Training Using Drama: Successful Development Techniques from Theatre and Improvisation The use of training techniques originally developed for theatre and improvization within the workplace has increased enormously and the effectiveness of the approach is finding many enthusiastic followers. Sometimes actors themselves are brought into an organization to act as catalysts within a training/role-play setting, but increasingly, trainers use the techniques themselves. This guide to using development techniques from theatre and improvization shows how anyone can make use of them. Complete with 50 detailed activities, the book shows how to use storytelling, role-plays and coaching to improve creativity, leadership, teamwork and personal development.

Improvisation and Accompaniment for Social Justice How contemporary activists, artists, and academics oppose oppressive structures of power and unjust social relations to create a more decent and democratic future Insubordinate spaces are places of possibility, products of acts of accompaniment and improvisation that deepen capacities for democratic social change. Barbara Tomlinson and George Lipsitz’s Insubordinate Spaces explores the challenges facing people committed to social justice in an era when social institutions have increasingly been reconfigured to conform to the imperatives of a market society. In their book, the authors argue that education, the arts, and activism are key terrains of political and ideological conflict. They explore and analyze exemplary projects responding to current social justice issues and crises, from the Idle No More movement launched by Indigenous people in Canada to the performance art of Chingo Bling, Fandango convenings, the installation art of Ramiro Gomez, and the mass protests proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” in Ferguson, MO. Tomlinson and Lipsitz draw on key concepts from struggles to advance ideas about reciprocal recognition and co-creation as components in the construction of new egalitarian and democratic social relations, practices, and institutions. Insubordinate Spaces: Improvisation and Accompaniment for Social Justice is from the Insubordinate…

We’re at it again with a THIRD BOOK! We asked popular improv teachers and performers from around the world their advice. We felt like it was especially poingant to discuss improv in the times of Covid and Lockdown. We published all their beuaitulf answers on the improv community here! David Escobedo gathered and published this book. He has been coaching and performing improv since 1994, and who runs the Improv Boost.

The SIN is a network of international improvisers in Europe that meets twice per year. The network aims to create an environment of support and collaboration across borders. It is our ambition to explore the art of improvisational theatre together as well as sharing advice and good practices on all organisation and production around improv. The ultimate goal is to boost improvisational theatre in local communities throughout Europe by working together and learning from each other within the international community. This book is a snapshot of different insights, pedagogies, and good practice from some of the members of our group. We’re offering them to the wider community as a window into the thought and function of our group, and to further our aims of boosting improv in theatres around Europe. As teachers and theatre directors, we can all feel a bit isolated at times. The SIN as a group, and this book as an offering, are efforts to bring a feeling of community and the free exchange of ideas that help make this art form the beautiful thing that it is. We hope that everyone reading it feels supported, inspired, and perhaps even provoked. Contents: Improvisation and the Scientific Method…

Improvising Gender is a book about playing characters of different genders truthfully and convincingly. It’s packed full of exercises to help you construct a wide variety of characters and worlds using different genders. A mix of insights and thought-provoking experiments, this book will also help you to be more understanding of and welcoming to performers of all genders.

Improvising Gender is a book about playing characters of different genders truthfully and convincingly. It’s packed full of exercises to help you construct a wide variety of characters and worlds using different genders. A mix of insights and thought-provoking experiments, this book will also help you to be more understanding of and welcoming to performers of all genders.

Fill Your Performance with Spontaneity and Energy Improvisation is an essential and invaluable technique for the actor’s repertoire: It asks you to think beyond a script–and its memorized lines, movements, and facial expressions–to deliver a performance filled with honesty, insight, nuance, and verisimilitude. Improvisation Starters Revised and Expanded provides more than 1,000 brand-new scene scenarios that will help you: • Depict conflict by focusing on differing beliefs, motivations, and needs • Use contrasts to show the clash of personalities and emotions • Creatively incorporate props and specific lines of dialogue within an improvised scene • Explore character relationships with various locations • Take on the role of inanimate objects and animals From the classroom to the community theater group–and even in business, language, and technology classes–improvisation is the perfect tool for thinking critically, communicating clearly, building self-confidence, and developing interpersonal skills. With this revised edition of Improvisation Starters, you’ll bring new vitality to the stage or set–and have fun in the process!

Teaching Improv Skills: Stories, Games, and Tips to Develop Skills for Improvisational Comedy Troupes Do you want to build your improv troupe’s skills? Or are you looking to develop positive communication skills with a group you work with? Improvisation is all about listening, accepting, reacting, responding, and bringing more to the table in positive ways. Improv comedy troupes—as well as any other groups that want to work better together—need a firm foundation in these skills plus trust and a willingness to take a few “safe risks.” Nancy Meyer’s book Teaching Improv Skills: Stories, Games, and Tips to Develop Skills for Improvisational Comedy Troupes will help all folks who work with humans develop and hone improvisational comedy and positive communication skills through real performers’ stories, analysis, coaching suggestions, and games. And it’s a whole lot of fun. Inside, you will… * Explore the skills of successful improvisational comedy and positive communication * Learn 40 skill-building games using step-by-step instructions * Dive into coaching strategies Modify games to meet the needs and levels of your participants * Use questions for debriefing games and self-reflection * And more… Say “Yes, and…” to Teaching Improv Skills today!

The Extreme Improv Big Book of Improv Games. Do you enjoy having fun? Are you in need of an excuse to act like a fool on a Thursday evening? And have you a hankering for some ridiculous word games in your life? If the answer to any of these questions is YES then this is the book for you! The Extreme Improv Big Book of Improv Games is a fantastic resource of dozens and dozens of fun to play Improv Comedy games. This book will not only teach you the rules of each of the games, but also give you hundreds of pro tips so you can become an improv master! Written by Extreme Improv’s founder and resident supervillain David Pustansky, this book is riddled with ideas, infested with insights and boiling over with more improvised comedy goodness then legs on a centipede! If you want to inject new life into your improv skill set, this book breaks down tons of classic improv games, and explains how to play them successfully, the logic behind the rules, and when you should or shouldn’t break them! In addition to the classics, the book also includes bucket loads of Extreme Improv’s original creations…

The One Minute Improviser: Learn the secrets of being a truly great improviser Would you like to strengthen your approach to improv? Delve deeper into the Three Secrets every improviser learns? Do you want a smooth, quick read you can devour in your spare time? If you want all this (and more!) then you want The One Minute Improviser. This book provides a clear, simple look into the ideas that are basic to improv, while offering insight as to why these Three Secrets are so important. Based lovingly on the format of a well-known self-help book, The One Minute Improviser takes you along on a young man’s journey to find the Improv Guru, who he hopes will teach him the answers behind why The Three Secrets are crucial to the performance of quality improv. Learn the secret behind The Secrets: Be Accepting Be Supportive Be Fearless But wait…There’s more!Not only do you get these Three Secrets, but you also get a Free Fourth Secret! What is it, you ask? Well, we’re not telling because then it wouldn’t be a secret. But if you want to find out, grab yourself a copy of The One Minute Improviser and take your improv…