A Guide to Keith Johnstone’s Gorilla Theatre

Patti Stiles is an actor, director, playwright, teacher and improvisation artist living in Australia. She received her training at Calgary, Alberta's world-renowned Loose Moose Theatre under Keith Johnstone. It was there she worked intensively with Keith Johnstone in many forms of improvisation. She performed regularly in Theatresports(TM), Gorilla Theatre(TM) and Life Game(TM) as well as performing in Keith's plays, directing and performing in the Theatre For Kids program and touring productions. Stiles moved to Toronto Canada and was the Artistic Director of Dream Kitchen Theatre, which produced Theatresports(TM). From there she moved to Edmonton Alberta and was Artistic Director of Rapid Fire Theatre from 1991 - 1996. Young performers in the company at this time include Mark Meer, Jacob Banigan, Josh Dean, Nathan Fillion whom she helped to train. Along with her AD duties Patti was very involved with other theatre endeavours. She directed David Belke's production of The Maltese Bodkin which featured Nathan Fillion (in one of his first theatrical roles) and received an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Fringe Production. In Edmonton Patti wrote her first play for Theatre For Young Audiences called If Whales Could Tell Tales, which was commissioned by the Provincial Museum. She was heavily involved in the Edmonton Fringe Festival as actor, director or productions as well as their opening / closing ceremonies and also the Edmonton Street Performers Festival as a roving character artist, director of Women In Comedy or performer in Late Night Madness. Patti also had the honour of being a founding member of Die-Nasty: The Live Improvised Soap Opera (nominated for several Canadian Comedy Awards and winner of the 2006 award for Best Improv Troupe) and holds the record as the first female improviser to improvise 53 hours straight in the annual Die-Nasty Soap-A-Thon. For 6 months Stiles lived in London UK, during this time she worked a great deal with many of the impro companies in London. It was then she met and was able to train Deborah Francis White and Tom Salinski founders of The Spontaneity Shop and authors of The Impro Handbook which includes a dedication to her. Stiles moved to Melbourne Australia and became the Artistic Director of Impro Melbourne from 2004 to 2009. During this time she wrote her second theatre for young audiences play Water of Life. She is also founder and Co-Director of Secret Impro Theatre and Artistic Director of Die Nasty AU a Melbourne branch of the soap opera style created in Edmonton. Patti now has her own company in Melbourne Patti Stiles Impro focused on her improvisational teaching. Stiles has had the pleasure of playing with many notable improvisation performers including Colin Mochrie, Brad Sherwood, Wayne Brady, Joe Flaherty, Daniel Cordeaux, Rebecca De Unamuno, Julia Zemiro, Dan O'Connor, Ron Pederson, Jeff Haslam, Dana Andersen, and Alan Cox. She is a three-time nominee for the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Theatre Excellence TV credits for Stiles include Neighbours (AUS), Stingers (AUS), "John Safran's Race Relation's" (AUS).