Improvisation is a tool for many things: performance training, rehearsal practice, playwriting, therapeutic interaction and somatic discovery. This book opens up the significance of improvisation across cultures, histories and ways of performing our life, offering key insights into the what, the how and the why of performance. It traces the origins of improvisation and its influences, both as a social and political phenomenon and its position in performance training. Including history, theory and practice, this new edition encompasses Theatre and Performance Studies as well as Drama, acknowledging the rapid reconfiguration of these fields in recent years. Its coverage also now extends to improvisation in the USA, cinema, LARPing, street events and the improvising audience, while also looking at improv's relationship to stand-up comedy, jazz, poetry and free movement practices. With an index of exercises and an extensive bibliography, this book is indispensable to students of improvisation.

The book charts the development of collaboratively-created performances from the 1950s to the present day. Companies discussed include the Living Theatre, Open Theatre, Australian Performing Group, People Show, Teatro Campesino, Théâtre de Complicité, Legs on the Wall, Forced Entertainment and Third Angel. Against this background of enormous variety, fundamental questions are posed: "What is devised theatre?"; "Why have theatre-makers chosen to devise performances since the 1950s?" and "How has devised performance changed over the last fifty years?"

Product Description: Executives from The Second City—the world’s premier comedy theater and school of improvisation—reveal improvisational techniques that can help any organization develop innovators, encourage adaptable leaders, and build transformational businesses...read more

Product Description:  This spirited volume explores the history and diversity of improvisation in the cinema, including works by Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, and Nobuhiro Suwa. Gilles Mouëllic examines improvisational practices that can be specifically attributed to the cinema and argues in favors of their powers as instigators of unprecedented forms of expression...read more

Product Description: Improvisation is a performance practice that animates and activates diverse energies of inspiration, critique, and invention. In recent years it has coalesced into an exciting and innovative new field of interdisciplinary scholarly inquiry, becoming a cornerstone of both practical and theoretical approaches to performance...read more

101 More Improv Games for Children and Adults: A Smart Fun Book for Ages 5 and Up is the follow-up to Bob Bedore’s popular 101 Improv Games for Children and Adults. This sequel takes readers deeper into the craft of improv – with all new games!Improvisation is the magical art of creating something out of nothing, and making an audience laugh along the way. Author Bob Bedore emphasizes that improvisation, creativity, and teamwork are accessible to everyone, all the time. These 101 group games help will help readers learn to think on their feet, develop confidence, work as a team, and have a lot of fun in the process!This book stands on its own or is a great companion to Bob Bedore’s first book. While the first book focused on teaching improv skills to children, 101 More Improv Games for Children and Adults focuses on entertaining an audience and creating memorable scenes. It includes information about how to do long-form improvisation like plays and musicals, and how to produce your own improv show.Improv is a great way to have fun, relax, learn theater, and learn to work together. Educators and parents will love the way improv teaches these skills without seeming like an educational tool at all. Meanwhile, actors and improv students will appreciate the author's fun and down-to-earth approach to developing their craft.101 More Improv Games for Children and Adults is full of great activities for kids, teachers, drama students, actors, improv groups, or anyone experimenting with improv!

Product Description: A resource book with over seventy games and lists for using improv games to teach drama skills.Using your own improv group for generating new ideas is best, but this book gives you a source of new inspiration to keep things lively...read more

Product Description:  This spirited volume explores the history and diversity of improvisation in the cinema, including works by Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, and Nobuhiro Suwa. Gilles Mouëllic examines improvisational practices that can be specifically attributed to the cinema and argues in favors of their powers as instigators of unprecedented forms of expression...read more

Product Description: Improvisation teachers have long known that the human mind could be trained to be effortlessly spontaneous and intuitive. Drinko explores what these improvisation teachers knew about improvisation's effects on consciousness and cognition and compares these theories to current findings in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy...read more

Product Description: Creating innovative products and game-changing processes, and adapting to new cultures and communication styles, have all become imperative for business survival. Today’s business leaders, from Fortune 500 companies on down, have discovered the value of improvisational theatre techniques to develop creativity and collaboration skills they need...read more

The third edition of this popular text uses music and drama to promote learning across the curriculum and with all types of learners. Based on arts integration standards, differentiated instruction techniques, and current research, Creative Drama and Music Methods provides the theory along with applications to help teachers build confidence in using the arts in their daily lesson plans. The text is filled with hands-on activities that guide pre-service and K-8th grade teachers in understanding that integrating drama and music is easy, fun, and vital to fostering a child's desire to explore, imagine, and learn. Examples are provided in each chapter, along with the purpose of the activity and tips for instruction. Rubin and Merrion provide activities that engage elementary and middle school students and range from simple stories and rhythmic activities to story dramatization and composition. All the activities can be comfortably incorporated into the classroom routine and place no additional burdens on the teacher. They are especially useful for educators with valid learning goals but limited experience in creative drama and music. Not typical for creative drama or music texts, Creative Drama and Music Methods takes a process approach to the two arts, placing primary significance on the learner's growth and development.

Product Description: Anyone can do improvisational comedy -- all you need is a sense of humor and a touch of fearlessness. The Immediate Gratification Players have been improvising at Harvard University since 1986, and in this book, they show you how to do it, too...read more

First, pick up a copy of Rachel Rosenthal’s inspiring The DbD Experience; Part manual, part manifesto, part memoir, then head for Los Angeles… FRIDAY - OriginsArrive at the Doing by Doing workshop to be greeted by Rosenthal, pioneering theatre explorer and your host for the weekend ahead. Explore non-human ways of living and moving. Begin to develop a shared vocabulary with your fellow students through exercises. SATURDAY - ConnectionsContinue to connect with the group on an energetic level. Make the journey from Kansas to OZ. Collaborate and create as a group, moving and vocalising without language. Improvise boldly at every step. Treat music, voice, lighting, costume, sets, props and fellow performers as equals. SUNDAY - PowerLearn to arrive in the moment when you are needed. Engage with transformative processes and take part in the Star Meditation. Understand your own individual power, joining your physical and emotional self. Perform solo improvisations and the Rambler – the final, extended culmination of everything that you have learned through the 34 hour experience.

Acclaimed by audiences and critics for their highly innovative and adventurous theatre, Frantic Assembly have created playful, intelligent and dynamic productions for over fourteen years. Written by artistic directors Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre is the first book to reflect on the history and practice of this remarkable company, and includes: practical exercises essays on film, music and physical theatre inspiration for devising, writing and choreographing performance suggestions for scene development an anthology of Frantic Assembly productions an eight page colour section, and illustrations throughout. Accompanied by a companion website featuring clips of rehearsals and performances, this intimate and personal account offers an accessible, educational and indispensable introduction to the evolution and success of Frantic Assembly.

Product Description: Acting Games for the Individual Actor is a Meriwether Publishing publication.