Compass Players

The Compass Players (or Compass Theater) was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis.^[1] Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United States.^[2]

Compass Players
Genre	Improvisation cabaret theatre comedy
Date of premiere	1955
Location	Chicago, Illinois, United States St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Creative team
Co-founder	David Shepherd
Co-founder	Paul Sills

History

Shepherd and Sills

The Compass Players, founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, was the first Improvisational Theatre in America.^[2] It began July 8, 1955 as a storefront theater at 1152 E. 55th near the University of Chicago campus. They presented improvised plays.^[3]

Shepherd, in Mark Siska's documentary Compass Cabaret ’55, about the birth of modern improvisation, stated his reasons for founding the Compass Players, “Theater in New York was very effete and based on three-act plays and based on verbiage and there was not much action,” he said. “I wanted to create a theater that would drag people off the street and seat them not in rows but at tables and give them something to drink, which was unheard of in [American] theater.”^[4][2]

Previously, Shepherd and Sills founded Playwrights Theatre Club, along with Eugene Troobnick, and employed improvisational theater forms, named Theater Games, originally created and developed by Sills' mother, Viola Spolin. These same games were employed to develop material for the Compass Players.^[5]

Original announcement in Chicago's Hyde Park Herald shows first performance scheduled for Friday, July 8, 1955 at The Compass tavern, formerly at 1152 E. 55th (not to be confused with Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap to the east).

Evolution of Improvisation

Initially, scenes were presented only once, but some of the players grew interested in polishing material into finished pieces. For example, Mike Nichols and Elaine May created many of their signature scenes in this manner. Shelley Berman also found that he could create solo routines by showing one half of telephone conversations.^[6][7]

Crystal Palace

The Compass Players also opened its doors at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis, where Theodore J. Flicker, Nichols and May, along with Del Close, codified a further set of principles to guide improvisational players.^[8]

Legacy

Sills would co-found The Second City^[2] and Shepherd would return to New York City to create and produce a variety of improv forms including his Improvisation Olympics (ImprovOlympic).^[9][2]

Nichols and May went on to New York, performing material largely derived from their Compass days.^[2] Close was featured in Flickers' Broadway musical comedy The Nervous Set, and afterwards developed his long-form improvisation the Harold.^[10]

Notable alumni

• Alan Alda
• Jane Alexander
• Rose Arrick
• Ed Asner
• Sandy Baron
• Shelley Berman
• Roger Bowen
• Joy Carlin
• Del Close
• Bob Coughlan
• Severn Darden
• Bob Dishy
• Andrew Duncan
• Theodore J. Flicker
• Barbara Gordon
• Mark Gordon
• Valerie Harper
• Barbara Harris
• Linda Lavin
• Ron Leibman
• Elaine May
• Anne Meara
• Mike Nichols
• Byrne Piven
• Joyce Hiller Piven
• David Shepherd
• Yuki Shimoda
• Paul Sills
• Paul Sand
• Jerry Stiller

(Please note: the following sources were used to cite and authenticate the above list of Compass Players)

1. Mark Siska's documentary Compass Cabaret ’55^[4]
2. Janet Coleman's book The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy^[2]
3. Jeffery Sweet's book Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of the Second City and The Compass Players'^[11]

See also

• Improvisational theatre
• List of improvisational theatre companies