History

2001
We played our first show on May 14th. It was at the newly opened  Café Oz  by Pigalle and the show was called  Improvisation Insanity. Lucy appeared on the first flyer and she’s been with us ever since. We’re not sure how or why she acquired her name.
The team quickly stabilised over the following months and the first core Improfessionals line-up was: Florian Bartsch, Mark Jane, Timothy Lone, Helen Connolly, Clara McBride and Caspar Schjelbred.

2002
We put on an  improvised soap opera  at the  Théo Théâtre. We had two different stories running during a month, one on Saturday evenings and another on Sunday afternoons.

2003
We took our improvised soap opera to the  London Comedy Festival, performing two episodes at the  Soho Theatre.
We played  Attack of the Improfessionals  at Le théâtre de Nesle. It was a science-fiction long form/improvised play.

2004
We created  Impro à la Carte  for our shows at the now gone Marais jazz club Le 7 Lézards  which became our first real ‘home’. We performed Impro à la carte 48 times there over a period of three years.
We started performing  improvised musicals.
Timothy Lone, our artistic director at the time, put us on the map by organizing the first ever international impro festival in Paris:  Improstival. Keith Johnstone gave a workshop and directed a Micetro. Mick Napier and the Annoyance Theatre from Chicago were here. LATS/Impro Theatre (Los Angeles) and Fluxx (London) also performed.

We played in the international festival in Leuven, Belgium.

2005
We played in the first  Spontanéous  Festival in Lyon.

2006
We began performing  Improflicks  – our improvised ‘film festival’.
We played in the international improvisation festival in Amsterdam.

2007
We began perfoming  Totally News. Scenes and games inspired by current events. It was the creation of the INN  – the Improfessionals News Network. We did a special Christmas show – all in French.

2008
Caspar Schjelbred becomes artistic director.

We experimented a little and did a couple of shows called  Just Because. They were based on audience suggestions and… randomness.

We introduced  Bubble Soup  – an original format, created by Caspar Schjelbred, inspired by a workshop with Rob Reese, a colleague from New York invited as a guest performer earlier in the year.

2009
We performed our 150th show in Paris!

2010
We introduced another original format,  Coffee, created by Mark Jane, a show inspired by peoplewatching in cafés.
Creation of the mask show  If We Must Part in collaboration with Steve Jarand from Loose Moose Theatre, Canada.
We performed Bubble Soup at the Würzburg International Improvisation Festival, Germany.
We started producing the first official regular  Maestro Impro, in French, gathering the best improvisation groups in Paris.

2011
We created another mask show in collaboration with Steve Jarand: Hooked.
In May we celebrated our 10th anniversary!

2012
Third collaboration with Steve Jarand: The Loonie Bin.
For our new venue Essaïon Théâtre we created The Improfessionals Show.

2013
The 2012/2013 season was our most successful ever in terms of audience attendance.

2014
Mark Jane becomes artistic director.

2015
We introduced Synopsis, created by Mark Jane, a show inspired by film synopses from the legendary Halliwell’s Film Guide.
Taking his love for a certain cinematographic hero even further, Mark Jane created Double 0 Impro.

2016
We continued playing Double 0 Impro.

2017
We perform Improflicks again.