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
actors/improvisers use
improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously. Improvisers typically use
audience suggestions to contribute to the content and direction of the performance as they create
dialogue, setting, and plot extemporaneously. Other forms of improvisational theatre training and performance techniques are
experimental and Avant-garde in nature and not necessarily intended to be
comedic. These include
Playback Theatre and
Theatre of the Oppressed, the
Poor Theatre,
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, structure, or idea and driven by an audience suggestion. Many shortform games were first created by Viola Spolin based on her training from Neva Boyd. The shortform improv comedy television series ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' 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-style musical such as Spontaneous Broadway. Longform improvisation is especially performed in Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and has a growing following in Minneapolis, Kansas City and Austin. One of the more well-known longform structures is the Harold, developed by ImprovOlympic cofounder Del Close. 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 performers improvised based on a broad outline in the streets of Italy and in the 1890s theatrical theorists and directors such as
Konstantin Stanislavski and
Jacques Copeau, founders of two major streams of acting theory, both heavily utilised improvisation in acting training and rehearsal.
While some people credit Dudley Riggs as the first vaudevillian 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 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. Her son, Paul Sills, along with David Shepherd, 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.
Much 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 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, 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 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'' came from The Second City and the franchise has produced such comedy stars as Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Bob Odenkirk, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Eugene Levy, Steve Carell, Chris Farley, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
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 Dick Chudnow (''Kentucky Fried Theater'') founded ComedySportz 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 theater was active during the 1960s.
When The Committee 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 would drop by and sit in. “Improv Comedy” was born. In 1979 John Elk brought Short-Form to England, teaching workshops at Jacksons Lane Theatre and was the first American to perform at The Comedy Store, London, above a Soho strip club.
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, 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. 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 filmmakers such as
Charlie Chaplin and
Buster Keaton used improvisation in the making of their films, developing their gags while filming and altering the
plot to fit. The
Marx Brothers 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 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 are created with a mix of scripted and unscripted material and ''Blue in the Face'' 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'' created by Larry David, the UK Channel 4 and ABC television series ''Whose Line Is It Anyway (and its spinoffs Drew Carey's Green Screen Show and Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza), ''Nick Cannon's improv comedy show ''Wild 'N Out'', and ''Thank God You're Here''. In Canada, the long-running series ''Train 48'' 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,
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 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. 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 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, 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 props 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. 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, 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.
Keith Johnstone and Improvisational Theatre
Keith Johnstone’s work at the Royal Court Theatre in the late 1950s is seen as the foundational 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, 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?''.
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,
Viola Spolin and her son
Paul Sills, founder of Chicago's famed
Second City troupe and originator of
Theater Games, and
Del Close, founder of
ImprovOlympic (along with
Charna Halpern) and creator of a
longform improv format known as
The Harold. Other luminaries include
Keith Johnstone, the British teacher and writer–author of ''
Impro'', who founded the Theatre Machine and whose teachings form the foundation of the popular shortform
Theatresports format,
Dick Chudnow, founder of
ComedySportz which evolved its family-friendly show format from Johnstone's Theatersports,
Stan Wells, creator of the "Clap-In" longform style and founder of The
Empty Stage Comedy Theatre 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 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. 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 founded 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, Terry McGovern, John Elk, Buzz Belmondo, Robin Williams, Barry Sobel, Dana Carvey, Gil Christner, Joyce Imbesi, Taylor Negron, Jose Simon and Paul Willson.
The Groundlings is a popular and influential improv theatre and training center in Los Angeles, California. Gary Austin, 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, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh founded the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and later they founded one in Los Angeles. The two theatres host a large improv school.
See also
Ad lib
Atellan Farce
Busking
Commedia dell'arte
Guerrilla improv
Improvisation
List of improvisational theatre companies
List of improvisational theater festivals
Thank God You're Here
References
Further reading
John Abbott. 2007. ''The Improvisation Book''. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 978-1-85459-961-2.
Coleman, Janet. 1991. ''The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy''. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
Johnstone, Keith. 1981. ''Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre'' Rev. ed. London: Methuen, 2007. ISBN 0-7136-8701-0.
Nachmanovitch, Stephen. 1990. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art New York: Penguin-Tarcher. ISBN 0-87477-631-7.
Spolin, Viola. 1967. ''Improvisation for the Theater''. Third rev. ed. Evanston, Il.: Northwestern University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8101-4008-X.
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.
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![Chicago’s theatre community spawned modern improvisational theatre.[33] Two renowned comedy troupes emerged — The Second City and I.O. (formerly known as ImprovOlympic).](http://web.archive.org./web/20120424073851/http://cdn2.wn.com/pd/d0/61/ea5c8af30adb34cf6ff98aef3b37_medium.jpg "Chicago’s theatre community spawned modern improvisational theatre.[33] Two renowned comedy troupes emerged — The Second City and I.O. (formerly known as ImprovOlympic).")
