collectively” and “to promote the evolution and advancement of theatrical improvisation for future generations” was achieved!

 

Co-directors, Theresa Robbins Dudeck and Joel Veenstra, said the one comment they got most often from both presenters and attendees was that the mixture of professional improvisers and facilitators with college students is what truly made the symposium unique and exciting. It was a perfect blend of improvisation past, present, and future.

(Published in the June 2017 iTi Newsletter)

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