Improv was invented in the wake of the Great Depression on Chicago’s South Side when an enlightened young theater director named Viola Spolin identified a need to instill confidence and encourage communication among immigrant children in the city.  Working with the support of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant, she developed simple structures to teach complicated conventions and techniques. They are, as one observer wrote, “exercises designed to fool spontaneity into being.” This pioneering work is considered the advent of improvisational theater technique or simply…improv.