David Shepherd (producer)

David Shepherd (born 1924) is an American producer, director, and actor primarily noted for his work in improvisational theatre.

Born in 1924 in New York City to an old money family, Shepherd grew up with left-leaning sensibilities. He studied English at Harvard and received an M.A. in the History of Theater at Columbia. Disenchanted with what he perceived as a European dominated theater on the East Coast, Shepherd gravitated to the Midwest.

In 1953 Shepherd was one of the co-founders of the Playwrights Theatre Club in Chicago. In 1955 he and Paul Sills founded the Compass Players, the forerunner of The Second City. Compass launched the careers of Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Jerry Stiller, Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Barbara Harris, and Shelley Berman (to name a few) and started a revolution in entertainment. Since Compass, David has gone on to create numerous improv formats – including the Improvisation Olympics (a competitive theatrical sporting event), Responsive Scene Radio Show (listeners create their own stories on air) and MOVIExperience (improvising a movie) which culminated in the publication of his book That Movie In Your Head.

More recently he, Howard Jerome and Jamie "Willie" Wyllie created the Canadian Improv Games, which are produced in association with Canada's National Arts Centre and which are the subject of the documentary film In The Moment. In addition to leading workshops in Improvisation, David Shepherd has recently been involved in developing techniques for the creation of improvisational films with his partner, Nancy Fletcher. David resides near Amherst, MA. As of 2011, David was actively working on a new improvisational format known as Life-Play, which consists of improvised games that can be played on the phone or in person by two or more players.

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