The First Studio opened in 1912 as a space where Stanislavsky could experiment with his System. This chapter reappraises the first few years of the Studio (until Suler’s death in 1916) from the point of view of improvisation. As can be expected from a versatile theatre-maker like Stanislavsky, improvisation at the First Studio saw several uses. Scenarios were improvised on, not as an end in itself, but to work on a technical element of the System such as concentration, communication with a partner, rhythm, emotional recall, etc. Improvisation also took the form of Gorky’s Method, an experiment which Stanislavsky conducted where the actor-students, in collaboration with a playwright and a director/leader, improvise on set scenarios to create new plays. Stanislavsky did not steer singlehandedly the work of the Studio. Much fell on Leopold Sulerzhitsky, the Studio’s leader, and on participants like Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Michael Chekhov, and Valentin Smyshlaev. Stanislavsky’s offshoots give improvisation a decidedly contemporary edge, either by resolving the structure-improvisation conundrum, or by linking improvisation with what today we would refer to as ‘devised performance’.