Sports Theatre

So, as I was diligently researching correlations between theatre and sports, I made an interesting discovery: theatresports. And, no that’s not the unoriginal name of a blog whose creator is obsessed with both theatre and sports (though that would have been very helpful…). Theatresports is just that: Theatre as a sport.

Here’s a brief description from the website of a Seattle-based theatresports group, along with some of the history of the theatresports concept. I find it very interesting that they address a few of the questions we’ve been asking in class:

“Theatersports is comedy, improv, theater, and sports all rolled into one! Teams of improvisers create scenes based entirely on audience suggestions and are scored by a panel of judges…

Theatresports^TM was developed Keith Johnstone, first in England and then in Calgary. It began as a formal performance mechanism for a series of improvisational exercises for London's Royal Court theatre.

"Its aim was to help playwrights overcome writer's block by short-circuiting our natural tendency to edit ourselves. While self-editing is an important tool for getting through life, it can cripple the creative process. Johnstone's exercises constantly sought to trick the mind out of its habitual dulling of the world." [Johnstone, Impro, page 32]

In 1976, Keith Johnstone and a group of his students formed the Secret Impro Group to perform noon-hour shows at the University of Calgary. The following summer they regrouped to form The Loose Moose Theatre Company. Since then, Theatresports has spread to over 22 countries.

Johnstone created Theatresports^TM as a response to two main concerns. The first was the audience. Why, he wondered, did things like sporting events draw so well while theaters were half empty? Could it be that the connotations of "culture" kept people away? People would go to a football game without knowing beforehand if it would be a good game; they were, however, assured of excitement and the opportunity to participate, to vocalize, and to invest something of themselves in the event and the outcome. Keith would speak of envying the "passion" of a sports audience. The goal, and the result, of Theatresports is to attract people who wouldn't normally go to the theatre. Johnstone was also concerned about the performers. He wanted Theatresports to provide training for improvisation. It would help in recruiting new performers, and its structure would allow for a greater number of participants.”

So, it seems someone else noticed the huge difference between the number of sports fans and theatre fans. But Johnstone tried to figure out why and fix the problem. “Two competing teams playing a match to determine the winner.” That’s sounds like a pretty accurate description of most sports I can think of, who’d have thought of applying that to theatre. Some research presentations has pointed out that the competitiveness is one aspect that draws people to sporting events…

Obviously, theatresports hasn’t received quite the following as a “real” sport, given that I hadn’t heard of it before today, but I’ll bet that a lot more people attend theatresports matches than they do Shakespeare.