Josephine Forsberg

Josephine Forsberg was hired by Paul Sills and Viola Spolin to join the original Second City in 1959 as the female understudy and Viola's teaching assistant. She became an expert in improvisational techniques for the theater, and by the mid 1960s she had taken over most of Viola's and Paul’s classes, as well as Viola's children's theater company. From that point on most of the young performers that wanted to go onto the Second City stage studied with Jo for at least a year. These included, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Betty Thomas, Shelly Long, George Wendt, David Mamet, and Robert Townsend.

In 1971 Josephine opened up an official school of improvisation called Players Workshop, hiring her nephew Martin deMaat and her daughter Linnea Forsberg to teach along side her. Players Workshop grew to the largest school of improv in the country, training people for the Second City stage through a six term (12 month) course. In 1980, her son Eric Forsberg joined Players Workshop as a director, where he worked with David Shepard to develop a competitive improv game which was later called The Improv Olympiad. One of Jo's students, Charna Halpern joined forces with David Shepard and helped to bring the Improv Olympiad to become one of Chicago's foremost arena's for new improvisers. In the late 1980s Charna Halpern and Del Close transformed the Improv Olympiad into the IO, using Del's new improv format called The Harold, otherwise known as long form.

In 1993 Josephine retired from teaching, leaving Players Workshop to her daughter. Her nephew, Martin deMaat had become the creative director of the Second City Training Center which was growing in leaps and bounds, offering a tremendous competition to Players Workshop. In 2003 Players Workshop closed its doors. However, in 2007, Josephine was approached by her old friend and student Bill Murray to help trained the New York Giants im improv in the hopes of giving them an edge. At 86 years old Jo did just that. It was the first time that she had taught anyone in years. That year they won the Super Bowl. Josephine returned to teach the New York Giants again in 2008.

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