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.
