Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product.
Improvisational techniques are often used extensively in drama programs to train actors for stage, film, and television and can be an important part of the rehearsal process. However, the skills and processes of improvisation are also used outside the context of performing arts. This practice, known as applied improvisation, is used in classrooms as an educational tool and in businesses as a way to develop communication skills, creative problem solving, and supportive team-work abilities that are used by improvisational, ensemble players.[1] It is sometimes used in psychotherapy as a tool to gain insight into a person's thoughts, feelings, and relationships.
History
The earliest well-documented use of improvisational theatre in Western history is found in the Atellan Farce of 391 BC. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, commedia dell'arte performers improvised based on a broad outline in the streets of Italy. In the 1890s, theatrical theorists and directors such as the Russian Konstantin Stanislavski and the French Jacques Copeau, founders of two major streams of acting theory, both heavily utilized improvisation in acting training and rehearsal.[2]
Modern
Modern theatrical improvisation games began as drama exercises for children, which were a staple of drama education in the early 20th century thanks in part to the
Viola Spolin influenced the first generation of modern American improvisers at
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, which was directed by Paul Sills. From most accounts, David Shepherd provided the philosophical vision of the Compass Players, while Elaine May was central to the development of the premises for its improvisations. Mike Nichols, Ted Flicker, and Del Close were her most frequent collaborators in this regard. When The Second City opened its doors on December 16, 1959, directed by Paul Sills, his mother 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, who further developed Spolin's methods into a one-year course, which eventually became The Players Workshop, the first official school of improvisation in the United States. During this time, Forsberg trained many of the performers who went on to star on The Second City stage.[5][6]
Many of the original cast of
Simultaneously, Keith Johnstone's group The Theatre Machine, which originated in London, was touring Europe. This work gave birth to Theatresports, at first secretly in Johnstone's workshops, and eventually in public when he moved to Canada. Toronto has been home to a rich improv tradition.
In 1984,
In San Francisco,
Modern political improvisation's roots include Jerzy Grotowski's work in Poland during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Peter Brook's "happenings" in England during the late 1960s, Augusto Boal's "Forum Theatre" in South America in the early 1970s, and San Francisco's The Diggers' 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, an English actress and director who was active from the 1950s to 1960s, 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. The department also sent inspectors to some performances to check that the approved script was performed exactly as approved.
In 1987, Annoyance Theatre began as a club in Chicago that emphasizes longform improvisation. The Annoyance Theatre has grown into multiple locations in Chicago and New York City. It is the home of the longest running musical improv show in history at 11 years.[7]
In 2012, Lebanese writer and director Lucien Bourjeily used improvisational theater techniques to create a multi-sensory play entitled 66 Minutes in Damascus. This play premiered at the London International Festival of Theater, and is considered one of the most extreme kinds of interactive improvised theater put on stage. The audience play the part of kidnapped tourists in today's Syria in a hyperreal sensory environment.[8]
Rob Wittig and Mark C. Marino have developed a form of improv for online theatrical improvisation called netprov.[9] The form relies on social media to engage audiences in the creation of dynamic fictional scenarios that evolve in real-time.
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
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
Longform improvisation is especially performed in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Boston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C., and is building a growing following in Baltimore,[11] Denver, Kansas City, Montreal, Columbus, New Orleans, Omaha, Rochester, NY,[12] and Hawaii. Outside the United States, longform improv has a growing presence in the United Kingdom, especially in cities such as London,[13] Bristol, Glasgow, and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Non-comedic, experimental, and dramatic, narrative-based improvisational theater
Other forms of improvisational theatre training and performance techniques are
On the west coast, Ruth Zaporah developed Action Theatre, a physically based improvisation form that treats language, movement and voice equally. Action Theatre performances have no scripts, no preplanned ideas and create full-length shows or shorter performances. Longform, dramatic, and narrative-based improvisation is well-established on the west coast with companies such as San Francisco's BATS Improv. This format allows for full-length plays and musicals to be created improvisationally.
Applying improv principles in life
Many people who have studied improv have noted that the guiding principles of improv are useful, not just on stage, but in everyday life.[15] For example, Stephen Colbert in a commencement address said,[16]
Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say "yes." And if you're lucky, you'll find people who will say "yes" back.
Tina Fey, in her book Bossypants, lists several rules of improv that apply in the workplace.[17] There has been much interest in bringing lessons from improv into the corporate world. In a New York Times article titled "Can Executives Learn to Ignore the Script?", Stanford professor and author, Patricia Ryan Madson notes, "executives and engineers and people in transition are looking for support in saying yes to their own voice. Often, the systems we put in place to keep us secure are keeping us from our more creative selves."
Applying improv principles is also commonly used to enhance ideation in teams and groups.[18]
In film and television
Many directors have made use of improvisation in the creation of both mainstream and experimental films. Many
The British director Mike Leigh 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 and other mockumentary films of director Christopher Guest were created with a mix of scripted and unscripted material. Blue in the Face is a 1995 comedy directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster created in part by the improvisations during the filming of Smoke.
Some of the best known American film directors who used improvisation in their work with actors are John Cassavetes, Robert Altman, Christopher Guest, and Rob Reiner.
Improv comedy techniques have also been used in hit television shows such as
also had some improvised elements in them.Psychology
In the field of the psychology of consciousness, Eberhard Scheiffele explored the altered state of consciousness experienced by actors and improvisers in his scholarly paper Acting: an altered state of consciousness.[23] According to G. William Farthing in The Psychology of Consciousness comparative study, actors routinely enter into an altered state of consciousness (ASC).[24] 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.
In the growing field of
Structure and process
Improvisational theatre often 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 are planned.
In order for an improvised
The unscripted nature of improv also implies no predetermined knowledge about the
Because improvisers may be required to play a variety of roles without preparation, they need to be able to construct characters quickly with physicality, gestures, accents, voice 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.
In improv formats with multiple scenes, an agreed-upon signal is used to denote scene changes. Most often, this takes the form of a performer running in front of the scene, known as a "wipe". Tapping a character in or out can also be employed. The performers not currently part of the scene often stand at the side or back of the stage, and can enter or exit the scene by stepping into or out of the stage center.
Community
Many theatre troupes are devoted to staging improvisational performances and growing the improv community through their training centers.
In addition to for-profit theatre troupes, there are many college-based improv groups in the United States and around the world.
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
Notable contributors to the field
The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theater (BNW), is a sketch and improvisational comedy theater based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Started by Dudley Riggs in 1958, the artists of the BNW have been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy and improvisation performances for 62 years – longer than any other theater in the nation.[28] Notable alumni of the BNW include Louie Anderson, Mo Collins, Tom Davis, Al Franken, Penn Jillette, Carl Lumbly, Paul Menzel, Pat Proft, Annie Reirson, Taylor Nikolai, Nancy Steen, Peter Tolan, Linda Wallem, Lizz Winstead, Peter MacNicol, Melissa Peterman, and Cedric Yarbrough.
Some key figures in the development of improvisational theatre are
In 1975 Jonathan Fox founded Playback Theatre, a form of improvised community theatre which is often not comedic and replays stories as shared by members of the audience.
The Groundlings is a popular and influential improv theatre and training center in Los Angeles, California. The late Gary Austin, founder of The Groundlings, taught improvisation around the country, focusing especially in Los Angeles. He was widely acclaimed as one of the greatest acting teachers in America. His work was 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 Groundlings. The Groundlings is often seen as the Los Angeles training ground for the "second generation" of improv performers 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, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh founded the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and later they founded one in Los Angeles, each with an accompanying improv/sketch comedy school. In September 2011 the UCB opened a third theatre in New York City's East Village, known as UCBeast.
Hoopla Impro are the founders of the UK and London's first improv theatre.[31][32] They also run an annual UK improv festival[33] and improv marathon.[34][35]
In 2015, The Free Association opened in London as a counterpart to American improv schools.[36]
Gunter Lösel compared the existing improvisational theater theories (including Moreno, Spolin, Johnstone, and Close), structured them and wrote a general theory of improvisational theater.[37]
Alan Alda's book If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?[38][full citation needed] investigates the way in which improvisation improves communication in the sciences. The book is based on his work at Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. The book has many examples of how improvisational theater games can increase communication skills and develop empathy.
See also
- Busking
- Guerrilla theater
- Improvisation
- List of improvisational theatre companies
- List of improvisational theater festivals
- Playback Theatre
Notes
- PMID 30319485.
- ^ Twentieth Century Acting Training. ed. Alison Hodge. New York: Routledge, 2012.
- ^ "TheatreSports History". interactiveimprov.com.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8101-4008-0.
- ^ a b The story of the Compass Players and its development into The Second City is told by first-hand interviews in Jeffrey Sweet's book "Something Wonderful Right Away" (Limelight Editions, 2004)
- ^ a b Janet Coleman's "The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy" (Centennial Publications of The University of Chicago Press, 1991).
- ^ "History of the Annoyance | The Annoyance Theatre & Bar". theannoyance.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-29. Retrieved 2018-10-28.
- ^ Lois Jeary. "Review of 66 Minutes in Damascus at Shoreditch Town Hall - Exeunt Magazine". exeuntmagazine.com.
- ^ "Current Issue - Dichtung Digital". dichtung-digital.de. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
- ^ Holloway, Dan (March 5, 2013). "The Difference Between Long- and Short-Form Improv". Backstage. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
- ^ "Baltimore's comedy scene continues to grow, nurture aspiring talent".
- ^ "Fall Back Comedy Festival this weekend". Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
- ^ List of improvisational theatre companies[circular reference]
- ^ Experimental Theatre from Stanislavsky to Peter Brook by James Roose Evans
- ^ "Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Improv". Psychology Today.
- ^ Stephen Colbert 2006 Commencement Address at Knox College Transcript Archived 2020-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Tina Fey's Rules For Improv… And Your Career". Women 2.0. Archived from the original on 2012-01-09.
- ^ NathanMinns (2022-10-24). "How Improvisers Effectively Ideate In High-Stakes Situations". Green Light Improv. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ^ "improvise v. ad-lib".
- ^ "Tele Topics". Television Daily. 1949.
- ^ Ben Dowell (6 December 2008). "BBC sitcom lets kids improvise". the Guardian.
- ^ "The Thick of It: Back in the loop". The Independent. 23 October 2011.
- S2CID 145796956.
- ^ "Levels of Consciousness". sci-con.org.
- ^ "Yes, and: Acceptance, Resistance, and Change in Improv, Aikido, and Psychotherapy" (PDF).
- ^ "BBC World Service - People Fixing The World, Improvising Your Way Out of Anxiety". BBC. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
- ^ "Get the Laughs, but Follow the Rules", The New York Times, 20 February 2014
- ^ "Brave New Workshop Main | stan harry styles for clear skin ;0Improv, Satire and Comedy since 1958". Retrieved November 19, 2019.
The Brave New Workshop has been crafting audacious, hilarious, and thought-provoking original comedy, improv and satire in Minneapolis since 1958 – longer than any other theatre in the U.S.
- ^ Thompson, Mike (2007-11-15). "The Magic Meathands". magicmeathands.com. Archived from the original on 2007-11-15. Retrieved 2021-02-12.
- ^ An account of this process which lead up to the development of modern longform improvisation, as seen through first-person accounts of Shepherd and Halpern, can be found in the following documentary film: Mike Fly (2010). David Shepherd: A Lifetime in Improvisational Theatre.
- ^ Paskett, Zoe (10 May 2018). "London's Best Improv Comedy Clubs and Nights". Evening Standard.
- ^ "Improv Comedy Club".
- ^ "Improv has got big!". British Comedy Guide. 25 April 2019.
- ^ Holmes, Paul (17 October 2017). "Hoopla Improv Marathon". The Velvet Onion.
- ^ "The Hoopla Improv Marathon".
- ^ "The Rise Of Improvised Comedy By Sarah Powell". www.femalefirst.co.uk. October 31, 2017. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
- ^ Das Spiel mit dem Chaos - Zur Performativität des Improvisationstheaters. Gunter Lösel. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0812989144.
References
- Povinelli, Daniel J. "On the possibilities of detecting intentions prior to understanding them" (PDF). In B. Malle, D. Baldwin, & L. Moses (eds.), Intentions and Intentionality: Foundations of Social Cognition. MIT Press 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-03-20.
Further reading
- Abbott, John. 2007. The Improvisation Book. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 978-1-85459-961-2.
- Besser, Matt; Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh. 2013. The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual, Comedy Council of Nicea, ISBN 978-0989387804
- Charna Halpern, Del Close, Kim Howard Johnson. 1994. The Truth in Comedy - The Manual for Improvisation Meriwether Pub Ltd. ISBN 1566080037
- Coleman, Janet. 1991. The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
- Dudeck, Theresa Robbins. 2013. "Keith Johnstone: A Critical Biography." London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781408183274.
- Hauck, Ben. 2012. Long-Form Improv: The Complete Guide to Creating Characters, Sustaining Scenes, and Performing Extraordinary Harolds. New York: Allworth Press, 2012. ISBN 1581159811.
- ISBN 0-7136-8701-0.
- Koppett, Kat. 2011. "Training to imagine practical improvisational theatre techniques to enhance creativity, teamwork, leadership, and learn." Stylus Publishing.
- Lösel, Gunter. 2013. Das Spiel mit dem Chaos - Zur Performativität des Improvisationstheaters transcript. ISBN 978-3-8376-2398-7
- Ryan Madson, Patricia. 2005. "Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up" New York: Bell Tower. ISBN 1-4000-8188-2
- ISBN 0-8101-4008-X.
- Wasson, Sam (2017). Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art. ISBN 9780544557208.
External links
- Collection of improv games
- The Ultimate Guide to Improv: 101 Improv Tips
- How to improvise stand-up comedy, Wired UK, 11 April 2014
- How To Be A Better Improviser, an essay by Daniel Gray 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.
- Wiki about improvisational theatre (exercises and games)
- Fundamental Improv Principles.
- Improv Comedy for Anxiety.
- Group Mind and Intuition with Improv. Archived 2021-02-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Applied Improv Network - annual global conference on using improv off-stage, in business, education, and life
- Academic Literature Review of Theatrical Improvisation Training in the Workplace