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…

Linhagens e noções fundamentais de improvisação teatral no Brasil: Leituras em Boal e Burnier Doctoral thesis – Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, 2013 In a historical-theatrical perspective, the author investigates what he considered the main sources of the conceptions of improvisation, namely, those coming from the Russian director and theorist Stanislavski and the Italian branch (Commedia dell’Arte and Eugenio Barba). This book is the result of an attempt to understand the fundamental notions of improvisation in Brazilian theater, present in the conceptions of Augusto Boal and Luís Otávio Burnier. In a historical-theatrical perspective, the author investigates what he considered to be the main sources of the conceptions of improvisation, namely, those coming from the director and the theorist. The Russian Stanislavski and the Italian part (Commedia dell’Arte and Eugenio Barba). Through the analysis of these references, followed by the investigation of the works of Boal and Burnier, the author suggests that, indeed, it is possible to establish significant comparisons between the conception of Stanislavski and Boal, on the one hand, and that of Barba (directly related to Commedia dell’Arte) and Burnier, from another. From these convergences, two improvising lineages are established: Stanislavski-Boal; commedia dell’arte/Barba-Burnier.

On both sides of the stage improv-comedy’s popularity has increased exponentially throughout the 1980s and ’90s and into the new millennium. Presto! An original song is created out of thin air. With nothing but a suggestion from the audience, daring young improvisers working without a net or a script create hilarious characters, sketches, and songs. Thrilled by the danger, the immediacy, and the virtuosity of improv-comedy, spectators laugh and cheer. American improv-comedy burst onto the scene in the 1950s with Chicago’s the Compass Players (best known for the brilliant comedy duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May) and the Second City, which launched the careers of many popular comedians, including Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and Mike Myers. Chicago continues to be a mecca for young performers who travel from faraway places to study improv. At the same time, the techniques of Chicago improv have infiltrated classrooms, workshops, rehearsals, and comedy clubs across North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Improv’s influence is increasingly evident in contemporary films and in interactive entertainment on the internet. Drawing on the experiences of working improvisers, Whose Improv Is It Anyway? provides a never-before-published account of developments beyond Second City’s mainstream approach to the genre….

Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook Devising Theatre is a practical handbook that combines a critical analysis of contemporary devised theatre practice with descriptions of selected companies, and suggestions for any group devising theatre from scratch. It is the first book to propose a general theory of devised theatre. After identifying the unique nature of this type of performance, the author examines how devised theatre is perceived by professional practitioners, and provides an historical overview illustrating how it has evolved since the 1960s. Alison Oddey examines the particular working practices and products of a number of professional companies, including a Reminiscence theatre for the elderly and a theatre-in-education group, and offers ideas and exercises for exploration and experimentation.

Making connections between drama and drawing, Drawing as Performance introduces visual artists and designers to rehearsal techniques, theory, and games as ways of developing image-making and visual communication skills. Drawing from the fields of theatre and anthropology, this book is full of practical exercises that encourage experimentation and play as methods of making expressive, communicative, and meaningful images. Ideas are adapted from the rehearsal room to the drawing studio, offering artists a fresh approach to translating experiences into visual images. Games and exercises are accompanied by demonstrations and responses from professional practitioners and visual communication students. This one-of-a-kind book guides students and professionals alike to improvisation, self-expression, and reflective visual communication techniques in order to narrow the gap between the handmade image and inner experience from which artists draw their inspiration.

The Improv Big Bang Theory. Storia dell’improvvisazione teatrale The most random and impalpable of the performing arts meets historical research, to discover which of the thousand questions about theatrical improvisation have been answered: when exactly was improvisation born in the theatre? How was art improvised and how do we improvise today? What is the contribution of the great pioneers of the twentieth century? What is the relationship between improvisation formats and text theatre? From the apotropaic rites of the first civilizations to the Theatrical Improvisation Match®, from Aristotle to Viola Spolin, from the Commedia dell’Arte to Keith Johnstone, from Stanislavskij to Robert Gravel, from Greek theater to the most important production companies in the world of theatrical improvisation. A two thousand five hundred year long journey into the most absurd of human needs: spontaneous artistic expression.