Loose Moose Theatre Company

Founding (1977)

Keith Johnstone, a British-born theatre director who had worked at the Royal Court Theatre in London, relocated to Canada in 1972 on a visiting lectureship at the University of Calgary, accepting a full professorship there in 1975. In 1977 Johnstone and Mel Tonken co-founded Loose Moose Theatre as a performance home for the format Johnstone had been developing with his students, a competitive form of improvisation structured like a sport.

Theatresports and Format Development

Theatresports grew at Loose Moose through the late 1970s and 1980s from an intimate game between two competing teams into a full theatrical event with audience participation, judges, and rules. Loose Moose also became the development site for Johnstone's other formats: Maestro Impro, Gorilla Theatre, and The Life Game. These formats spread worldwide through the licensing body Johnstone created in 1998, the International Theatresports Institute.

Location History

Loose Moose performed at the Pumphouse Theatre in its early years, later moved to an industrial complex in northeast Calgary, then occupied the historic Garry Theatre in the Inglewood district. Since 2005 the company has been located at 1235 26th Avenue Southeast in the Crossroads Market.

Keith Johnstone's Legacy

Johnstone taught and performed at Loose Moose for decades until his death in 2023. His books Impro (1979) and Impro for Storytellers (1999) became foundational texts for improvisers worldwide, and his formats created at Loose Moose are now performed in dozens of countries.

Loose Moose Theatre Company is the Calgary company where Keith Johnstone developed Theatresports and several other foundational improv formats, making it one of the most influential sites in the history of improvisational performance.

Loose Moose Theatre Company, through Keith Johnstone's work, is the origin point of Theatresports, Maestro Impro, Gorilla Theatre, and The Life Game. These formats have spread through the International Theatresports Institute to over 90 member companies in 22 countries. Johnstone's books Impro and Impro for Storytellers are among the most widely read texts in improvisational theatre. The Loose Moose tradition has shaped a distinct lineage of competitive, audience-participatory improv that runs parallel to and distinct from the Chicago long-form tradition.