About

Players Workshop is an improvisation school started in 1970 by Chicago theater icon Jo Forsberg (a founding member of The Second City who left the company to open her own school), offers adults from all backgrounds the opportunity to enhance everyday life with newfound creative skills.

Past graduates of Players Workshop also include familiar names like Bill and Brian-Doyle Murray, Amy Sedaris, David Pasquesi, George Wendt, Harold Ramis, Shelley Long, Bob Odenkirk, and David Mamet to name a few. The school estimates that it taught the art form to tens of thousands of people since 1970.

The core curriculum, which encourages people to play fearlessly, listen fully, and live in the moment, is a valuable foundation for all adult learners, no matter their vocation. Improvisation is a life skill which is now being taught in MBA programs at Duke, MIT, UCLA, and Stanford and at major companies like Google, Pepsi, Motorola Solutions, and GM.

While Players Workshop has operated in a handful of theater spaces throughout Old Town and Lincoln Park, new classes will be offered at the Pendulum Theatre, 1803 W. Byron Street, #216, Chicago, IL starting September 2019.