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Donald Keith Johnstone (21 February 1933 – 11 March 2023) was a British-Canadian educator and theatre director. A pioneer of improvisational theatre, he was best known for inventing the Impro System, part of which are the Theatresports. He was also an educator, playwright, actor and theatre director.
Johnstone is featured in the book by Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell.
Johnstone was married to Ingrid von Darl until their divorce in 1981. They had one son, Benjamin Johnstone who had one son, Cort Dawnne, and Johnstone had a second son from another relationship. He died at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary on 11 March 2023, at the age of 90.
Johnstone's work with performers comprised a vast collection of training games, exercises and lazzi. He wrote two books about his system; 1979's Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, and 1998's Impro For Storytellers.
Johnstone's teaching was described as a reversal of the lessons he received as a child in postwar Britain. Writing in The Guardian in 2009, Mark Ravenhill said about him, "Whereas his teachers told him to think more, he'll tell his students to think less. He was advised to plan a story before it was written. Now he says: listen to an audience and let the tale tell itself".
Johnstone was known for that encapsulated his philosophy of improvisation, and included:
Work
Johnstone developed his training system at the Loose Moose Theatre, which he co-founded in 1977. He retired as artistic director in 1998, but remained involved with the company and continued to work as an educator until 2018, amid a decline in his health.
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Categories: 1933 Births, 2023 Deaths, 20th-century Canadian Male Writers, 20th-century Canadian Non-fiction Writers, 20th-century English Male Writers, 20th-century English Non-fiction Writers, Academic Staff Of The University Of Calgary, Acting Theorists, Alumni Of The University Of Exeter, Anglo-scots, British Theatre Directors, British Theatre Managers And Producers, Canadian Male Non-fiction Writers, Canadian Theatre Directors, Canadian Theatre Managers And Producers, English Emigrants To Canada, English Male Non-fiction Writers, Improvisational Theatre In Canada, People From Brixham
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