Have you ever seen a HAROLD in your life?

Improv theater, called Impro, Improv or Improv Comedy, is usually known for improvisation games. Television shows like Who’s Line is you anyway? popularized improvisation games on the Internet. The entire Improv methodology was developed through improvised games. All improvisers learn to improvise through them. Improvised games are the ABC of improvisation but… what about the rest of the alphabet?

In 1955, in California, members of the group The Committee decided to put on a different improvisational show that night. Instead of a theatrical show made up of improvisation games as they normally did, they decided to try a new way of improvising: with just one word from the audience as an initial suggestion, they would improvise the entire show straight without stopping until the end. After the performance, in the car, returning home, the group’s director, called Del Close, asked what they would name that different type of improvisation and one of the members simply replied: “Harold!”. Long form improvisation, also called slow comedy, was born there.

Claudio Amado is from Teatro do Nada, one of the precursor groups of Improv in Brazil, founded in 2004. In 2009, Claudio Amado debuted Dois É Bom, the first long form created and presented in Brazil. He gathered his own notes, studies and translations on long forms, origins, mechanisms and formats. His practice as a regular impro teacher since 2005 and director of impro shows, combined with his work as an actor, resulted in a concrete and objective experience of improvisation theater. The book is a practical and detailed invitation for actors and improvisers to enter the world of dramatic improvisation and long forms and reach the full potential that improvisation has. Discover some of the best-known long formats in the book: Harold, Current, La ronde, Pyramid. All chapters are accompanied by corresponding scenes and exercises. There are a total of 43 exercises, scenic resources, narrative mechanisms and training formats, as well as a list of relationships and references at the end.

Attention: the digital version of the book comes with 156 hyperlinks throughout the text, with articles, videos and links that accompany the reading (the “DVD Extras”). Recommended for actors who need to improvise more and for improvisers who are looking for something beyond improvisation games. Also suitable for theater and improvisation teachers, theater and impro groups; students of performing arts, playwriting, theater directing and anyone interested in improvisational theater, collaborative writing, performing arts, storytelling, screenwriting and playwriting; collective creation, spontaneity and creativity.