{"id":1151,"date":"2026-03-11T14:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:04:54","slug":"charna-halpern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/2026\/03\/11\/charna-halpern\/","title":{"rendered":"Charna Halpern"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born on June 1, 1952, <a href=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/?s=Charna+Halpern\">Charna Halpern<\/a> graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1974 and began her career in radio before turning to improvisation in 1981 with Del Close. A pioneer of long-form improvisation, she <strong>co-founded iO Theater (improvOlympic) in Chicago with Del Close<\/strong>. She directed iO Theater for over 30 years, training SNL stars such as <a href=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/boosy-pants-tina-fey\/\">Tina Fey<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/yes-please-amy-poehler\/\">Amy Poehler<\/a>, Mike Myers, and Chris Farley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>She and Del Close invented the &#8220;Harold&#8221; format<\/strong>, a long-form improvisation structure that revolutionized comedy, moving from short sketches to full-length narrative pieces. Their book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/book\/la-verdad-en-la-comedia-truth-in-comedy-charna-halpern-del-close\/\">Truth in Comedy<\/a><\/em>, published in 1994, is a global reference for improvisers, actors, and comedians, used in universities and workshops worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The iO had to temporarily close in 2020 due to the pandemic and protests, but reopened in 2022; Halpern remains active, teaching international seminars and workshops, including in Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-libros-de-impro-improv-books wp-block-embed-libros-de-impro-improv-books\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"T1LFTeTrM3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/la-verdad-en-la-comedia-truth-in-comedy-charna-halpern-del-close\/\">La verdad en la comedia \/ Truth in Comedy (Charna Halpern, Del Close)<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;La verdad en la comedia \/ Truth in Comedy (Charna Halpern, Del Close)&#8221; &#8212; Libros de Impro (Improv Books)\" src=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/la-verdad-en-la-comedia-truth-in-comedy-charna-halpern-del-close\/embed\/#?secret=jaNuXuRYAh#?secret=T1LFTeTrM3\" data-secret=\"T1LFTeTrM3\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-libros-de-impro-improv-books wp-block-embed-libros-de-impro-improv-books\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"1g26F84Jtp\"><a href=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/art-by-committee-charna-halpern\/\">Art by Committee (Charna Halpern)<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Art by Committee (Charna Halpern)&#8221; &#8212; Libros de Impro (Improv Books)\" src=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/art-by-committee-charna-halpern\/embed\/#?secret=Mtmg4h7IqF#?secret=1g26F84Jtp\" data-secret=\"1g26F84Jtp\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-libros-de-impro-improv-books wp-block-embed-libros-de-impro-improv-books\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"mZdk4QayHj\"><a href=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/group-improvisation-the-manual-of-ensemble-improv-games-peter-gwinn\/\">Group Improvisation: The Manual of Ensemble Improv Games (Peter Gwinn)<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Group Improvisation: The Manual of Ensemble Improv Games (Peter Gwinn)&#8221; &#8212; Libros de Impro (Improv Books)\" src=\"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/book\/group-improvisation-the-manual-of-ensemble-improv-games-peter-gwinn\/embed\/#?secret=KotiJ7rFd4#?secret=mZdk4QayHj\" data-secret=\"mZdk4QayHj\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charna_Halpern\">en.wikipedia<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/zoe-henry\/how-io-co-founder-charna-halpern-built-a-profitable-comedy-business.html\">inc.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Descubre la vida de Charna Halpern, cofundadora de iOTheater en Chicago, junto a del Close, y su obra: La Verdad en la Comedia, Art by Comitee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,32],"post_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biografias","category-guias"],"featured_image_url":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/202602_CharnaHalpern-150x150.png","medium":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/202602_CharnaHalpern-300x169.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/202602_CharnaHalpern-768x432.png","large":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/202602_CharnaHalpern-1024x576.png","1536x1536":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/202602_CharnaHalpern-1536x864.png","2048x2048":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/202602_CharnaHalpern.png"},"post_author":"librosdeimpro","assigned_categories":"Biographies, Guides","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1904,"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions\/1904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librosdeimpro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}