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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 their 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.

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

Improvisational comedy (also called improv or impro) is comedy that is performed with a little to no predetermination of subject matter and structure. The performers discover their lines and actions spontaneously. Improvisational comedy is a form of improvisational theater. Modern improvisational comedy, as it is practiced in the West, falls generally into two categories: short form and long form.

Short form

Short form improvisation consists of short, unrelated scenes usually driven by an audience suggestion with a predetermined game, structure, or idea. In short form games, which take from two to ten minutes, the performers attempt to create a comprehensible scene from audience suggestions while conforming to the specified (and sometimes purposefully restrictive) rules of the game. Wit and speed are favored. Short form is often used as warmups, for beginners to learn basic principles of improv, or even portions of a long form.

Many short form games first created by Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone are still performed to this day. Television audiences would be most familiar with short form through the UK and US versions of the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Short form improvisation is performed around the world and is closely identified with the competitive improv formats of ComedySportz and Theatresports.

Long form

In long form, often termed Longform, performers create shows in which improvised scenes are connected and progressive, interrelated by story, characters, or themes. Audiences are often asked for one or more suggestions or inputs which drive the narrative of the performance, as opposed to the more structured short form. This may take the form of a specific existing type of theater, for example a full-length improvised play or Broadway-style musical. Or, the scenes may be largely unrelated with the exception of a single point of inspiration. The length can be anywhere from 20 minutes to 2-hours at the extreme. Long form improvisation can at times be episodic, spanning several shows with the same characters, each show taking the aforementioned time. Some long forms are narrative while others focus on character development, exploration of relationships, or the extrapolation of themes and ideas. Long form improvisation is performed around the world, and is especially widespread in Chicago, one of the most active communities of modern improvisational theatre. Perhaps the best known long form structure is The Harold, developed by ImprovOlympic cofounder Del Close. San Francisco style long forms (or play-length long forms) are 2-hour single-story long forms rooted in the idea that if someone can perform something scripted (like a play, movie, or musical) then it can also be improvised just as well. Newer forms include the clap-in and transformation forms, developed by Stan Wells at the Empty Stage Comedy Theatre. The clap-in has also been performed by other groups at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade and ACME Comedy Theatre.

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 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 1950s. These rehearsal-room activities evolved quickly to an independent artform worthy of presentation before a paying audience.

Viola Spolin can probably be considered the American Grandmother of Improv. She influenced the first generation of Improv at the Second City in Chicago. Her son, Paul Sills, along with David Sheppard, 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. 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. The comedy clubs of Chicago also produced sketch comedy groups like the Kids in the Hall and more recently, the soon to be aired Modern Convenience.

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.

In San Francisco, The Committee theater was active during the 1960's.

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.

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.

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.

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, and the routines of Ross Noble, Robin Williams, Jonathan Winters, and Eddie Izzard, who often improvise onstage.

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]

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.

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.

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.

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?. A few notable examples are William and Mary's IT, or Improv Theatre, James Madison University's New and Improv'd, Boston University's Liquid Fun[2], and Pepperdine University's PIT, or Pepperdine Improv Troupe.

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 long form 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 short form Theatresports format and Dick Chudnow, founder of ComedySportz which evolved its family-friendly show format from Johnstone's Theatersports.

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 long form improv known as The Harold.

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. In 1976 Keith Johnstone founded Theatre Sports a fun competitive short form of improvisational theatre comprising a large range of games and scene formats. In 1984 Dick Chudnow founded ComedySportz dealing specifically with competitive short form improvisational theatre.

The Groundlings is a popular and influential improv theatre and training center in Los Angeles, California.

One former Groundlings director, Stan Wells, has generated two new long form 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.

David Shepherd, with Paul Sills, founded the Compass Theatre 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.

Leading the new generation of improv is Total Improv which was founded in North Hollywood. The Avery Schreiber Theatre is home to the troop whose members created the improv form known as Shlinx.

A more comprehensive view of Improvisational Theater Can be found on the Improv Wiki [3]

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.

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 *[http://www.improwiki.de The German improv-wiki]  A Wiki dedicated to improvisational theater, in German.
 *[http://davehitt.com/improv.html The ISFP Players Handbook]  A 140+ page Improv Handbook.  Includes Hundreds of games, Advice for directors and performers, and long lists of ask-fors, emotions, film & theater styles, etc.
-* [http://www.dangoldstein.com/howtoimprovise.html How to Be a Better Improviser]: an excellent primer on some of the basic precepts ("ground rules") of improv, by improviser and professor [[Daniel Goldstein|Dan Goldstein]].
 * [http://www.humanpingpongball.com Improv Encyclopedia] encyclopedia of over 500 improv games, techniques and terminology.
 * [http://greenlightwiki.com/improv The Improv Wiki] discusses techniques for performing and learning improv.