Paul Sills (born Paul Silverberg; November 18, 1927 – June 2, 2008) was an American director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of

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

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 ...

Life and career

Sills was born Paul Silverberg in Chicago, Illinois, to a family who believed in the teachings of modern-day Judaism. His mother was teacher and writer Viola Spolin, who authored the first book on improvisation techniques, ''Improvisation for the Theater''. Spolin in turn was the student of play therapy theorist

Neva Boyd Neva Leona Boyd (February 25, 1876 in Sanborn, Iowa – November 21, 1963 in Chicago) was an American sociologist. She founded the Recreational Training School at the Hull House in Chicago. The school taught a one-year educational program in grou ...

. In 1948, Sills enrolled in the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, where he established himself as a director, co-founding Playwright's Theater Club. There, with fellow actors

Edward 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 ...

Byrne Piven Bernard Piven (September 24, 1929 – February 18, 2002) was an American stage actor, director, and co-founder of the Playwrights Theatre Club, a forerunner of The Second City. He was known as Byrne Piven. Life and career Piven was born in Sc ...

and Zohra Lampert, they blended Spolin's improvisational techniques with established theater training. In 1955, Sills and David Shepherd founded the

Compass Players The Compass Players (or Compass Theater) was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis. Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United Sta ...

, the first

improvisational theater 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 ...

in the United States, where he directed Shelley Berman,

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 ...

and Elaine May. In 1959, Sills, along with partners Howard Alk and Bernie Sahlins, opened a theatre called

where revues developed improvisationally were presented under Sills's direction. With early cast members

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,

Severn Darden Severn Teakle Darden Jr. (November 9, 1929 – May 27, 1995) was an American comedian and actor, and a founding member of The Second City Chicago-based comedy troupe as well as its predecessor, the Compass Players. He is known from his film app ...

, Mina Kolb and Paul Sand, success led to New York (a brief run on Broadway and a long one off-Broadway), London and world recognition.

Career

Sills left Second City in 1965 to form the Game Theater, where he coached improvisational techniques of his mother, Viola Spolin, in performance, and audience participation was encouraged. His mother and other community friends were partners. The Parents School was co-founded there, with wife Carol Bleackley Sills and others, with a children's curriculum based on group art forms and play. It operated for almost two decades. At the Game Theater, he also discovered a new form he called Story Theater, which debuted at 1848 N. Wells Street, during the summer of 1968. That building was the original location of the Second City, which had already moved to its new and current location at 1616 N. Wells St. After Sills finished doing Story Theater there, it was torn down. ''Story Theatre'' went on to play at the Yale Repertory Theatre, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and on Broadway, remaining the form Sills explored for the rest of his life. His book, ''Paul Sills' Story Theater: Four Shows''. Sills's first two wives were Dorothea Horton and Barbara Harris. In 2011, he was posthumously inducted into the

American Theater Hall of Fame The American Theater Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the organization's Executive Committee. In an announcement in 1972, he said that the new ''Theater Hall of Fame'' would be located in the ...

Death

Paul Sills died on June 2, 2008 at the age of 80, at his home in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, of complications from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

References

External links

Paul Sills' Wisconsin Theater Game Center"The Second City" founder Paul Sills dies at 80
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sills, Paul 1927 births 2008 deaths American theatre directors Drama teachers Deaths from pneumonia in Wisconsin Improvisational theatre Male actors from Chicago People from Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin University of Chicago alumni The Second City