HISTORY
In 1973, when Linda Kellogg Fulton was fourteen years old, she struggled with severe dyslexia. She had come to the conclusion that she had no value and therefore no purpose in her life. She suffered from depression and isolated herself in her room whenever she wasn’t in school. She was on the verge of quitting everything when she happened to discover improvisation at her high school. She began to notice changes within herself as a result. This led to a life-long passion to discover hidden treasures within the games and applying them to her life. She decided she wanted to seek out and learn from the best.
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Over time she studied with and was mentored by a number of improvisation’s most legendary teachers and icons.
Avery Schreiber - One of America’s greatest Improv Masters and an early member of Second City. He was also half of one of America’s greatest comedy teams of the sixties, Burns & Schreiber.
Dick Schaal - Founding member of Second City, actor and comedian who worked in film and television. Most notably, he was Chuckles the Clown on the iconic Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Paul Sills - Founding director of Second City, and the son of the "Mother of American Improvisation," Viola Spolin.
Keith Johnstone - Founder of the revered international Improv school Theater Sports and author of IMPRO and Improv for Storytellers.
It was Linda’s mentor Avery Schreiber who suggested teaching to Linda. He encouraged her to teach kids after Linda informed him that she herself had learned improv as a kid and how it helped her rediscover her confidence and purpose. It wasn’t long after that Linda took his advice and decided to open Total Improv Kids in 1999, as a way to “pay it forward.”
Total Improv Kids soon became the premier improv school specifically designed for kids, exposing them to all improvisation had to offer them.
In 2004 Linda and her husband Richard Fulton bought a theater in North Hollywood, California to serve as a home for the school. She named her theater after her late mentor Avery Schreiber. Since then, Total Improv Kids and its students have performed in various festivals, on television, and in comedy clubs, including the Ice House (America’s first comedy club) and the Hollywood Improv. In 2008 Total Improv Kids made history as the first all-kid improv show to open Off Broadway in New York City with their show Because You Said So, garnering Linda and the school the reputation as THE place for young students to learn improvisation.
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In July of 2012, Linda received a Congressional Certificate of Recognition and in 2013, Linda helped a group of young improv students through regional qualifiers in the Destination Imagination event, a global afterschool competition to promote creativity.
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More recently, Linda has worked to share her philosophies and improv training methods with other teachers, coaches, and mentors both nationally and internationally by offering individual consultations, class work, seminars, and through her upcoming book The Power of Developmental Improvisation.
Linda was recently invited to speak at an Applied Improvisation conference in Paris and soon after in Vienna, Austria, where her audience included children of the ambassadors and diplomats of the United Nations.
In 2019, Linda decided to separate her school classes with kids from her teaching and training other professionals by establishing Improvability. Through Improvability, Linda now shares her Fulton Method to help cultivate cognitive growth and enhancement in students around the world!