About My First Map
Current Map and Future Layers
The visualization currently displayed represents the project’s first analytical layer: direct teacher-to-student mentorship connections. At this early stage, the map is exploratory and intentionally unrefined, reflecting the organic, user-submitted nature of the data.
As the dataset expands, the project will incorporate additional lineage layers, including:
- Institutional and theatre-school affiliations
- Geographic and regional training pathways
- Stylistic and methodological lineages (e.g., Johnstone, Spolin, Harold lineage, CSz match-play)
- Form-based traditions and innovations
- Independently developed or culturally specific improv pedagogies
These maps will exist alongside one another, offering a multidimensional view of global improvisational heritage.
The current map should be understood as a prototype within a much larger and ongoing project of documentation and connection.
Early Analysis
What this chart shows at a glance
Question: “When you enter a scene, what’s your natural instinct?”
Responses: 558 (single choice)
Top instincts
- Relationship first — 30.1% (largest slice)
- Character choice — 24%
- Emotion first — 15.9%
Together, these three account for about 70% of responses.
Translation:
Most improvisers lead with who they are to each other, who they are as a character, and how they feel — not mechanics.
What’s especially interesting
Improv is people-first, not “game-first”
- Game of the Scene is a relatively small slice
- Status/power dynamics is even smaller
- Environment first doesn’t dominate
This quietly challenges a very common teaching myth: that most improvisers enter scenes hunting for “the game.”
This data suggests:
Game emerges after connection — not before it.
“I wait to see what happens” (10%) is not laziness — it’s responsiveness
That pink slice is meaningful.
It signals:
- Trust in ensemble
- Willingness to listen
- Comfort with ambiguity
That’s a mature instinct, not a beginner one.
Chaos gremlin energy exists… but it’s niche
It’s present (and beloved), but clearly not the dominant entry instinct. That’s actually reassuring data for teachers everywhere.
Big takeaway
This chart pairs beautifully with this lineage project.
Together, they suggest:
- Improv knowledge spreads through relational teaching
- Lineage isn’t just about forms, but about ways of entering uncertainty
- Many teachers across the world—independently—are prioritizing the same human instincts
That strengthens our central claim:
We are more connected than we realize, even when we didn’t train in the same rooms.
About Dr. Steph
Stephanie McCullough, Psy.D. (she/her)
Dr. Steph is an improviser, educator, and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of performance, community-building, and creative systems. Originally based in Chicago and now living in the UK, she initiated the Improv Lineage Project as a way to explore how improvisational knowledge, teaching, and influence travel across people, places, and generations. While her background is rooted in improv practice and pedagogy, she approaches this project as an open, collaborative inquiry—inviting artists, analysts, and scholars to contribute their own methods and perspectives to understanding the global improv ecosystem.