Improvisational theatre - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

s/improvisers use improvisation

Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

al acting techniques to perform spontaneously. Improvisers typically use audience

Audience

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...

suggestions to contribute to the content and direction of the performance as they create dialogue

Dialogue

Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....

, setting, and plot extemporaneously. Other forms of improvisational theatre training and performance techniques are experimental

Experimental theatre

Experimental theatre is a general term for various movements in Western theatre that began in the late 19th century as a retraction against the dominant vent governing the writing and production of dramatical menstrophy, and age in particular. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream...

and Avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

in nature and not necessarily intended to be comedic

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

. These include Playback Theatre

Playback Theatre

Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.-History:The first Playback Theatre company was founded in 1975 by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas...

and Theatre of the Oppressed

Theatre of the Oppressed

The Theatre of the Oppressed describes a range of theatrical forms that the Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal first elaborated in the 1960s, initially in Brazil and later in Europe. Boal was influenced by the work of the educator and theorist Paulo Freire. Boal's techniques use theatre as...

, the Poor Theatre

Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski was a Polish theatre director and innovator of experimental theatre, the "theatre laboratory" and "poor theatre" concepts....

, the Open Theatre, to name only a few.

Many actors, who work with scripts in stage, film or television, use improvisation in their rehearsal process. "Improv" techniques are often taught in standard acting classes. Some of the basic skills improvisation teaches actors are to listen and be aware of the other players, to have clarity in communication, and confidence to find choices instinctively and spontaneously. Knowing how to improvise off the script helps actors find life-like choices in rehearsal and to then keep the quality of discovery in the present moment in their performance, as well.

Improvisational comedy

Modern improvisational comedy, as it is practiced in the West, falls generally into two categories: shortform and longform.

Shortform improv consists of short scenes usually constructed from a predetermined game

Theater game

The theatre games tradition is a method of training actors that was developed in the 20th century by practitioners such as Joan Littlewood, Viola Spolin, Clive Barker, Keith Johnstone, Jerzy Grotowski and Augusto Boal...

, structure, or idea and driven by an audience suggestion. Many shortform games were first created by Viola Spolin

Viola Spolin

Viola Spolin was an important innovator of the American theater in the 20th century. She created directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life...

based on her training from Neva Boyd

Neva Boyd

Neva Leona Boyd founded the Recreational Training School at the Hull House in Chicago. The school taught a one-year educational program in group games, gymnastics, dancing, dramatic arts, play theory, and social problems...

. The shortform improv comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. Originally a British radio programme, it moved to television in 1988 as a series made for the UK's Channel 4, for a 10 series run...

has familiarized American and British viewers with shortform.

Longform improv performers create shows in which short scenes are often interrelated by story, characters, or themes. Longform shows may take the form of an existing type of theatre, for example a full-length play or Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

-style musical such as Spontaneous Broadway

Spontaneous Broadway

Spontaneous Broadway is an advanced long-form improvised performance, usually based on audience suggestions. The audience typically submits titles of songs that have never been written, and the performers choose suggestions to create songs, the audience votes through acclamation on their favourite...

. Longform improvisation is especially performed in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and has a growing following in Minneapolis, Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

and Austin

Austin

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...

. One of the more well-known longform structures is the Harold

Harold (improvisation)

Harold is a form of longform improv. Developed by Del Close and brought to fruition through Close's collaboration with Charna Halpern, the Harold has become the signature form of Chicago's I.O. and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York and Los Angeles...

, developed by ImprovOlympic

I.O.

iO, or iO Chicago, is a theater located at 3541 N. Clark St., in Chicago, Illinois, one-half block south of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The theater both has performances of, and teaches improvisational comedy. It was founded in the 1980s by Del Close and Charna Halpern...

cofounder Del Close

Del Close

Del Close was an actor, improviser, writer, and teacher. Considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows...

. Many such longform structures now exist.

Origins

Improvised performance is as old as performance itself. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, Commedia dell'arte

Commedia dell'arte

Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...

performers improvised based on a broad outline in the streets of Italy and in the 1890s theatrical theorists and directors such as Konstantin Stanislavski

Konstantin Stanislavski

Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski , was a Russian actor and theatre director. Building on the directorially-unified aesthetic and ensemble playing of the Meiningen company and the naturalistic staging of Antoine and the independent theatre movement, Stanislavski organized his realistic...

and Jacques Copeau

Jacques Copeau

Jacques Copeau was an influential French theatre director, producer, actor, and dramatist. Before he founded his famous Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris, he wrote theater reviews for several Parisian journals, worked at the Georges Petit Gallery where he organized exhibits of artists' works...

, founders of two major streams of acting theory, both heavily utilised improvisation in acting training and rehearsal.

While some people credit Dudley Riggs

Dudley Riggs

Dudley Riggs is a noted improvisational comedian who created the Instant Theater Company in New York, which later moved to Minneapolis to become the Brave New Workshop comedy troupe. Riggs was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and joined the circus when he was five years old. His family performed...

as the first vaudevillian

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

to use audience suggestions to create improvised sketches, modern theatrical improvisation is generally accepted to have taken form in the classroom with the theatre games of Viola Spolin in the 1940s and Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone is a drama instructor whose teachings and books have focused on improvisational theatre and have had a major influence on the art of improvisation.-Education:...

in the 1970s. These rehearsal-room activities evolved quickly into an independent artform that many consider worthy of presentation before a paying audience.

Spolin can probably be considered the American Grandmother of Improv. She influenced the first generation of Improv at The Compass Players in Chicago, which led to The Second City

The Second City

The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...

. Her son, Paul Sills

Paul Sills

Paul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...

, along with David Shepherd

David Shepherd (producer)

David Shepherd is an American producer, director, and actor primarily noted for his work in improvisational theatre-Career:Born in 1924, in the city of New York City to an old money family, Shepherd grew up with left-leaning sensibilities. He studied English at Harvard and received an M.A. in the...

, started The Compass Players. Following the demise of the Compass Players, Paul Sills began The Second City. They were among the first organized troupes in Chicago, Illinois and from their success, the modern Chicago improvisational comedy movement was spawned.

Many of the current "rules" of comedic improv were first formalized in Chicago in the late 1950s and early 1960s, initially among The Compass Players troupe. From most accounts David Shepherd provided the philosophical vision of the Compass Players, while Elaine May

Elaine May

Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...

was central to the development of the premises for its improvisations. Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...

, Ted Flicker, and Del Close

Del Close

were her most frequent collaborators in this regard. When The Second City opened its doors on December 16, 1959, Viola Spolin began training new improvisers through a series of classes and exercises which became the cornerstone of modern improv training. By the mid 1960s, Viola Spolin's classes were handed over to her protégé, Jo Forsberg

Josephine Forsberg

Josephine Forsberg , ex-wife of film director Rolf Forsberg was hired by Paul Sills and Viola Spolin to join the original Second City in 1959 as the female understudy and Spolin's teaching assistant...

, who further developed Spolin's methods into a one-year course, which eventually became The Players Workshop

The Players Workshop

Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of Improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred to as Players Workshop Of The Second City, due to...

, the first official school of improvisation in the USA. During this time Jo Forsberg trained many of the performers who went on to star on The Second City stage.

Many of the original cast of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

came from The Second City and the franchise has produced such comedy stars as Mike Myers

Mike Myers (actor)

Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...

, Tina Fey

Tina Fey

Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live , the NBC comedy series 30 Rock, and films such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama .Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the...

, Bob Odenkirk

Bob Odenkirk

Robert "Bob" Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr...

, Amy Sedaris

Amy Sedaris

Amy Louise Sedaris is an American actress, author, and comedian. She is known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central television series Strangers with Candy. Sedaris regularly collaborates with her older brother, humorist and author David Sedaris...

, Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...

, Eugene Levy

Eugene Levy

Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...

, Steve Carell

Steve Carell

Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...

, Chris Farley

Chris Farley

Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995....

, Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...

and John Belushi

John Belushi

John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...

.

Simultaneously, Keith Johnstone's group The Theatre Machine, which originated in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, was touring Europe. This work gave birth to Theatresports

Theatresports

Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges...

, at first secretly in Johnstone's workshops, and eventually in public when he moved to Canada. Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

has been home to a rich improv tradition.

In 1984 Dick Chudnow

Dick Chudnow

Dick Chudnow is an American comedian and entrepreneur.Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chudnow created and licensed the ComedySportz improvisational comedy format in 1984, which soon spread to other cities in North America and to Manchester, England...

(Kentucky Fried Theater) founded ComedySportz

ComedySportz

ComedySportz is an improvisational comedy organization started in 1984 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by a group of local comedians including Dick Chudnow, Bob Orvis, Brian Green and many others.-Format:...

in Milwaukee, WI. Expansion began with the addition of ComedySportz-Madison (WI), in 1985. The first Comedy League of America National Tournament was held in 1988, with 10 teams participating. The league is now known as World Comedy League and boasts a roster of 21 international cities.

In San Francisco, The Committee

The Committee (improv group)

The Committee is a San Francisco based improvisational comedy group founded by Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson . The Myersons were both alums of The Second City in Chicago. The Committee opened April 10, 1963 at 622 Broadway in a 300 seat Cabaret theater that used to be an indoor bocce ball court...

theater was active during the 1960s.

When The Committee

The Committee (improv group)

disbanded in 1972, Three major companies were formed: The Pitchell Players, The Wing, and Improvisation Inc, Improv, Inc. being the only company continuing to perform Del’s “Original” Harold. In 1976, two former Improv-Inc members, Michael Bossier and John Elk, formed Spaghetti Jam, performing Short-Form improv and Harolds in San Francisco’s famous Old Spaghetti Factory through 1983. Stand-Up comedians performing down the street at the Intersection for the Arts

Intersection for the Arts

Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic institution in the state of California....

would drop by and sit in. “Improv Comedy” was born. In 1979 John Elk brought Short-Form to England, teaching workshops at Jacksons Lane

Jacksons Lane

- Theatre and performance :Jacksons Lane is a multi-arts venue in Highgate, North London. Housed in a striking red-brick gothic church conversion, the building is home to a 160 capacity theatre, a large scale dance and rehearsal studio, a cafe-bar and four other multi-purpose spaces.Jacksons Lane...

Theatre and was the first American to perform at The Comedy Store, London

The Comedy Store, London

The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in Soho, London, England, opened in 1979 by Don Ward and Peter Rosengard.It was named after The Comedy Store club in the United States, which Rosengard had visited the previous year...

, above a Soho strip club.

Modern political improvisation's roots include Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski was a Polish theatre director and innovator of experimental theatre, the "theatre laboratory" and "poor theatre" concepts....

's work in Poland during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Peter Brook

Peter Brook

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...

's "happenings" in England during the late 1960s, Augusto Boal

Augusto Boal

Augusto Boal was a Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements...

's "Forum Theatre" in South America in the early 1970s, and San Francisco's The Diggers

Diggers (theater)

The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and Improv actors operating from 1966–68, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics were such that they have sometimes been categorized as "left-wing." More accurately, they were "community anarchists"...

' work in the 1960s. Some of this work led to pure improvisational performance styles, while others simply added to the theatrical vocabulary and were, on the whole, avant garde experiments.

Joan Littlewood

Joan Littlewood

Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop...

, the English actress and director who was active from the 1930s to 1970s, made extensive use of improv in developing plays for performance. However she was successfully prosecuted twice for allowing her actors to improvise in performance. Until 1968, British law required scripts to be approved by the Lord Chamberlain's Office

Lord Chamberlain's Office

The Lord Chamberlain's Office is a department within the British Royal Household. It is presently concerned with matters such as protocol, state visits, investitures, garden parties, the State Opening of Parliament, royal weddings and funerals. For example, in April 2005 it organised the wedding of...

. The department also sent inspectors to some performances to check that the approved script was complied with exactly.

Improvisation in film and television

Many directors have made use of improvisation in the creation of both main-stream and experimental films. Many silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

makers such as Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

and Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

used improvisation in the making of their films, developing their gags while filming and altering the plot to fit. The Marx Brothers

Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...

were notorious for deviating from the script they were given, their ad libs often becoming part of the standard routine and making their way into their films. Many people, however, make a distinction between ad libbing and improvising.

The British director Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh

Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

makes extensive use of improvisation in the creation of his films, including improvising important moments in the characters lives that will not even appear in the film. This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap...

and other mockumentary

Mockumentary

A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...

films of director Christopher Guest

Christopher Guest

Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...

are created with a mix of scripted and unscripted material and Blue in the Face
Blue in the Face
Blue in the Face is a 1995 comedy directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster. It stars Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Giancarlo Esposito, Roseanne Barr, Michael J. Fox, Lily Tomlin, Mira Sorvino, Lou Reed, Mel Gorham, Jim Jarmusch,and Malik Yoba....

is a 1995 comedy directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster created in part by the improvisations filmed during the production of their movie Smoke.

Improv comedy techniques have also been used in television and stand-up comedy, in hit shows such as the recent HBO television show Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...

created by Larry David

Larry David

Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...

, the UK Channel 4 and ABC television series Whose Line Is It Anyway (and its spinoffs Drew Carey's Green Screen Show
Drew Carey's Green Screen Show
Drew Carey's Green Screen Show is an improvisational comedy television series that aired in the fall of 2004 on The WB Television Network, and the fall of 2005 on Comedy Central. The show was hosted by Drew Carey, and was somewhat a follow-up to the show he formerly hosted, Whose Line Is It Anyway?...

and Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza
Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza
Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza is an improvisational comedy television program that aired in the United States on the Game Show Network. The program was hosted by Drew Carey from CBS's The Price Is Right and former host of ABC's Whose Line Is It Anyway? and was produced at the Hollywood Theatre at the...

), Nick Cannon's improv comedy show Wild 'N Out
Wild 'N Out
Nick Cannon Presents Wild 'n Out is a game show on MTV starring Nick Cannon.-Premise:Similar in premise to game-type shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the show puts two teams of comedians: the "Red Squad", captained by Cannon and contained Katt Williams for the first 3 seasons, and the "Black...

, and Thank God You're Here
Thank God You're Here
Thank God You're Here is an Australian television improvised comedy program created by Working Dog Productions, which premiered on Network Ten on 5 April 2006, and aired for the first three seasons with Seven for the fourth season...

. In Canada, the long-running series Train 48
Train 48
Train 48 was a Canadian television soap opera, broadcast on Global Television Network or CH airing from 2003 until 2005.Train 48 was based on the format of an Australian television program called Going Home....

was improvised from scripts which contained a minimal outline of each scene. The American show Reno 911! also contained improvised dialogue based on a plot outline.

Psychology of improvisational theatre

In the field of the Psychology of Consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...

, Eberhard Scheiffele explored the altered state of consciousness experienced by actors and improvisers in his scholarly paper: Acting: an altered state of consciousness. According to G. WIlliam Farthing in "The Psychology of Consciousness"(see comparative study), actors (in performance, drama classes, or in psychodrama) routinely enter into an altered state of consciousness (ASC). Acting is seen as altering most of the 14 dimensions of changed subjective experience which characterize ASCs according to Farthing, namely: attention, perception, imagery and fantasy, inner speech, memory, higher-level thought processes, meaning or significance of experiences, time experience, emotional feeling and expression, level of arousal, self-control, suggestibility, body image, and sense of personal identity.

Improv process

Improvisational theatre allows an interactive relationship with the audience. Improv groups frequently solicit suggestions from the audience as a source of inspiration, a way of getting the audience involved, and as a means of proving that the performance is not scripted. That charge is sometimes aimed at the masters of the art, whose performances can seem so detailed that viewers may suspect the scenes were planned.

In order for an improvised scene

Scene (fiction)

In fiction, a scene is a unit of drama. A sequel is what follows; an aftermath. Together, scene and sequel provide the building blocks of plot for short stories, novels, and other forms of fiction.-Characteristics of a scene:...

to be successful, the improvisers involved must work together responsively to define the parameters and action of the scene, in a process of co-creation

Co-creation

Co-creation is a form of market or business strategy that emphasizes the generation and ongoing realization of mutual firm-customer value. It views markets as forums for firms and active customers to share, combine and renew each other's resources and capabilities to create value through new forms...

. With each spoken word or action in the scene, an improviser makes an offer, meaning that he or she defines some element of the reality of the scene. This might include giving another character a name, identifying a relationship, location, or using mime

Mime artist

A mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...

to define the physical environment. These activities are also known as endowment. It is the responsibility of the other improvisers to accept the offers that their fellow performers make; to not do so is known as blocking

Blocking (improv)

Blocking or denial is a term used in theatrical improvisation to describe an act of not accepting the world that has been set up, or of refusing to develop an action that another performer has 'offered'...

, negation, or denial, which usually prevents the scene from developing. Some performers may deliberately block (or otherwise break out of character) for comedic effect—this is known as gagging -- but this generally prevents the scene from advancing and is frowned upon by many improvisers. Accepting an offer is usually accompanied by adding a new offer, often building on the earlier one; this is a process improvisers refer to as "Yes, And..." and is considered the cornerstone of improvisational technique. Every new piece of information added helps the improvisers to refine their characters and progress the action of the scene.

The unscripted nature of improv also implies no predetermined knowledge about the prop

Theatrical property

A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is an object used on stage by actors to further the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set...

s that might be useful in a scene. Improv companies may have at their disposal some number of readily accessible props that can be called upon at a moment's notice, but many improvisers eschew props in favor of the infinite possibilities available through mime

Mime artist

. In improv, this is more commonly known as 'space object work' or 'space work', not 'mime', and the props and locations created by this technique, as 'space objects'. As with all improv offers, improvisers are encouraged to respect the validity and continuity of the imaginary environment defined by themselves and their fellow performers; this means, for example, taking care not to walk through the table or "miraculously" survive multiple bullet wounds from another improviser's gun.

In tune with the unscripted nature, several techniques have arisen with which help improvisers to avoid prescripted jokes to arise in their scenes. One such technique is known as "rolphing." This is the process which is sometimes referred to as "vomiting words," and consists of starting with a sound as opposed to a full word. Once the sound is projected, the improviser is forced to come up with a word related to the sound, often surprising even the speaker himself. This technique is not so often used in scene however, as it may break the reality of a scene. Instead, it is often used in preliminary work, setting up a scene, giving the improviser an unexpected and unpredictable scene.

Because improvisers may be required to play a variety of roles without preparation, they need to be able to construct characters quickly with physicality, gesture

Gesture

A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body...

s, accents, voice

Human voice

The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...

changes, or other techniques as demanded by the situation. The improviser may be called upon to play a character of a different age or sex. Character motivations are an important part of successful improv scenes, and improvisers must therefore attempt to act according to the objectives that they believe their character seeks.

Keith Johnstone and Improvisational Theatre

Keith Johnstone’s work at the Royal Court Theatre in the late 1950s is seen as an important framework for contemporary improvisational theatre today. Heavily influenced by the teaching methods of Anthony Stirling, Johnstone set out to rediscover the imaginative world of childhood, the origins of creativity and spontaneity, and the ability to tell stories in an attempt to shift what he saw as the ‘pretentiousness’ of theatre to something much less dependent on intellect.

Thoughts on Education:

Johnstone’s work highly criticized what he saw as the negative impact the education system has on the creative mind. He felt the classroom suppressed spontaneity, as the child who was spontaneous was often more difficult to control and to mould. Schools taught children to respond intellectually to poetry (for example) and not emotionally, we are taught to believe that great ideas come from those who are intelligent, and we forget that inspiration is not intellectual. Thus his teaching methods often seem paradoxical – Johnstone is often famous for asking his students to ‘be boring’, ‘be obvious’. Johnstone therefore tried to develop and rediscover the creativity that had been suppressed at school.

Status:

Status is central to Johnstone’s theories on what constitutes ‘ordinary conversation’. After seeing Stanislavsky’s production of “The Cherry Orchard”, his conclusion was that the actors were naturalistic in a theatrical way but not like in real life. He emphasized the character’s status relationship over character motives, when creating an ‘authentic’ conversation on stage. He concludes that every inflection and movement implies a status and the audience gains pleasure when they see the status of each character on stage constantly being switched or “ejected”.

Spontaneity:

Johnstone felt that the intellectual mind, or the process of thinking and rationalization, was one of the main reasons why an individual is unable to be spontaneous or creative on stage. He believes that many students block their imaginations through ‘editing’ and the fear of being ‘un-original’. The attempt to be original, through thinking, creates a less interesting idea. He thus encourages the obvious idea or the first thing that comes to mind as the key to effective improvisation.

Games:

Johnstone’s exercises for developing spontaneity and the overall the improving of improvisation skills are used in almost every teaching institute for improvisational theatre. Here are two well known games:

-Blind Offers
This game is designed encourage students to justify their (or in this case, someone else’s) actions after they have done it, as opposed to thinking about something and then acting on the thought.
Person A strikes a pose, then Person B photographs him.
Person B lies on the ground, Person A mimes shoveling earth onto him.
Person A jumps up and down, Person B says “I can’t believe your mother gave you those skittles”. And the cycle continues.

-Word At A Time:

Students stand in a circle, and proceed to tell a story one word at a time. This game develops the ability to speak the first word that comes into your head. Johnstone states that this game makes it seem like some other force is telling the story. In order, the dialogue come out like this as an example -
“There” – spoken by the first person, “was” – said by second person,“once” - third person,“a” - fourth person,“child” - fifth
“named” – sixth, “biff” - seventh person … and in this way the story continues, being created by the whole group together.

Community

Many theatre troupes are devoted to staging improvisational performances and growing the improv community through their training centres. One of the most widespread is the international organization Theatresports, which was founded by Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone is a drama instructor whose teachings and books have focused on improvisational theatre and have had a major influence on the art of improvisation.-Education:...

, an English director who wrote what many consider to be the seminal work on the relationship between status, story telling and improvisational acting, Impro. There are also many independent Improv groups around the world; a non-exhaustive but lengthy list is available here.
In addition to for-profit theatre troupes, there are several college-based improv groups in the United States that are becoming popularized as a result of programs such as Whose Line is it Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. Originally a British radio programme, it moved to television in 1988 as a series made for the UK's Channel 4, for a 10 series run...

.

In Europe the special contribution to the theatre of the abstract, the surreal, the irrational and the subconscious have been part of the stage tradition for centuries. From the 1990s onwards a growing number of European Improv groups have been set up specifically to explore the possibilities offered by the use of the abstract in improvised performance, including dance, movement, sound, music, mask work, lighting, and so on. These groups are not especially interested in comedy, either as a technique or as an effect, but rather in expanding the improv genre so as to incorporate techniques and approaches that have long been a legitimate part of European theatre.

Improv luminaries

Some key figures in the development of improvisational theatre are Avery Schreiber

Avery Schreiber

Avery Lawrence Schreiber was an American comedian and actor. He was a veteran of stage, TV, and film.-Biography:...

, Viola Spolin

Viola Spolin

and her son Paul Sills

Paul Sills

Paul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...

, founder of Chicago's famed Second City

The Second City

troupe and originator of Theater Games, and Del Close

Del Close

, founder of ImprovOlympic (along with Charna Halpern

Charna Halpern

Charna Halpern is a co-founder of the ImprovOlympic, now known as The iO. She was born and raised on the North Side of Chicago. In 1984, with partner Del Close, she began teaching The Harold to many students in the Chicago theatre community. She and Close co-authored the book Truth in Comedy: The...

) and creator of a longform improv format known as The Harold. Other luminaries include Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone

Keith Johnstone is a drama instructor whose teachings and books have focused on improvisational theatre and have had a major influence on the art of improvisation.-Education:...

, the British teacher and writer–author of Impro, who founded the Theatre Machine and whose teachings form the foundation of the popular shortform Theatresports

Theatresports

format, Dick Chudnow

Dick Chudnow

, founder of ComedySportz

ComedySportz

which evolved its family-friendly show format from Johnstone's Theatersports, Stan Wells

Empty Stage Comedy Theatre

The Empty Stage Comedy Theatre is a sketch comedy and improvisational theatre located in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. The Empty Stage was started and is currently owned by Stan Wells....

, creator of the "Clap-In" longform style and founder of The Empty Stage Comedy Theatre

Empty Stage Comedy Theatre

The Empty Stage Comedy Theatre is a sketch comedy and improvisational theatre located in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. The Empty Stage was started and is currently owned by Stan Wells....

in Los Angeles, and Bill Johnson, creator/director of The Magic Meathands, who pioneered the concept of "Commun-edy Outreach" by tailoring performances to non-traditional audiences, such as the homeless and foster children. Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers

Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

was also a popular and influential improviser who would often improvise the dialogue in his work.

David Shepherd, with Paul Sills, founded The Compass Players in Chicago. Shepherd was intent on developing a true "people's Theatre", and hoped to bring political drama to the stockyards. The Compass went on to play in numerous forms and companies, in a number of cities including NY and Hyannis, after the founding of The Second City. A number of Compass members were also founding members of The Second City. In the 1970s, Shepherd began experimenting with group-created videos. He is the author of "That Movie In Your Head", about these efforts.In the 1970s, David Shepherd and Howard Jerome created the Improvisational Olympics, a format for competition based improv. The Improv Olympics were first demonstrated at Toronto's Homemade Theatre in 1976 and have been continued on as the Canadian Improv Games

Canadian Improv Games

The Canadian Improv Games is an education based format of improvisational theatre for Canadian high schools. To participate in the games, high school students form teams of up to 8 players and are required to pay a registration fee. The teams compete in regional tournaments, organized and...

. In the United States, the Improv Olympics were later produced by Charna Halpern under the name "ImprovOlympic" and now as "IO"; IO operates training centers and theaters in Chicago and Los Angeles. t IO, Halpern combined Shepherd's "Time Dash" game with Del Close's "Harold" game; the revised format for the Harold became the fundamental structure for the development of modern "long-form" improvisation.

In 1975 Jonathan Fox

Jonathan Fox

Jonathan Fox is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. He has authored, coauthored, or edited five books and over 50 journal articles and book chapters on topics such as domestic and international ethnic and religious conflict and...

founded Playback Theatre

Playback Theatre

, a form of improvised community theatre which is often not comedic and replays stories as shared by members of the audience.

Spaghetti Jam in San Francisco (1976-83) hosted weekly jam sessions that included Betty Thomas

Betty Thomas

Betty Thomas is an American actress and director in television and motion pictures.-Life and career:Born Betty Thomas Nienhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, Thomas graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree...

, Terry McGovern

Terry McGovern (actor)

Terence "Terry" McGovern is an American film actor, television broadcaster, radio personality, voice-over specialist, and acting instructor.-Personal life:...

, John Elk, Buzz Belmondo

Buzz Belmondo

Lorenzo Matawaran, better known by his stage name Buzz Belmondo, is an actor, comedian, filmmaker, film producer and writer.- Early life :...

, Robin Williams

Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...

, Barry Sobel

Barry Sobel

Barry Sobel is an American actor and comedian.-Life and career:Sobel grew up in New York City. During the 1980s, he toured the comedy circuit heavily. His routine centered around rapping in a Beastie Boys style....

, Dana Carvey

Dana Carvey

Dana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.-Early life:...

, Gil Christner

Gil Christner

Gil Christner is an American actor, writer and comedian living and working in Los Angeles.-Early life:...

, Joyce Imbesi, Taylor Negron

Taylor Negron

Brad Taylor Negron is an American writer, actor, and stand-up comedian.-Personal life:Negron was born in Glendale, California to Conrad Negron, Sr., former mayor of Indian Wells, California. He grew up in Pasadena, California. His cousin is singer Chuck Negron...

, Jose Simon and Paul Willson

Paul Willson

Paul Lee Willson is an American actor, most notable for his television work.Willson has played numerous guest characters on a variety of shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Boston Public, Caroline in the City, and Star Trek: Voyager...

.

The Groundlings

The Groundlings

The Groundlings are an improvisational comedy troupe based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin to produce sketches and improvised scenes...

is a popular and influential improv theatre and training center in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California. Gary Austin

Gary Austin

Gary Austin is an American comedian, improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director. He has written two solo shows, "Church" and "Oil," and has performed them coast to coast...

, founder of The Groundlings, continues to teach improvisation around the country, focusing especially in Los Angeles. He is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest acting teachers in America. His work is grounded in the lessons he learned as an improviser at The Committee with Del Close, as well as in his experiences as founding director of The Groudlings. The Groundlings is often seen as the Los Angeles training ground for the "second generation" of improv luminaries and troupes. Stan Wells developed the "Clap-In" style of longform improvisation here, later using this as the basis for his own theatre, The Empty Stage which in turn bred multiple troupes utilizing this style.

In the late 1990s, Matt Besser

Matt Besser

Matthew Gregory "Matt" Besser is an American actor and comedian best known as one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe who also had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998-2000....

, Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler

Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...

, Ian Roberts

Ian Roberts (actor)

Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian and writer best known as a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe.-Life and career:...

, and Matt Walsh founded the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre or UCB Theatre is an improvisational theatre and associated UCB Training Center with locations in Chelsea, New York, the EEast Village, New York and Hollywood, California.....

in New York and later they founded one in Los Angeles. The two theatres host a large improv school.

External links

How To Be A Better Improviser, an essay by Dan Goldstein that lays out a foundation for improvising.
Improvisation: the Original Survival Tool, an essay by Brad Fortier linking evolution of humanity with ethics of improvisation.
Improvisation Course Profile a course profile for teaching improvisation in Ontario high schools at The Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Improvisational comedy

Origins

Improvisation in film and television

Psychology of improvisational theatre

Improv process

Keith Johnstone and Improvisational Theatre

Community

Improv luminaries

See also

Further reading

External links