The beginnings of improv theater are in the 16th century and can be found in the commedia dell’ arte. The Commedia dell’arte form of performance was first found in Venice and Naples and unlike theaters of the time was performed by professional actors who acted in a family group. Normally women were forbidden to act in theaters, not so in commedia dell’arte. They were organized in such a way that they lived together and all shared the income. Normally women were forbidden to act in theaters, not so in commedia dell’arte. The performances were later spread all over Europe by itinerant troupes. Their center in the 18th century became the largest city in Europe: Paris. There the plays were performed at Parisian fairs. Improv theater, as we know it today, began to establish itself in the 1950s. Legendary ensembles such as Compass Players or Second City emerged in the USA. Second City, for example, was a Chicago theater group founded in 1953 as the Playwrights Theater Club, whose name came from a 1949 article in The New Yorker about Chicago. Since 1959, the name Second City has been officially used and instead of traditional plays, IMPROVED! Numerous former group members later starred in the television comedy show “Saturday Night Live.”