What is improvisation?

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Improvisation workshop, London 2008

Improvisation workshop, London 2007

Improvisation workshop, London 2008

What is improvisation?

Improvisation is the spontaneous enactment of a scene or story. Improvising and adlibbing differ in the fact that improvising is a collective activity where free flow is as important as attention to others.

Improvisers need to be present in the moment and open to their surroundings. Reaching for the near impossible, they often fail. In fact skilled improvisers don't stop failing, they just start enjoying it.

Why doing it?

Different people practice improvisation for different reasons. Think of it as a gym. Some members want to work on their arms, others on their stomach etc. Improvisation is the same. Through practice, shy people will gain assertiveness, assertive people will develop their listening skills and all will learn to work as a team and laugh at their own mistakes.

Theatre Games or Theatre Sports?

Theatre Games and Theatre Sports are currently the two main trends in improvisation, although there are many other

Early genesis

1897 - Paris (France) - Andre Antoine's naturalistic theatre: the rise of the fourth wall.
1898 - Moscow (Russia) - Art Theatre founded by Constantin Stanislavski on the principle of realistic theatre.
1920 - Paris (France) - Mask improvisation at the Ecole du Vieux-Colombier.
1921 - Vienna (Austria) - J.L. Moreno directs the "Theatre of Spontaneity".
1929 - Accra (Ghana) - The Accra Dramatic Society perform improvised plays.
1935 - New York (US) - Sanford Meisner join the Neighborhood Playhouse and starts developing his teaching technique.
1939 - Chicago (US) - Viola Spolin starts developing the concept of Theatre Games.
1951 - Milan (Italy) - Jacques Lecoq creates the Theatre School of the Piccolo Teatro.
1955 - Chicago (US) - David Shepherd and Paul Sills found the Compass Players, later to become The Second City, combining Theatre Games with audience participation to produce improvised and partially scripted performances.
1958 - London (England) - Keith Johnstone starts using improvisation to train students at the Royal Court theatre.
late 1960s - San Francisco (US) Del Close develops the Harold long form of improvisation.
1963 (US) Viola Spolin's Improvisation for the Theater is published.
1973 (Latin America) Augusto Boal develops Invisible theatre and later Forum Theatre.
1975 - New York State (US) Jonathan Fox develops Playback Theatre.
1977 - Quebec (Canada) - Robert Gravel's Ligue Nationale d'Improvisation stages the first public performance mixing improvisation with sport.
1978 - Calgary (Canada) - Keith Johnstone's TheatreSports first public match.
1978 - Ottawa (Canada) Carleton High School Improv Olympics is founded.
1979 - (Canada) - Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone is published.

Main source: David Alfred Charles (pdf)

ways to practice it, such as Playback and Forum Theatre. In Theatre Sports players perform to win or loose a (hopefully tong in check) competition. It is by far the most popular format. Theatre Games tries to reach beyond the need for gratification and insists on togetherness. People prefer one school or the other according to their tastes and personality. The Far Games are more of the Theatre Games school but we believe that any properly facilitated impro training has merits and can bring great benefits.

Focus, Adjust and Reach.

That's the FAR in Far Games. Got it?

A player's development from scratch can take many forms. Here we describe it as a cascade with each phase feeding into the next but the map isn't the territory...

Focus: I am.

Engage, give yourself the permission to fail, find your voice.
At this stage we play to win, in celebration of a newly found freedom and in search of boundaries.

- Use your right brain to process information kinaesthetically (in the form of movement and energy), be in the here and now and part of the ensemble. Use your left brain to test strategies and learn from experience. Avoid judging your work.

Adjust: I belong.

Respond, agree to be changed, serve common goals.
At this stage we play to loose, or rather, to favour the overall outcome over our personal need to shine.

- Use your right brain to capture the big picture, let things happen and take risks. Use your left brain to acknowledge others, pay attention to details and play by the rules.

Reach: We are.

Be both attentive and free.
At this stage we play to play, taking ownership and finding solutions rather than problems.

- Stay out of your head.

Emotional intelligence

Self-awareness - the ability to read one's emotions and recognise their impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
Self-management - involves controlling one's emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
Social awareness - the ability to sense, understand, and react to other's emotions while comprehending social networks.
Relationship management - the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while managing conflict.

Source: Goleman model, Wikipedia.

Left brain linear conceptual explicit logic detail facts language present and past knowledge acknowledges object name order/pattern strategies reality science	Right brain parallel experiential implicit feeling "big picture" imagination symbols present and future meaning appreciates object function spatial awarnes possibilities fantasy believes
Origin: R. W. Sperry.

Objectives

To empower. Players are in control of their experience and can decide when to take part and when to watch. New knowledge is being generated by all and emerges from practice and observation rather than lecture and prescription.

To engage. With nothing to prove we can let go of our fears and step into the playground. Playing engages us emotionally and physically as well as intellectually. Story telling is all about involvement and emotional triggers.

To rehearse. Players soon realise that failure is a great way to learn rather than an embarrassing shortcoming. This is "real life with a rewind button". Mistakes allow us to try again with insight.

To benefit. Players practice relaxation communication and problem-solving games collaboratively. This improve their presentation skills as well as their capacity to think on their feet, work as a team and show leadership.

Surfing the pecking order

Pecking orders are the stabilised ranking of individuals in social groups. They offer a robust way for members to avoid wasting time and energy in endless conflict over position - until an environmental change reshuffles the cards.

High or low, our personal status is a reflection of the standing we have in a group, the place we occupy in its pecking order. This position is fluid and subject to circumstances, i.e. after a shipwreck, the most respected individual in a group would probably be the one who knows how to fish. Keith Johnstone first spotted the importance of status in improvisation. As improvisers, statuses inform us on four levels:

As a person. What is our favourite place in the pecking order? Would we rather be leading or following? Are we being supportive or forever competing for attention? Status games allow us to explore our inner-self and the relation we have with others in both a concrete and lighthearted manner.

As a player. Improvisation is a team game and players' status within the team will constantly change. According to circumstances, players have to support others or take the lead, sometime both at once! And a player's understanding of what a scene should be about will not necessarily be shared by other players, hence the need for everyone to constantly re-adjust.

As a character. A character's status can be high or low compaired to other characters, but status games can also be played with places, objects, ideas and feelings, and status swings offers endless reservoir of scenes that will "write themselves", as first described by Keith Johnstone.

As a storyteller. Most stories establish some form of pecking order in the opening scenes and proceed to upset it. Closing scenes generally feature the restoration of the original order or the foundation of a new one, along with the triumph or destruction of the main protagonist(s).

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