David Gwynne Shepherd (October 10, 1924 – December 17, 2018) was an American producer,

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

noted for his innovative work in

improvisational theatre Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

. He founded and/or co-founded Playwrights Theatre Club, The Compass Players, Canadian Improv Games, and the

ImprovOlympic iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as "ImprovOlympic") is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater taught and hosted ...

Early life and education

Born in 1924 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to an old money family, Shepherd grew up with

left-leaning Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

sensibilities. He was the son of Louise Tracy (Butler) and William Edgar Shepherd, an architect. His paternal grandmother was the sister of socialite Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt. He studied

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

at Harvard and received an M.A. in the History of Theater at Columbia. Disenchanted with what he perceived as a European dominated theater on the East Coast, Shepherd gravitated to the Midwest.

Career

Producer and Improv innovator

Playwrights Theatre Club

In 1953 Shepherd was one of the co-founders along with Paul Sills and Eugene Troobnick of the Playwrights Theatre Club in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The theatre was noted for its original treatment of classic plays as well as original works. Other members and participants included Elaine May, Sheldon Patinkin, Rolf Forsberg, Mike Nichols, Joyce Piven, Josephine Forsberg, Ed Asner, Barbara Harris, and many more. The Playwright's Theatre Club led to the creation of The Compass Players and later The Second City.

Compass Players

In 1955 Shephered and

Paul Sills Paul Sills (born Paul Silverberg; November 18, 1927 – June 2, 2008) was an American director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City. Life and career Sills was born Paul Silverberg in Chicago, Illinoi ...

founded The Compass Players, the forerunner of

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

. Compass launched the careers of

Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...

, Elaine May,

Jerry Stiller Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015 ...

Alan Alda Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war come ...

Alan Arkin Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...

, Barbara Harris, and Shelley Berman (to name a few) and started a revolution in entertainment.This formative time in the history of American improvisational theater is the subject matter of a 2011 documentary "Compass Cabaret '55; see http://siskafilms.com/ and http://www.outofboundscomedy.com/compass-cabaret-55-film/. Shepherd, in Mark Siska's documentary ''Compass Cabaret ’55'', about the birth of modern improvisation, stated his reasons for founding the Compass Players, “Theater in New York was very effete and based on three-act plays and based on verbiage and there was not much action,” he said. “I wanted to create a theater that would drag people off the street and seat them not in rows but at tables and give them something to drink, which was unheard of in

merican ''Merican'' is an EP by the American punk rock band the Descendents, released February 10, 2004. It was the band's first release for Fat Wreck Chords and served as a pre-release to their sixth studio album ''Cool to Be You'', released the follow ...

theater.” The Compass eventually opened in St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington.

''Community Makers''

In 1971, Shepherd produced the Community Makers in New York City. Assisted by Howard Jerome Gomberg, the organization was created to correct ailing communities by using improvisation as a people’s theatre, and was housed at the Space for Innovative Development, 344 W. 36th Street, New York.

''Responsive Scene'' radio show

In 1972, Shepherd produced the ''Responsive Scene'' radio show which aired on WRVR-FM, a public radio station owned and operated by The Riverside Church in the City of New York. ''Responsive Scene'' was an hour-long improvised show with a round-table of professional actors performing from call-in suggestions from their audience of over 40,000 listeners.

''ImprovOlympic''

=New York

= In 1973, also at the Space for Innovative Development, David went on to create the

(a competitive theatrical sporting event), The ''ImprovOlympic'' began as the ''Improvisation Olympics'', and was founded and produced by Shepherd. His theatrical event placed competing teams of improvisers on stage in front of a live audience, and taping the performances for future replays. The format was refined by Shepherd and Gomberg and together they used the Theater Games, created earlier by

Viola Spolin Viola Spolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be ...

, as a way for teams to compete, and by 1981, Shepard moved his Improvisation Olympics back to Chicago.

=Chicago

= The first classes and ImprovOlympic shows took place at

The Players Workshop Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred ...

, where Charna Halpern was a student. There, she approached Shepherd to help run his ImprovOlympics, which she did for a time, but after a difference of artistic vision, she went on to produce her own commercialized version of his creation. Halpern would later admit that, "...neither I nor the ImprovOlympic (iO) would be here if it wasn't for David Shepard."

=Ottawa

= Sherpherd's ImprovOlmpic was also produced in Ottawa, Canada by Jamie Wyllie and Howard Jerome to great success. The name was changed to the Canadian Improv Games (CIG) but was still based on the concept originally conceived by Shepherd.

Life-play

Shepherd resided near Amherst, Massachusetts. There, he developed a new improvisational format known as ''Life-Play'', which consists of improvised games that can be played over the phone. According to Shepherd, If you called him at a specific number, he would provide a short training session and then introduce you to the phone team, often national participants.

Legacy

In 2010, the documentary ''David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre'' was completed. It is an oral history detailing the career of Shepherd and his contributions to Improvisational Theatre. It was directed by Mike Fly and written by Michael Golding. The documentary includes interviews with past and present associates such as Bernie Sahlins,

Suzanne Shepherd Suzanne "Honey" Shepherd is an American actress and theater director. Education Shepherd studied acting with Sanford Meisner, and later went on to teach Meisner's program of acting study, the first woman to do so. Career She was a founding me ...

, and Janet Coleman. In 2014, ''Compass Cabaret 55'', a documentary about the birth of modern theatrical improvisation directed by Mark Siska, also details the career of Shepherd and his contributions to Improvisational movement. Besides Shepherd, the interviewees include Bernie Sahlins, Janet Coleman,

Jeffrey Sweet Jeffrey Sweet (born May 3, 1950) is an American writer, journalist, songwriter and theatre historian. Personal life Sweet's father was James Sweet, a science writer for the University of Chicago who aided Supreme Court chief justice Earl War ...

, and Compass veterans such as

Ed Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' a ...

, and

Sheldon Patinkin Sheldon Arthur Patinkin (August 27, 1935 – September 21, 2014) was a chair of the Theater Department of Columbia College Chicago, Artistic Director of the Getz Theater of Columbia College, Artistic Consultant of The Second City and of Steppenw ...

Death

Shepherd died on December 17, 2018, at age 94.

Lifetime achievement awards

He received lifetime achievement awards from the Chicago Improv Festival, Second City, and the Canadian Improv Games.

References

Bibliography

External links

Encyclopedia of Chicago History entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd, David 1924 births 2018 deaths Male actors from New York City Writers from New York City American theatre managers and producers Improvisational theatre Harvard University alumni Columbia University alumni