NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Improvisational theatre

Improvisational theatre (also known as improv or impro) is a form of theatre in which the actors use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously. Actors typically use audience suggestions to guide the performance as they create dialogue, setting, and plot extemporaneously. Improvisational theatre performances tend to be comedic, although some forms, including Playback Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed, are not necessarily intended to be comedic. Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke while waiting between takes during location filming An actor or actress is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. ... An audience is a group of people who participate in an experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. ... This article belongs in one or more categories. ... Comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humour with an intent to provoke[[ laughter in general). ... 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. ... Augusto Boal (born 1931 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is an innovative and influential theatrical director, writer and politician. ...

Many improvisational actors also work as scripted actors, and "improv" techniques are often taught in standard acting classes. The basic skills of listening, clarity, confidence, and performing instinctively and spontaneously are considered important skills for actors to develop.

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. The shortform improv comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? has familiarized American and British viewers with shortform. Image:Spolin2. ... Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line?) is a short form improvisational comedy show. ...

Longform improv performers create shows in which scenes are often interrelated by story, characters, or themes. Longform shows may take the form of an existing type of theater, for example a full-length play or Broadway-style musical. Longform improvisation is especially performed in Chicago and New York City. Perhaps the best-known, and considered the first, longform structure is the Harold, developed by ImprovOlympic cofounder Del Close. Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Musical theater (or theatre) is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town, City of the Big Shoulders, The 312, The City that Works Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... The Harold is an improvisational long-form. ... The ImprovOlympic (now known as IO or IO Chicago) is a theater in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy. ... Del Close Del Close (born March 9, 1934, in Manhattan, Kansas; died March 4, 1999), along with Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin, is considered one of the premier influences on improvisational theater. ...

Origins

Improvised performance is as old as performance itself. From the 16th to the 18th century, Commedia dell'arte performers improvised in the streets of Italy^[1]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.^[2] Karel Dujardins set his closely-observed scene of a travelling troupes makeshift stage against idealized ruins in the Roman Campagna: dated 1657 (Louvre Museum) Commedia dellarte (Italian: play of professional artists also interpreted as comedy of humors), also known as Extemporal Comedy, was a popular form of improvisational... A portrait of Konstantin Stanislavski by Valentin Serov. ... Jacques Copeau (1879-1949) was an influential French theatre director, producer, critic and playwright. ...

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 1950s. These rehearsal-room activities evolved quickly to an independent artform worthy of presentation before a paying audience. Dudley Riggs (born 1932) is a noted improvisational comedian who created the Instant Theater Company, which later moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to become the Brave New Workshop (BNW) comedy troupe. ... Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ... Keith Johnstone is a drama instructor who has taught in England and Canada and more recently around the world. ...

Viola 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 and Second City They were among the first organised troupes in Chicago, Illinois and from their success, the modern Chicago improvisational comedy movement was spawned. The Compass Players was a 1950s cabaret-style revue show started by undergraduates at the University of Chicago. ... Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town, City of the Big Shoulders, The 312, The City that Works Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government... The Second City Logo The Second City is a long-running improvisational comedy troupe based in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, with offshoot troupes in other cities, most notably Toronto. ... Paul Sills (born 18 November, 1927) is a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of The Second City, Playwrights and Compass Players. ... David Shepherd (1926-) is an American producer, director, and actor primarily noted for his work in improvisational theatre In 1953 Shepherd was one of the co-founders of the Playwrights Theatre Club in Chicago. ... The Second City Logo The Second City is a long-running improvisational comedy troupe based in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, with offshoot troupes in other cities, most notably Toronto. ...

Much of the current "rules" of comedic improv were first formalized among The Compass troupe. From most accounts Elaine May was central to this intellectual effort. Mike Nichols, Ted Flicker, and Del Close were her most frequent collaborators in this regard. Elaine May (b. ... Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky) is an Academy Award winning movie director of films such as The Graduate and Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was born on November 6, 1931 in Berlin, to a Jewish Russian family. ... Del Close Del Close (born March 9, 1934, in Manhattan, Kansas; died March 4, 1999), along with Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin, is considered one of the premier influences on improvisational theater. ...

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, Chevy Chase and John Belushi. Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late night 90-minute American comedy-variety show based in New York City which has been broadcast by NBC on Saturday nights since October 11, 1975. ... Michael Myers can refer to: The Rt Hon Sir Michael Myers was the sixth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. ... Chevy Chase (born Cornelius Crane Chase on October 8, 1943) is an Emmy Award-winning American comedian, writer, and television and film actor. ... John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 â€“ March 5, 1982) was an Emmy award winning American actor, comedian and singer most notable for his work on Saturday Night Live, National Lampoons Animal House and The Blues Brothers. ...

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 Keith's workshops, and eventually in public when Keith moved to Canada. Toronto has been home to a rich improv tradition. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Theatresports, or Theatre Sports, is a form of competitive improvisational theatre and is a trademark of the International Theatresports Institute (ITI). ...

In San Francisco, The Committee theater was active during the 1960s. The Committee Theater was a San Francisco based improvisational comedy group formed in 1963. ...

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 Fransico'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. Jerzy Grotowski (August 11, 1933 - January 14, 1999) was a Polish theatre director and a leading figure of theatrical avant garde of the 20th century. ... Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH CBE (born 21 March 1925) is a highly influential British theatrical producer and director. ... Augusto Boal (born 1931 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is an innovative and influential theatrical director, writer and politician. ... For other meanings see Diggers (disambiguation) and Levellers (disambiguation) The Diggers were a group begun by Gerrard Winstanley in 1649 which called for a total destruction of the existing social order and replacement with a communistic and agrarian lifestyle based around the precepts of Christian Nationalism, wishing to rid England...

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 exactly complied with. Joan Maud Littlewood (6 October 1914 - 20 September 2002) was a theatrical director, famous for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop. ... The Lord Chamberlains Office is a department within the British Royal Household. ...

Improvisational Comedy on Film and Television

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. A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... â€œCharles Chaplinâ€ redirects here. ... Joseph Frank Keaton, Jr. ... Look up plot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Frenchy (father), Chico and Harpo. ... See AdLib for the computer sound card manufacturer. ...

Improv comedy techniques have also been used in film, television and stand-up comedy, notably the mockumentary films of director Christopher Guest, the recent HBO television show Curb Your Enthusiasm created by Larry David, The NBC comedy series The Office, the Comedy Central series Reno 911! and the routines of Ross Noble, Robin Williams, Jonathan Winters, and Eddie Izzard, who often improvise onstage. Richard Pryor hits the money line A stand-up comedian or stand-up comic is someone that performs in comedy clubs, usually reciting a fast paced succession of amusing stories, short jokes and one-liners, typically called a monologue. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born February 5, 1948), is a British/American comedian, actor, writer, director, composer, and musician known as Christopher Guest. ... HBO (Home Box Office) is an American premium cable television network. ... Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American sitcom starring Seinfeld writer, co-creator, and executive producer Larry David. ... Larry David (born July 2, 1947) is an Emmy-winning American actor, writer, comedian, producer and film director born and raised in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York. ... NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company, its former corporate name) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... The Office is the name of two television comedy shows created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. ... Comedy Central is a cable television and satellite television channel in the United States and, as of January 15, 2007, in Germany [1] and Poland. ... Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central which debuted in 2003. ... Ross Noble, born 6 June 1976 an English stand-up comedian, raised in Cramlington, Northumberland. ... For other persons named Robin Williams, see Robin Williams (disambiguation). ... Jonathan Winters (born November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio) is an American comedic actor. ... Edward John Eddie Izzard (born February 7, 1962) is a British cross-dressing stand-up comedian and actor who describes himself as an executive or action transvestite. ...

Psychology of Improvisational Theatre

The psychology and neurobiology of improv have not been subject to extensive research. One possible avenue for exploration is the hypothesis of two brain systems for taking-in and reacting to the behaviour of another. One, evolutionary younger, would rely on a theory of mind and rationalisation. The other, evolutionary older and shared with other primates, would rely on how it is comfortable or uncomfortable to react in a given situation: drawing on non-intellectualised emotional experience. [1]

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. Following the definition in The Psychology of Consciousness by G. William Farthing (see comparative study), the author argues that actors (in performance, drama classes, or in psychodrama) routinely enter an ASC. Acting is seen as altering most of the 14 dimensions of changed subjective experience which characterise 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. The Far Games, a collection of improvisation games designed to popularised improvisation is using an adaptation of this nomenclature to indicates the aspects of consciousness likely to be altered when playing a particular game. Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ...

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 actors 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 actor 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 actors to accept the offers that their fellow performers make; to not do so is known as blocking, 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. Scene may refer to: Scene (fiction), an element of a larger fictional work such as a play Scene (film), a part of action in a single location in a TV or movie Scene (music), a collection of musical acts that play regularly in one location. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... This article is about Mime as an art form. ... Blocking is a term used in theatrical improvisation (or improv) and theatre sports to designate an actor who does not accept the dramatic world set up by other actors and declines offers made by an actor to come into that dramatic imaginary world. ...

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. As with all improv offers, actors 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. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about Mime as an art form. ...

Because improv actors 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 actor 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 improv actors must therefore attempt to act according to the objectives that they believe their character seeks. Military signalmen use hand and body gestures to direct flight operations aboard aircraft carriers. ... Accents mark speakers as a member of a group by their pronunciation of the standard language. ... The human voice consists of sound made by a human using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, screaming. ...

Improv penalties

Within some circles of competition, a referee is called upon to keep improv scenes in check. The referee, although allowed to stop play for his own independent reasons, is generally required to call a penalty for the actions he finds questionable.

The improv 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 improvisational acting, Impro. There are also many independent companies 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? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line?) is a short form improvisational comedy show. ...

Improv luminaries

Some key figures in the development of improvisational theatre are Viola Spolin and her son Paul Sills, founder of Chicago's famed Second City troupe and inventor of Story Theater; Dudley Riggs, founder of Minneapolis' Brave New Workshop; Del Close, founder of ImprovOlympic and creator of the longform improv known as "The Harold" along with his partner Charna Halpern; 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 and Dick Chudnow, founder of ComedySportz which evolved its family-friendly show format from Johnstone's Theatersports. Nickname: City of Lakes Motto: En Avant (French: Lets go!) Location in Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota. ... The Brave New Workshop (BNW), begun as the Instant Theater Company in New York City, is a satirical theater company that was created in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1958 by Dudley Riggs, with improvised help from Dick Guindon, Irv Letofsky, and Dan Sullivan. ... The ImprovOlympic (now known as IO or IO Chicago) is a theater in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy. ... The Harold is an improvisational long-form. ... A Chicago-area theater owner best known for being a co-founder of ImprovOlympic. ... Dick Chudnow is a U.S. comedian and entrepreneur. ... ComedySportzÂ® is an improvisational comedy organization started in 1984 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by Dick Chudnow. ...

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 inventor of Story Theater, and Del Close, founder of ImprovOlympic (along with Charna Halpern) and creator of the longform improv known as The Harold. Avery Schreiber (April 9, 1935 - January 7, 2002) was an American comedian. ... Image:Spolin2. ... Paul Sills (born 18 November, 1927) is a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of The Second City, Playwrights and Compass Players. ... The Second City Logo The Second City is a long-running improvisational comedy troupe based in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, with offshoot troupes in other cities, most notably Toronto. ... Del Close Del Close (born March 9, 1934, in Manhattan, Kansas; died March 4, 1999), along with Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin, is considered one of the premier influences on improvisational theater. ... The ImprovOlympic (now known as IO or IO Chicago) is a theater in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy. ... A Chicago-area theater owner best known for being a co-founder of ImprovOlympic. ... Longform improvisation, often referred to simply as longform, is an approach to improvisational theatre and improvisational comedy consisting of one or more scenes which are connected by a narrative thread or theme. ... The Harold is an improvisational long-form. ...

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. Jonathan Fox is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. ... 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. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ...

One former Groundlings director, Stan Wells, has generated two new longform styles: the clap-in and transformation styles. Transformation is currently only performed by The Transformers Improv Troupe, but the clap-in form has been performed at the Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, and at the ACME Comedy Theatre.^{[citations needed]} Look up transformation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicagos ImprovOlympic. ... ACME Comedy Theatrein Los Angeles, CA, USA, features live comedy. ...

David Shepherd, with Paul Sills, founded the 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-creatied videos. He is the author of "That Movie In Your Head", about these efforts. The Compass Players was a 1950s cabaret-style revue show started by undergraduates at the University of Chicago. ...

A more comprehensive view of Improvisational Theater Can be found on the Improv Wiki [2]

References

Encyclopedia > Improvisational theatre

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