16 Facts About Keith Johnstone

Donald Keith Johnstone was a British-Canadian educator and theatre director.

Keith Johnstone was an educator, playwright, actor and theatre director.

Donald Keith Johnstone was born in 1933 in Brixham, Devon, England.

Keith Johnstone grew up hating school, finding that it blunted his imagination and made him feel self-conscious and shy.

Keith Johnstone subsequently became a play-reader, director and drama teacher there, where he chose to reverse all that his teachers had told him in an attempt to create more spontaneous actors.

Keith Johnstone's play Shot By An Elk was first produced at Queens University.

In 1975, Johnstone moved to Calgary, Alberta to teach at the University of Calgary, where he remained until retiring in 1995.

Keith Johnstone is featured in the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell.

Keith Johnstone was married to Ingrid von Darl until their divorce in 1981.

Keith Johnstone died at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary on 11 March 2023, at the age of 90.

Keith Johnstone developed his training system at the Loose Moose Theatre, which he co-founded in 1977.

Keith Johnstone 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.

Keith Johnstone wrote two books about his system; 1979's Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, and 1998's Impro For Storytellers.

Keith Johnstone's teaching was described as a reversal of the lessons he received as a child in postwar Britain.

Keith Johnstone was advised to plan a story before it was written.

Keith Johnstone was known for slogans that encapsulated his philosophy of improvisation, and included:.