No script? No blocking? No problem. This approach might confuse and even frighten most LA directors, but for Impro Theatre directors Michele Spears, Dan O’Connor and Brian Lohmann, this is the ideal.

Floyd VanBuskirk, Kari Coleman, and Paul Rogan

In Impro Theatre’s UnScripted Rep, at the Odyssey Theatre, the company is not only continuing its long-form improvs in the styles of Tennessee Williams, William Shakespeare and Stephen Sondheim — but it’s performing these disparate styles in rotating repertory, for the first time in the company’s history.

Impro makes the leap from what artistic director O’Connor labels as “barprov”–or a glorified form of stand-up–to new full-length plays every night, with narratives that captivate audiences with both comedic flair and emotional depth.

“What we do is as much theater as it is improv,” says Spears. “It just so happens that the play is coming together right before your eyes.”

As new characters, scenarios and props are created out of thin air, the immediacy and unpredictability of Impro performances can seem almost magical to audience members, but this apparently seamless play is the result of much rehearsal and research.

“When we begin to rehearse a genre, we start by examining each great writer,” Spears says. “We work on examining them, looking at their thought process in an academic way to understand what makes their work inherently different from anyone else.”

This research usually involves reading every play by that playwright (and, in the case of Sondheim, listening to all of his music) and then coming together to discuss and deconstruct the work with the company.

The director of each genre is responsible for organizing the research on that particular writer into a curriculum for the ensemble, divvying up plays to read, and leading discussions and exercises that help acquaint the actors with every possible aspect of the playwright’s style.

Dan O'Connor

In O’Connor’s Shakespeare rehearsals, he focused on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night, using exercises that explored how Shakespeare attacked relationships and the emotionality of a scene. “In such a verbal style like Shakespeare, there is a tendency to be a talking head. But when telling a story in the theater to an audience you want that visceral style,” says O’Connor. “So we went back to the definition of drama: two people onstage who want something. We then worked on finding the emotionality of each character’s intent.”

O’Connor had each actor practice relying on others onstage for the “grist” of their line, using stichomythia (dialogue in which single lines are alternated between speakers)  to literally grab images from someone else’s mind. “This practice of relying on the other person really makes what we are doing in the moment; then it is our responsibility to make this moment important by really being present,” says O’Connor. “When actors follow their intent, the story begins to emerge naturally.”

In Lohmann’s Williams rehearsals, he uses a slightly different approach. “There is an enormous amount of research required to understand how that playwright gets his plays to work,” says Lohmann. “And with Tennessee Williams it’s a style with distinctive archetypal characters that you can really sink your teeth into.”

Brian Lohmann

One exercise Lohmann has actors do is an exploration of three of Williams’ main character archetypes: the fragile angelic character, the ordinary, common man character and the ferociously “hungry for life” character. “We did work with a movement coach to see what we can do with our bodies and our centers to access those different characters,” says Lohmann. “Once we access them we use images to amplify these characters and remember this physical experience.”

Lohmann believes Williams is the most emotionally raw of the three playwrights. Therefore, one cannot rest on surface jokes to tell the story; there must be a real emotional narrative. “Williams can be very funny, but there is an undeniable melancholy to him as a writer that is poetic and cannot be overlooked when you are doing a piece in his style,” says Lohmann.

This commitment to honor all aspects of a genre, from comic to dramatic and anything in between, is what Spears believes distinguishes Impro from other improv performances. She directs the company in perhaps the most dreaded style in the rep, Stephen Sondheim’s.

Lauren Rose Lewis, Brian Michael Jones, Edi Patterson, Kelly Holden-Bashar

“Sondheim has no typical place, time or characters within his plays,” says Spears. “The parameters are pretty non-existent in terms of those things; he loves to reference other styles and pay homage to them, so in the end you have an eclectic group of people and stories.”

Spears points out the inherent difficulty of all this choice is the danger of thinking too much while onstage. “Thinking can become your enemy in improv because then you are not using your gut and consequently are not in the moment of the story,” says Spears.

To complicate things even more, Spears says inside Sondheim’s work there is also some real substance that requires actors to get down and dirty to portray it accurately.

And then there is the added pressure of song.

Michele Spears

Spears comes from a rich background in musical theater having trained at NYU Tisch and worked as an actress, choreographer and director. She considers Sondheim to be one of the most prolific playwrights of all time; because of this, he was chosen for the rep. “Sondheim is the best in musical theater, and I said, well you know, we have to do the best.”

She believes Sondheim’s work is perfect for Impro, because it demands that improvisers call on their actor chops to balance true human emotion along with a component of sheer entertainment.

Most of the members of Impro Theatre, like Spears, are actors who were trained classically and then found their way over to improv.

O’Connor began his acting career at age nine at the ACT young people’s conservatory and continued his studies at the British Drama School Webber Douglas in London. He fell into improv when he returned to America to act. He has since made a career out of improv working as a consultant for corporate companies like Dream Works, working with their animators on their writing skills, teaching Cirque du Soleil child performers basic improv skills, and directing various TV shows like ABC’s Sons and Daughters.

Lohmann did the inverse and began with improv class in high school as an English elective. He continued improv in college at San Francisco State in a group called “Faultline” that performed in the Selma District. He then began working with Bay Area Theatresports in 1986 at the same time as O’Connor.

Impro Theatre originally began as LA Theatresports when it was co-founded in 1988 by O’Connor, Forrest Brakeman (who was also a member of Faultline in San Francisco) and Ellen Idelson.

Paul Rogan and Brian Michael Jones

As the group grew in the 1990′s, it began blending styles of improv, comedy and theater, to attract different kinds of performers.  Actors, improvisors and comedians came forth to contribute their expertise.  As the group expanded, so did its repertoire.  The performers began to play around with long-form sketches in diverse genres, eventually developing into the execution of full-length improvised plays.

To reflect the various formats of its work, in 2003 the group renamed itself Impro Theatre.

Impro ensemble’s diverse background in both improv and theater is invaluable, says Spears, because these actors understand that Impro training is holistic; the focus is not on the bits people have but on the narrative element of the entire show.

“Everyone in our company is a writer, director and actor all at the same moment when we are onstage,” says Spears. All three directors, who are also actors in the rep, say many theatergoers have a difficult time believing theater can be made genuinely and spontaneously but Spears, O’Connor and Lohmann insist that everything onstage is completely new and real at every show.

“What we do is not like a circus act or a dance act, the technique is not evident right before your eyes,” says Lohmann. “It is an imaginary skill set, you cannot see the machinations of our mind, or the constant series of modifications and adjustments that make the work look seamless, but it’s all there, and always changing.”

How can legitimate theater be improvised? For Impro Theatre, the ways are infinite.

UnScripted Rep, presented by Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Page One Productions, plays Wed. (4/13, 4/27, 5/11 only), 8 pm; Thur.-Fri., 8 pm; Sat., 3 and 8 pm; Sun., 3 pm; through May 29. Tickets: $30. Students/seniors: $5 off except Sat. night. Student/SAG/EQUITY/AFTRA tickets with ID: $15 on Fri. Pay-what-you-can (min. $5) on Apr. 13, 14 and 29. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles; 310.477.2055 or odysseytheatre.com.