Isaiah Krueger

Mr. Doyle

DP2 Theater

10-23-22

Keith Johnstone’s Works and Theories

Keith Johnstone is a pioneer in improvisational theater. He created the “Impro System” as

a way to create theater. He grew up in Devon, England and became a theater teacher and director

by the late 1950s. He founded a group called the Loose Moose Theater Company in Calgary in

1977. With the Loose Moose Theater Company, he created improv shows such as Theatre Sports,

Maestro, Life Game and Gorilla Theater. These are formats of improvisational theater he used as

training and examples to push actors and actresses to be more spontaneous and creative in their

embodiment of characters. For example, Life Game is an exercise where someone is asked a

question about their life (What was your first kiss like? Who was your nemesis in high school?)

and actors attempt to act out what they describe. While they do this, the person talking about

their life stops them when they do something that is inaccurate to their life. Johnstone thought

that this exercise helped people to embody someone who is likely a seemingly boring stranger

and to make their life more interesting and important, their story more deserving to be told.

Keith hated school growing up because he felt it extinguished his creativity. The driving

force behind his work and teaching is to tell his students to think less, as opposed to his teachers

who always pushed him to think more. Johnstone uses lazzi in his teaching and exercises. Lazzi

is a 17th century Italian theater form that uses stock comedy routines. Different lazzi have

storylines to follow but it is not uncommon to have elements of improvisation within them. Lazzi

can be performed by one person, a few people or entire theater troupes. Also in his theory is the
use of masks and altered states of consciousness. Keith is all about the creation of characters

without thinking too much about them. One of his exercises involves wearing a mask, looking at

yourself in the mirror and doing what you think someone who looks like that would do. He also

thinks that involving trance states or having the memories of characters be unreliable adds an

element to improv that leads to more spontaneity and interest.

In essence, Keith Johnstone’s theory is to use improvisation as a way to create characters

and storylines. Using many different games and exercises, Keith teaches to simply perform and

embody a character, not to think. This can be applied to a performance by just creating characters

and seeing how they would interact with eachother. His ideas about mask work have already

inspired me as a way to create multiple characters within a solo performance. These masks can

distinguish between different characters or different states of consciousness. There are two masks

we have in the Harold that are made of the same materials but have contrasting expressions.

Using these masks to create two different characters, I could then act out a classic lazzo (singular

lazzi). One famous lazzo that involves 2 characters is the Lazzo of the Fly.

In the Lazzo of the Fly, a servant was told to watch his master’s home. When the master

returns, the servant insists that there is not a fly in his house, insinuating it is empty. The master

enters his house to find it full of people, but the servant still insists there is technically not a fly.

Using masks to create these characters and imrpov to create the script would incorporate the

theories of Keith Johnstone. The similarities in the masks would suggest the two characters

aren’t so different, despite being of opposite social class. I could also include the ideas of altered

states of consciousness. The master could get mad at the servant and strike him in the head,

concussing him and altering his memory and perception of the situation. Making the lines seem

improvised will be a crucial way of representing the theory of Johnstone. I think the best way to
do so is to improvise this lazzo while basing the characters off of the masks. Record myself

running through it alone or with a partner and write down what occurred as a script.

Performing a lazzo as an improvised skit, using masks and incorporating the idea of

altered memory or consciousness incorporates 4 different aspects of Johnstone’s theory. Ensuring

it stays rooted in the idea of improvisation, I should easily be able to display his theory. Like

Keith teaches; just do, dont think.

Another Johnstone quote that helps right now: “You can’t learn anything without failing.”

Bibliography

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www.imdb.com/name/nm0426928/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

2. ‌“Improvisation|Keith Johnstone Home Page|Canada.” Keithjohnstone, 2015,

www.keithjohnstone.com/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

3. ‌Drinko, Clayton D. “Keith Johnstone: Spontaneity, Storytelling, Status, and Masks,

Trance, Altered States.” Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness, and Cognition, 2013,

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link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137335296_4#:~:text=Johnstone’s%20theories%

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4. ‌Maeci. “THE FLY’S LAZZO | International Commedia Dell’Arte Day 2019.” Esteri.it,

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internazionale.html. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

5. Wikipedia Contributors. “Lazzi.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 June 2022,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazzi. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

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2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Johnstone#cite_note-3. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

7. ‌Wikipedia Contributors. “Loose Moose Theatre.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5

June 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_Moose_Theatre. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

8. ‌Wikipedia Contributors. “Theatresports.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Oct. 2022,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatresports. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.