Paul Sills

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Paul Sills (born 18 November, 1927) is a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of The Second City, Playwrights and Compass Players.

Paul is the son of teacher and writer Viola Spolin, author of the first book on improvisation techniques, "Improvisation for the Theater," and so grew up in an environment full of educational theatre experiences.

In 1948 Paul enrolled in the University of Chicago, where he established himself as a director, founding the university's first student-led theater group "Tonight at 8:30" and "Playwrights Theater Club". Here, with fellow actors Elaine May, Mike Nichols and Edward Asner, they blended Spolin’s technique with established theater training.

Sills and David Shepherd founded the Compass Players in 1955, the first improvisational theater company in the U.S.

Sills with partners Bernard Sahlins and Howard Alk opened a new nightclub review, dubbed The Second City, where he was the director from 1959‑65, working with such talent as Alan Arkin, Joyce and Byrne Piven, and Jerry Stiller.

Paul was the creator of Story Theatre which played on and off Broadway. Paul opened the Story Theater in Chicago in July of 1968. He was co‑founder of Compass Players, as well as The Game Theatre, opened in the mid-1960s, with his mother, where the audiences were invited onstage to play the games, and most recently Sills & Co.

He teaches improvisation privately in Wisconsin and explores new improvisational forms in his workshops. He started the New Actors Workshop, an acting school with Mike Nichols and George Morrison, and leads guest workshops, lectures, and directs once a year.

“There’s no laugh like the explosion of laughter after improvisation.” - Paul Sills