Formats (14)
Performance structures — from 2-minute games to 60-minute shows.
Two-Person Longform
Two performers sustaining a complete longform show — typically 25-60 minutes — without ensemble support. The purest test of improv partnership: nowher
Theatresports
Keith Johnstone's competitive improv format. Two teams perform improvised scenes head-to-head, judged by the audience. The format that turned improvis
Scenes from a Hat
Audience suggestions written on slips of paper before the show, placed in a hat (or bowl, or bucket), pulled randomly, and performed as rapid-fire sce
Organic Longform
Longform improvisation with no predetermined structure. No preset opening, no mandated beats, no required group games, no predetermined scene order. T
Narrative Longform
Longform improv that creates a coherent story with beginning, middle, and end — an improvised play or film. Distinguished from collage-based forms (Ha
Musical Improv
Improvised scenes performed with live musical accompaniment, where performers spontaneously create songs — lyrics, melody, and sometimes choreography
Montage
The most free-flowing longform format — a series of scenes with no required structure, no mandated group games, no obligation to revisit characters. W
Micetro
Keith Johnstone's elimination format (also spelled "Maestro"). Individual performers compete; the audience votes to eliminate one player each round un
La Ronde
A character-chain longform format where each two-person scene shares one character with the next, forming a circle that returns to the first character
The Harold: Improv's Most Important Long-Form Format
The foundational longform improv structure. Invented by Del Close in 1967 with The Committee in San Francisco, codified by Close and Charna Halpern th
Gorilla Theatre
Keith Johnstone's format where performers take turns directing each other's scenes. Each performer pitches a scene idea to the audience, then directs
Genre Format
Longform improv performed within the conventions of a specific genre — film noir, horror, Western, rom-com, musical. Genre knowledge becomes the struc
Freeze Tag
The most universal shortform improv game. Two performers begin a scene. At any point, someone on the sideline calls "Freeze!" Both performers stop in
Armando
A monologue-driven longform format where a monologist tells true personal stories that inspire improvised scenes. The most widely performed longform s