BOOKLET 74. OUR PERVERSION “Stage narration seduced so many playwrights in Mexico during the last ten years that the difficult thing, for some time now, is finding a text with dialogue. Even more so, with a well-written one. The copy that you have in your hands, reader, is one of those unusual cases,” says Alejandro Ricaño in the presentation of the work, whose characters are two employees of a corporation who “spend their workdays tallying numbers to evade taxes, while they plan that one sleeps with the wife of the other.”

THEATER REHEARSAL BOOKLET 47. BODIES IN PERFORMANCE. IMPROVISATION AND COMPOSITION PRACTICES What are the ways of constructing knowledge in the arts of the body? asks Narciso Telles in this essay, whose research, as an artist-teacher, hasbeen directed at the processes and poetics of acting and improvisation in the theater, particularly when it comes to “poetically and politically confronting the issues of our time.” Narciso Telles is an actor, director and researcher at the Study and Research Group on Creation and Training in Performing Arts at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (GEAC/UFU), Brazil.

Janet Coleman brilliantly recreates the time, the place, the personalities, and the neurotic magic whereby the Compass made theater history in America. The Compass began in a storefront theater near the University of Chicago campus in the summer of 1955 and lasted only a few years before its players—including David Shepherd, Paul Sills, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Barbara Harris, and Shelley Berman—moved on. Out of this group was born a new form: improvisational theater and a radically new kind of comedian. “They did not plan to be funny or to change the course of comedy,” writes Coleman. “But that is what happened.”

Process: An Improviser’s Journey Process: An Improviser’s Journey is an invaluable resource for mastering improv. Author, teacher, and improviser Michael Gellman was given a mission by famed improv coach Del Close: “[T]o create improvised one-act plays of literary quality from scratch.” Already steeped in the world of improvisation, he took it upon himself to do this, in the form of a class for other improvisers in which they would build the skills necessary to execute such a seemingly tall order. Scruggs and Gellman’s book, modeled after Stanislavski’s timeless An Actor Prepares, follows a fictional young actor taking Gellman’s real-life class. Scruggs and Gellman introduce readers to Geoff, who has just moved to Chicago to pursue acting. He undergoes the standard trials of audition and rejection before he takes the advice of a fellow actor and turns to improv classes at Second City. At first, Geoff thinks improvisation is about laughs and loosening up, but he soon learns that it is a powerful tool as well as an end in itself. Through Geoff’s eyes, the book introduces readers to key tenets of improvisation: concentration, visualization, focus, object work, being in the moment, and the crucial “yes, and.” His experiences with the…

With academic erudition and supported by extensive experience as a repentista, the author proposes a study of the improvisation of the décimas following a method that allows us to appreciate both the beauty and the poetic complexity in this stanza frequently used in popular Ibero-American poetry. As Díaz-Pimienta points out, improvisation is “an art so complex and so unknown that it should be tempting to researchers.” This volume is an original and necessary proposal to address new studies of the improvised décima, as well as an invitation to the reader to discover poetic findings in ancient forms that continue to be sung throughout the pan-Hispanic territories, from the expert hand of a born researcher.

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…

Foreword by Omar Argentino Galván Everything in favor is the result of the study, research and implementation of the philosophy of theatrical improvisation (Improv) through 25 years of experience as an actor, director and improviser of its author, Omar Medina. All in favor is also the author’s pretext to make a review and generate a dialogue between various authors of theater theory, literature, directors and emblematic improvisers of the Impro theater discipline (Johnstone, Brook, Brecht, Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Chekhov, De Tavira, Calvino, Close, Juvera, Galván, et al.). Everything in favor is a book about philosophy, theater and also about the way of life that improvisation involves, not only in the theater, but taken into the daily life of any reader.

Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of the Second City and the Compass Players Prominent alumni (Mike Nichols, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein, among others) bring theatrical improvisation to life, with all the vitality, the power and the exuberance – the satire and spontaneity – that they made famous and that launched their careers. “An important book about the most important American theatrical endeavor since the Group Theatre. Plus, it’s fun to read”. – David Mamet

The Art of Chicago Improv: Short Cuts to Long-form Improvisation Improvisational theatre revolutionized American comedy and Chicago was its home. That city not only nurtured so much of the best work done; it also spawned many different styles that traveled around the country and the world. Experienced improv artist Rob Kozlowski trained at Chicago’s Second City and knows firsthand what improv really is and what it can achieve. He tells all in this account of the first 50 years of the Chicago improv scene. Kozlowski traces the history of improvisational acting in Chicago from the days of Viola Spolin to the appearance of the Compass, Second City, and today’s practitioners. In between, he takes a detailed look at Charna Halpern and the ImprovOlympic “revolution,” Del Close and the development of a long-form improvisation called the Harold, and all that followed. Kozlowski also provides a guide to improv troupes seeking a style that’s just right for them, with detailed descriptions of specific productions and discussions of the implications of pursuing certain improv techniques. His interviews with Annoyance Theater founder Mick Napier, ImprovOlympic veteran Noah Gregoropoulos, and ImprovOlympic’s Training Center Director Liz Allen reveal the challenges and joys of long-form improvisation and…