“Love each other!” –DW

I began my improv journey in 1990 at The Second City in Chicago. I performed with many improv groups and toured the country performing for large audiences. Later, I created the Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.

It became my personal laboratory to explore what audiences truly wanted from improv comedy.

I stretched every type of long-form improv as far as I could. I created “Whole Worlds,” where characters lived and improvised stories unfolded over time. I worked with forms such as the Harold, Armando, Deconstruction, Eventé, La Ronde, Monoscene, Montage, The Living Room, The Bat, Slacker, Invocation, and many others.

What I discovered was simple:

Long form can be fascinating when it holds together—but when it doesn’t, it becomes tedious for audiences. And in my experience, long-form rarely produced the hard-hitting laughter that short-form could.

So I began experimenting with short-form improv comedy.

In long form, actors gather a bit of information from the audience and perform an hour-long improvised play. The actors must track everything happening on stage, which often results in a lot of talking for the audience to follow. Frequently there is little emotional investment, little true believability, and audiences rarely escape into another reality.

Short form, however, allows us to take an audience suggestion and create a 3–5 minute dramatic scene.

At first, those scenes were just as weak as the long ones. The actors weren’t emotional or believable. The audience still wasn’t invested.

So I reflected on something I had spent my entire life studying:
What makes an audience believe?

My background as a stage, film, and television actor exposed me to powerful acting methods from teachers such as Konstantin Stanislavski, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, Michael Chekhov, Bertolt Brecht, Viola Spolin, Jacques Lecoq, Augusto Boal, and David Mamet.

I brought those methods into improv warm-ups and scene work.

Suddenly everything changed.

The actors became believable. Emotional. Watchable.

Audiences leaned in.

They reacted as if they were watching a great play—but when the MC challenged the scene (changing emotions, dialects, or circumstances based on audience suggestions) the tension exploded into huge belly laughs.

The crowd went wild.

We sold out 1,500 shows in a row. We brought in a five-camera professional crew and produced a television show that ran for five years with strong Nielsen ratings. I later won a regional Emmy Award for a related project.

We had proof of the kind of improv audiences truly loved.

Then life happened.

While raising three children, my wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. To pay the medical bills I became an international solo performer doing live shows for large audiences & teaching improv skills to improve communication, love, and kindness in others everywhere I went.

The stress of constant travel and multiple daily solo shows for big crowds uncovered a neurological condition that had challenged me my whole life.

I developed severe Tourette syndrome.

Eventually the symptoms became so overwhelming that I believed my life might be over.

I returned to my home state of Maine to settle my family and my affairs.

But the amazing and caring doctors here saved me.

With proper medication, my life changed. My symptoms are now only a fraction of what they once were.

When I began to feel strong again, I returned to the stage and spent seven months performing with the Second City Conservatory in New York City with a lot of younger actors and I loved it.

Today I still occasionally struggle with Tourette’s symptoms, but they are only 10–20% of what I once lived with.

So I had to decide:

Should I direct improv again?

I believe I have a mission.

Too often the world thinks improv is bad theater. People say long-form shows are tedious and short-form shows are just jokers trying to be funny.

I believe improv can be great acting. I know it. I have proven it.

I want actors to experience the emotional truth that made them fall in love with acting in the first place.

I want audiences to escape the tension of their lives through imagination, connection, and laughter.

So, I made the decision and started teaching again.

My classes filled with students almost immediately.  I recently expanded.

I am home.

And now the mission begins.

Come join us.

Classes. Jam sessions. Shows. Parties. filming. A community.

The only rule is simple:

You must love everyone while you’re here.

There is so much fun and love to be shared!

Let’s ride this life until the wheels fall off.

Love,
Webster