Everything about Paul Sills totally explained
Paul Sills (born 18 November, 1927) is a director and
improvisation teacher, and the original director of
The Second City, Playwrights and
Compass Players.
Paul is the son of teacher and writer
Viola Spolin, author of the first book on improvisation techniques, "Improvisation for the Theater," and so grew up in an environment full of educational theatre experiences.
In 1948 Paul enrolled in the
University of Chicago, where he established himself as a director, founding the university's first student-led theater group "Tonight at 8:30" and "Playwrights Theater Club". Here, with fellow actors
Elaine May,
Mike Nichols and
Edward Asner, they blended Spolin’s technique with established theater training.
Sills and David Shepherd founded the Compass Players in 1955, the first improvisational theater company in the U.S.
Sills with partners
Bernard Sahlins and Howard Alk opened a new nightclub review, dubbed
The Second City, where he was the director from 1959‑65, working with such talent as
Alan Arkin, Joyce and
Byrne Piven, and
Jerry Stiller.
Paul was the creator of Story Theatre which staged
Broadway and
Off Broadway productions. Paul opened the Story Theater in Chicago in July of 1968. He was co‑founder of
Compass Players, as well as The Game Theatre, opened in the mid-1960s, with his mother, where the audiences were invited onstage to play the games, and most recently Sills & Co.
He teaches improvisation privately in Wisconsin and explores new improvisational forms in his workshops. He started the New Actors Workshop, an acting school with
Mike Nichols and
George Morrison, and leads guest workshops, lectures, and directs once a year.
Sills was briefly married during the 1960s to actress
Barbara Harris.
“There’s no laugh like the explosion of laughter after improvisation.” - Paul Sills
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