Caspar Schjelbred

Performer, teacher and founder of Impro Supreme.

Background

Caspar Schjelbred was born in Denmark in 1979, grew up in Sweden, and moved to Paris in 1999. He lived and worked there for more than two decades, during which his formative artistic and professional years took shape and he began working with improvisation, physical acting, mime and clowning.

He started improvising in the early 2000s and became deeply involved in English-language improvisation in Paris. Over time, his interest shifted away from verbal games and narrative habits toward questions of presence, physical clarity and choice.

Alongside his artistic work, Schjelbred completed a Master’s degree in History of Science at the Sorbonne, specialising in late-19th-century theories of emotion. The discipline of close reading, methodical analysis and careful treatment of source material informed how he later approached acting and improvisation: observing behaviour and questioning assumptions.

Performance & direction

PLAN C is Caspar Schjelbred’s solo improvisation project, created in 2012 and performed more than seventy times across Europe, Australasia and North America.

Alongside his solo work, Schjelbred was deeply involved in ensemble improvisation. He served as artistic director of The Improfessionals in Paris from 2008 to 2014 and co-created and directed AVANT-GARDE with HaHaHa Impro Theatre in Sofia in 2018.

Schjelbred has also worked in scripted theatre, screen and movement-based projects, including a production of Samuel Beckett in Luxembourg (2016–2017), as well as film and visual performance contexts.

Teaching & transmission

Teaching entered Caspar Schjelbred’s work very early. In practice, he spent more time teaching than performing, and this has remained true throughout his career. Teaching became a place of experimentation: a way of testing ideas, observing what actually helps people change, and seeing what holds up over time.

For more than twenty years, he has taught primarily in Paris, while also working internationally across Europe, Australasia and North America. His teaching includes long-term training with actors and improvisers, work in theatre schools and various institutions, including prisons.

In 2010, he founded Impro Supreme as a way to gather and continue this work. It was not conceived as a brand, but as a framework for sustained training — with students who returned over time, questioned the work, and remained engaged in practice. Teaching there has always been individual at its core, even when conducted in group settings.

Alongside artistic training, Schjelbred has also worked in professional and organisational contexts. He does not treat this as a separate discipline.

Training & influences

A decisive influence on Caspar Schjelbred’s work has been his long-term training with Ira Seidenstein, which began in 2008 and has continued over time. Through repeated training periods, including five Quantum Clown Residencies in Brisbane, this work provided a rigorous reference point for physical acting, attention and choice — and a framework against which Schjelbred tested and refined his own practice.

Another important influence came through Mary Overlie (2019), whose approach to perception, space and non-hierarchical composition deeply affected how Schjelbred understands stage reality. Her work sharpened his sense of clarity, simplicity and attention to what is already present.

Alongside this, he took regular classical ballet classes for many years (2010–2024). This sustained engagement with ballet supported his physical work by developing precision, balance and endurance, and continues to inform how he approaches movement, posture and action on stage.

His training also includes a wide range of mime and movement workshops, which reinforced a practical understanding of how meaning appears through the body rather than through explanation or narrative intention.

Impro Supreme

In 2010, Schjelbred founded Impro Supreme as the framework for his teaching and ongoing research.

It remains the central place where his work is developed and transmitted.

Schjelbred currently lives in Copenhagen. He teaches internationally and continues to develop his work through training, writing and selective performance projects.