Teaching and performing for over twenty-five years, Jun Imai and Chris Wells helped pioneer improvised theatre in Japan. From trance masks and Zen Impro and how it relates to impro, to Punching Up and dealing with minorities in a thoughtful way, they can bring a fresh perspective to your group or festival. They have performed in numerous festival casts in English and Japanese.

Jun's Workshops

Zen Impro Workshop

Trance Mask Workshop

 Method Acting Workshop

Script Analysis and Preparation Workshop

Zen Impro Workshop

According to Keith Johnstone, impro resembles Zen. We will explore being here and now moment to moment. Not thinking and not trying to do anything. Free yourself from ‘successes or ‘failure’; good or bad and right and wrong. Move from impulse, without thinking, unifying the mind, heart and body. Become one with others…and the world.

Trance Mask Workshop

This exploration of trance masks reveals hidden selves and explores other aspects of participants’ personalities, allowing them to move beyond their normal, everyday patterns. This widens the variety of characters and performance an actor can do. The workshop utilizes masks created by Jun himself after he studied with a Noh Theatre mask maker. These beautiful masks embody a variety of characters and emotions.

 Method Acting Workshop

Jun lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles for eight years. He first studied method acting and began performing while living in Los Angeles. Upon his return to Japan, he continued studying and performing as a method actor with Yoko Narahashi, the Hollywood casting director. This workshop brings his unique perspective and experience to this classic subject, and focuses on being in the moment and true to yourself, as well as spontaneous and following your instincts.

Jun's Biography

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Jun Imai lived in California for 8 years and was an Asian Region Representative for the International Theatresports Institute’s Board of Directors for 8 years. He is an approved ITI instructor. He teaches an extensively throughout Japan and has taught in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, China and Dubai. 

He has studied acting with various teachers, specifically Method Acting with Frank Casaro, Artistic Director of the Actor’s Studio, and improvisation with Keith Johnstone, creator of Theatresports. He has had the pleasure of being the simultaneous interpreter for method acting and improv workshops led by Keith Johnstone, Roberta Wallach, Lyn Pierce, Dennis Cahill, Shawn Kinley, Steve Jarand, and Mark Lamb.

He has been coaching and directing improv since 1995 and since 2005 he has directed and produced shows at the Tokyo Comedy Store and Studio Gokko, both in Shibuya, Tokyo. With a cast of over thirty talented improvisors, TCS is one of Japan’s premiere improv groups. He tours Japan regularly, and has taught improv, method acting, and trance mask throughout the world. He can teach in English or Japanese.

A prolific writer, he published “It’s Hard to be Free- an Impro Manual” based on his experience with bringing improv to the Japanese in 2006. It’s been a  long-term best-seller in the theater community since then. He followed up in 2009 and 2010 with the three-volume “Japanese Who’ve Begun to Improvise: Keith Johnstone’s Impro”, and “Keith Johnstone in Japan” in 2013. Imai’s books have earned him praise as a thoughtful and incisive teacher and director. 

In addition to directing at TCS, he teaches impro, scripted acting, and mask workshops through his own company, in the moment, ltd., and for well-known actors and Tokyo talent agencies. He has worked with both new and well-know film and television actors in Japan. He feels strongly that “life is impro theatre” and that Japanese actors and Japanese society as a whole can benefit from what impro has to offer. He is currently working on books on life as impro theatre and another on how to avoid depression. He hopes to bridge the gap between this most Western of arts and traditional Eastern philosophy.

Jun's Japanese website

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Chris' Workshops

Punching Up Workshop

That's It! Workshop

Improvised Musical

Punching Up

Drawing on his experience in psychology facilitating group sessions, this workshop focuses on finding humor with and about minorities and ethnic groups with your fellow improvisors before it comes up in a show.

Everyone has a different sense of humor, but dealing with stereotypes can be a touchy issue for any improv troupe. How do we develop a common philosophy that isn’t based on presumptions before the issues come up during a show? And how do we keep it funny?

More an exploration than a lecture, we’ll approach the subject through activities, scenes and discussion. “Punching up” is a term used to describe using satire against the powerful in society, as opposed to “punching down”, which is mocking those in a weaker position in society. What sort of comedy do we want to do? And how can we walk the line and represent all kinds of people in our work in the best way?

That's It!

Focused on self-direction by the improvisors themselves. It provides tools for students and groups to facilitate their own workshops or rehearsals. 

Drawing from traditional games as well as techniques developed in Chris' Tokyo workshops, improvisors focus on recognizing the core of each scene, as well as providing feedback in the moment on what interests them as audience members in ways that help the class 

Improvised Musical

Improvised musicals are a mainstay of Improvazilla, the hit English language improv show in Tokyo, and Chris can help your group get to the heart of what makes an improvised musical work. From singing your Want to diamond choreography and the importance of simple choruses, this workshop will set you on the path to producing your own improvised musicals, or help an experienced team brush up an existing show. (Local Improvising Pianist required.)

 Chris' Biography

Originally from the United States and a Tokyo resident since 1994, Chris Wells is a founding member of the Tokyo Comedy Store, where he directs the In The Moment improv program. He was an Asian Region Representative for the International Theatresports Institute’s Board of Directors for 8 years, and he is an approved ITI instructor.

Improv has been a cornerstone of Chris’ life in Japan and since high school, where he competed and excelled in impromptu and extemporaneous speaking. With a BA in Psychology, he is interested in the transformative aspects of improv in people’s lives, improv performances, and how improv and mindfulness connect.

He focuses on the issue of minority representation within the context of Johnstone-style storytelling, as well as musical improv theatre at the TCS Improvazilla Show. He teaches weekly and intensive improv workshops at his studio and has taught in Tokyo, Costa Rica, Argentina, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, China and Dubai. He can teach in English, Spanish, or Japanese.

He is a Senior Advisor for the consulting agency EY Japan, and designs and facilitates innovation workshops for their Tokyo wavespace innovation center. He also conducts team-building and creativity workshops for corporate and educational clients through his own company, including Yamaha Music English teachers, Nikko Shoken, Citibank, Yamaha Music, International Christian University MBA program, Pioneers Festival, and Eiko Seminar. 

In addition to his work in the world of improv, he is a professional narrator heard around the globe on NHK World, in the audioguides of Japan's national museums, and on JR East train platforms and on two of Japan’s bullet train platforms, announcing when the next train departs in a soothing voice. So if you travel to Japan, you will definitely hear his work!

Chris' narration and moderation website

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