The history of
impro amsterdam
Every festival deserves an epic origin story.
This is ours.
It all started with some healthy competition
Theatersports, a competitive improv format developed by Keith Johnstone in 1977, first came to The Netherlands in 1988. The format gained popularity swiftly, with local improvisers organizing annual tournaments.
One of the companies that grew out of this new arts scene was Theatersportvereniging Amsterdam (now called TVA Impro), who won the 1992 edition and created the Theatersport Championship in 1993.
Despite the considerable hype, some improvisers in the scene felt that winning and scoring points had become too important. They saw an opportunity for change.
a festival was born
TVA cooked up the idea to combine the success of its competitive impro spectaculars with more theatrical, longer-form shows and opportunities for people to learn how to get on stage and make stuff up. The company organized the first-ever IMPRO Amsterdam in 1995, bringing in performance groups and teachers from Los Angeles, New Zealand, Denmark, and, of course, The Netherlands.
Over the next several decades, TVA grew IMPRO Amsterdam into a bigger and bigger festival, inviting improvisers from all over the world and staging shows at some of the most iconic theaters in Amsterdam, including the Bellevue, Theater de Pomoen (now Bitterzoet), De Balie, the Rozentheater, and the Compagnietheater.
