Impro Melbourne

Founding as Theatresports Melbourne (1996)

Russell Fletcher and Christine Keogh founded the company in 1996, bringing Keith Johnstone's competitive improvisation formats to Melbourne. Melbourne had a prior tradition of Theatresports in the 1980s when televised celebrity Theatresports shows sold out Hamer Hall, and the new company reconnected the city to that tradition.

Venue History

The company has performed at a range of Melbourne venues over the years, including The Space in Prahran (from 2011) and Abbotsford Convent in Abbotsford, which has become the company's primary base. Other venues have included the David Williamson Theatre, Melbourne Town Hall, and the Courthouse Hotel in North Melbourne.

Formats and Programming

Impro Melbourne produces all three of Keith Johnstone's competitive formats: Theatresports, Micetro, and Gorilla Theatre. The company is the only Victoria-licensed producer of these formats. Performances typically draw audiences across all three formats, and the weekly programme at Abbotsford Convent keeps the company in regular public performance.

Current Leadership

Artistic Director Katherine Weaver and General Manager Rik Brown lead the company.

Impro Melbourne is Victoria's licensed home for Keith Johnstone's three competitive formats, maintaining Melbourne's long tradition of theatrical improvisation since 1996.

Theatresports, the competitive team-based format licensed from Keith Johnstone, has been the company's flagship weekly production since 1996 and is described as the longest-running improvised comedy show in Melbourne, with an annual Grand Final each season. Maestro Impro (also spelled Micetro), a player-elimination format in which audience voting determines the last improviser standing, runs as a recurring seasonal series. Gorilla Theatre, the third Johnstone-licensed format, in which improvisers compete as directors using fellow performers as their cast, has been staged regularly and served as the format basis for the company's Late Nite Impro Melbourne International Comedy Festival run. Late Nite Impro is a long-running Melbourne International Comedy Festival show first established by Russell Fletcher with LA-based improviser Brian Lohmann at the 1995 Comedy Festival and staged by Impro Melbourne at MICF continuously from 1999 onward. Celebrity Theatresports is an annual MICF production pairing the ensemble with Australian screen performers; past participants have included Julia Zemiro, Colin Lane, Angus Sampson, Cal Wilson, and Michala Banas. Kit Kat Prov: An Improvised Cabaret is a recurring production, presented at MICF from at least 2022, in which the ensemble performs fully improvised stories and songs in a pre-war Berlin nightclub aesthetic, directed by Rik Brown with music by Panfred Reed. Smells Like a Song is an ongoing improvised musical format in which audience members toss a rose onstage at any moment to trigger a spontaneous show-stopping number, accompanied by a live musician. Jane Austen Improvised is a recurring production, staged at MICF and Melbourne Fringe, in which a wholly improvised Regency-era narrative is built from audience suggestions each night. The Theatresports Schools Challenge is an annual interschool competitive program, running from at least 2019, in which teams of three to five students perform in a Theatresports format under Impro Melbourne mentorship.

Impro Melbourne has served as the primary institutional carrier of Keith Johnstone's performance methodology in Victoria since 1996, holding the exclusive state licence for Theatresports, Maestro Impro, and Gorilla Theatre throughout that period. Russell Fletcher, who co-founded the company and served as its first Artistic Director from 1996 to 2004, had been a national Theatresports champion in 1987 and again in 1996, performed on ABC Television in 1986, represented Australia at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, placed third at the 1994 World Mug in Los Angeles, and in 2001 coached a Sydney Theatresports cast to the World Championship title in Montreal. Fletcher went on to act with the Melbourne Theatre Company and Red Stitch, appear in productions including Yes Prime Minister and The 39 Steps, host Spontaneous Broadway in multiple Australian cities, and take a role in Artistic Direction of arts and culture at Glen Eira City Council from 2023.

Julia Zemiro, listed among the company's alumni, performed with Impro Melbourne in its early seasons and was a core cast member of Spontaneous Broadway, which played at the Famous Spiegeltent in Melbourne in 2008 and the Sydney Opera House in 2009. She subsequently hosted the SBS music quiz show RocKwiz from 2005 to 2016 across fourteen seasons, hosted Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery on ABC from 2013 to 2022, and became one of Australia's most recognisable television personalities. Lliam Amor, a founding company member, later appeared in television productions including Neighbours, Underbelly, Thank God You're Here, and The Micallef Program. Geoff Paine, another company alumnus, is known for his long-running role as Clive Gibbons on Neighbours. Emilie Collyer, an ensemble performer and committee member from 1998 to 2007, went on to a career as a playwright whose works received the George Fairfax Award, the Malcolm Robertson Prize, and the Best Writer award at Melbourne Fringe, with productions staged in New York, Hollywood, and Florida.

Patti Stiles, who joined the company in 2000 and served as a past Artistic Director, trained at Loose Moose Theatre Company and Rapid Fire Theatre in Canada under Keith Johnstone and became an internationally recognised improv teacher, teaching at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the UK and at institutions and festivals across six continents. Patrick Duffy, who joined in 2010, won the New Zealand Theatresports Nationals in 2007 and the Australian Theatresports Nationals in 2012 and was a founding member of the Court Jesters improv company in Christchurch, New Zealand. The company's training programs and ongoing seasons have also contributed performers to other Melbourne improv organisations, including The Improv Conspiracy and The Big HOO-HAA.