Storybox is a wonderfully imaginative two-act fully improvised theatre production inspired by Second City Co-Founder Paul Sills' Tony award-winning Broadway show Story Theater, Keith Johnstones improvisational narrative techniques, as well as the poetry and ritual of Japan's Noh Theatre to create a single story improvised from multiple narrations and sub-stories. Other influences on Storybox's creation are the transformational theatre works of Robert LaPage and the epic universal storytelling of mythology from Joseph Campbell.

"Storybox is improvised, but it is not improv. Its a new form of theatre. In this format, the most important characters are the storytellers and the story itself. As the director, what I (Jonathan) want to bring is a constant transformational process for the actors and the audience. In improv comedy, improvisers aim for a group mind, but in Storybox we aim for a group heart. We have to feel the changes that occur as we follow our characters life passages. As such, the sense of play is not between the players, but between the storytellers and the story.

About Jonathan Pitts

Jonathan Pitts is an award-winning international improv theatre artist from Chicago with over 30 years experience. Hes a creator, director, improviser, producer, and teacher, and hes also the Founder and Executive Director of Chicago Improv Productions. He co-founded the Chicago Improv Festival and produced it for 20 years. He created and produced the College Improv Tournament for 10 years. He was Teen Comedy Fests executive producer for 7 years. Hes also the founder and producer of Chicago Podcast Festival for the past 2 years.

He has taught and performed internationally in 12 countries, as well as all over America. Hes performed in over 1,250 improvised shows. He has created the improv shows, The Make Em Ups, "The Oracle", "The Silent Movie", Solo Plus One, Stopwatch, and Storybox Unscripted Theatre.
He taught at The Second City for 16 years and hes a contributing writer to their book on improvisation. He taught story-based improv at Piven Theatre Workshop. Hes also taught at 25+ American cities at regional improv fests and improv theatres.

For 3 consecutive years he was selected by New City magazine as one of & "Chicago's Top 50 Theatre Players" and hes been interviewed about improvisation in books, newspapers, online posts, podcasts, radio, and TV.

Jonathan's teaching philosophy

 My teaching philosophy is to help every improviser become a more intuitive theatre artist and to face artistic challenges with creativity, braveness, openness, a sense of
exploration and a sense of humor.