Theatresports Provides the Newest Game in Town : Stage: The new improv group emphasizes story and narrative, in a competitive setting, rather than a night of comedy.

Orange County is a hotbed of franchise-expansion activity lately. The National Hockey League gave the county the Mighty Ducks, Kenny Rogers has opened several of his roasted-chicken joints and now Canada’s Theatresports Inc. has set up shop here.

Orange County Theatresports is bowing in with a show that runs Mondays through June 26 at the Gem Theatre in Garden Grove. The company also is staging a performance tonight at Laguna Beach High School to benefit the Laguna chapter of the national group Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder.

Like other prospective franchise owners, O.C. Theatresports managing director Mike Cunningham had some reservations about the prospects for success, chiefly worries about an existing Los Angeles franchise of the same Calgary-based operation as well as several other area troupes specializing in improvisational theater.

“L.A. is where the best actors go,” Cunningham said recently. “That’s the way it is.”

Cunningham proceeded, however, because he knew that not all the talent had been snapped up by other groups. He was part of Basic Insanity, an improv company working regularly at System M in Long Beach.

With encouragement from other Basic Insanity actors, Cunningham was persuaded to hook up with Theatresports Inc., which presents improvisational theater as a competitive sport.

A contract was signed in March and the new troupe gave its first performance earlier this month. Elizabeth Oakes is artistic director of O.C. Theatresports. (The group is keeping its Basic Insanity identity to continue presenting looser, Groundlings-type material.

It was Oakes, having spent time with Seattle Theatresports before joining Basic Insanity, who “converted us over to Theatresports,” Cunningham said. “She made it clear that this was the next step up for us, the challenge we needed as a group.”

That challenge stems from the Theatresports format, spelled out to franchisees by the parent company’s founder Keith Johnstone, author of “Improv,” an influential book in the field.

Theatresports shows begin with two teams, competing for points determined by three invited judges (usually artists experienced in improv) who award points based on such values as entertainment and narrative quality of a given scene.

Once a scene ends, the judges write their scores on large cards and display them for all to see. During a recent performance at the Gem, the crowd hooted the judges’ scoring more than they did the teams facing off.

“It sort of plays off the idea that everybody’s a critic,” says Oakes, “plus, it’s like a sideshow to the main event.”

An emcee (usually Oakes) selects each “game” from a list of predetermined categories, within which a narrative scene is improvised. Those categories sound more cerebral than they are; one called “physical restriction,” for instance, involves a number of possible games, including requiring one player to describe an action, while another player acts it out--without knowing ahead of time what the action will be.

Then there are “verbal restriction” games, including one where an alphabet letter is chosen, and two players must improvise a coherent scene with each line of dialogue starting with the next letter in the alphabet (“The Xs and the Zs always get tricky,” notes Cunningham).

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The emcee also is referee and timekeeper, blowing a whistle when a racist, sexist or obscene remark is made, when a scene bogs down or when a scene reaches a good ending point.

“We don’t score laughs,” Oakes said. “The intent of Theatresports is story and narrative rather than just putting on a night of comedy. This is theater first.”

Oakes said she was attracted to the Theatresports concept because she felt she had found a visionary in Johnstone. “For actors,” Oakes said, “Johnstone has such immensely valuable insights. . . .

“When you’re an improviser, you have only yourself to draw upon, and don’t have the protection of the mask, makeup or costume,” she said. “You’re afraid of the audience judging you, of giving up personal secrets, or of having nothing to give back to the audience. Or even worse, of not being able to keep up what you’re doing.

“So you have two options: One is to fall back on shtick, which is what you see with a lot of mediocre improv; Johnstone, though, urges actors to step into the fear of the moment, reach into something new and come up with a great moment. Like Carl Reiner once said, ‘A brilliant mind in panic is a wonderful thing to see.’ ”

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In addition to its performances at the Gem, O.C. Theatresports is gearing up for a series of five-week improv classes, starting June 24. Students will begin, naturally, as freshmen, then progress to sophomore, junior and senior classes. Grads may be eligible for the rookie team, from which talent will be plucked for the prime-time squad.

“It’ll be like our farm team,” said Cunningham, adding hopefully, “and I think we’ll grow out of that.”

* OC Theatresports performs “Improv Night” tonight Artist’s Theatre, Laguna Beach High School, 625 Park Ave. 7 p.m. $3. (714) 457-2125. Performances continue Mondays at 8 p.m. at the Gem Theatre, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove. Through June 26. $9. (714) 741-9550. For information on Theatresports classes: (714) 521-1146.