Improvisation Olympics (New York)

David Shepherd, who had co-founded the Compass Players in Chicago in 1955, created the Improvisation Olympics NYC in 1972 at the Space for Innovative Development in New York City alongside Howard Jerome Gomberg. The format staged competitive improv events in which teams performed before live audiences, with Viola Spolin's Theater Games providing the structural framework for competition. Performances were recorded for replay. The format was short-lived in New York, closing around 1973. In 1974, the competitive format was adopted by Toronto's Homemade Theatre Company. Shepherd subsequently returned to Chicago and in 1981 co-founded a Chicago-based Improv Olympic with Charna Halpern, which grew under the direction of Del Close into iO Theater.