A straightforward, often humorous workbook approach to comedy writing as creative problem-solving. In it, veteran Hollywood comedy writer John Vorhaus offers his tools of the trade to writers, comics, and anyone else who wants to be funny. Among these indispensable tools are Clash of Context, Tension and Release, The Law of Comic Opposites, The Wildly Inappropriate Response, and The Myth of the Last Great Idea. Readers will learn that comedy = truth and pain (the essence of the comic situation), that fear is the biggest roadblock to comedy (kill the ferocious editor within and rich, useful comic ideas will flow), and much more.

It could not be missing from the Workshops collection (Reading Workshop, Theater Workshop and Voice Workshop), practical work material to play and be able to organize a theater workshop for children. The book offers an abundant amount of possibilities that can be used to organize recreational and theatrical learning sessions with children and young people.

Games for Actors and Non-Actors is the classic and bestselling book by the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, Augusto Boal. It sets out the principles and practice of Boal’s revolutionary method, showing how theatre can be used to transform and liberate everyone – actors and non-actors alike! This new third English edition includes recently uncovered interviews and essays from the 1970s, some of which featured in the earliest Portuguese edition of this book, and a new essay by the theatre director Sergio de Carvalho, which looks at Boal’s work in the context of Brazilian theatre and politics over the past fifty years. This is a vital handbook for theatre makers and activists of all kinds who want to deepen their understanding of the theory and practice of Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. It is also an excellent introduction for those new to the system.

This book can be a valuable help for Dramatization and Theater Workshop teachers at different levels of education, as well as for actors, cultural entertainers and other groups that intend to work with the ‘improvisation meeting’, an intermediate activity between the game dramatic and the representation of a theatrical work. Improvisation is part of the didactic procedures that are grouped under the name of simulation and game. The work allows teachers to use improvisation as a didactic procedure that can develop in the student the skills of communication, expression, elocution, writing, analysis and criticism. It includes a good number of activities and exercises.

Ediciones Status presents “Impro: Dynamics of the Unexpected”, the first book by Feña Ortalli. A book that presents a series of ideas and concepts of improvisation explained through football analogies. In “Impro: Dynamics of the Unexpected”, Feña Ortalli takes us out onto the playing field without losing sight of the board. In a masterful way he immerses us in the history of the greats and allows us to get the ball rolling with our proposals.” Javier Pastor (Director of El Club de la Impro) Web

The book that Alexis Díaz-Pimienta has written is a new book, in the full sense of the word: almost everything that is said in it, is said for the first time. And although the phenomenon it deals with is not new at all, it is unknown to many, even in the field of culture and scholarship, because there are hardly any bibliographical antecedents, and these, in any case, are very recent. In such a way that Díaz-Pimienta’s book comes to discover an authentic and portentous “new world”, in old times like the ones we live in when cultural discoveries seemed finished.

The improviser is born or made? This question has been on the minds of improvisers, lovers and students of poetic improvisation for centuries. And the answer has almost always been the same: «It is born. “You cannot learn to improvise, because it is an innate gift.” However, the Pimienta Method, with which hundreds of children and young people in Cuba have learned, is an affirmative and contrasted answer to this eternal question. Its creator, the Cuban repentista Alexis Díaz-Pimienta, began at the age of 5 on Cuban radio and television, and has accumulated more than 40 years of repentista experience, more than 25 years of research and more than 15 years of practices teachers in Cuba, Spain and other Latin American countries. This method is completely playful and participatory, effective for learning to improvise in verse, in any strophic form and in several languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Galician and Catalan, fundamentally. All of this… in a brief amount of time. It does not matter if the apprentice starts from scratch or if he has experience and wants to perfect his techniques. Furthermore, the method is designed to learn and also to teach. It includes oral, written, table, playground, blackboard games…

The THEATER PEDAGOGY Collection presents this text on the Improvisation Match as a tool within the field of expression and creativity. Like all Ñaque Editora publications, it combines theoretical depth with the freshness of practice. KOLDOBIKA GOTZON VIO, a student of Georges Laferriére, shares his experience and that of his teammates, D’lmpro Kolektiboa. “EXPLORING THE IMPROVISATION MATCH” is an invitation to enter and enjoy the world of Match: “A theatrical game collective in which, through improvisation techniques, several teams compete cooperatively and where the audience is an active part of the show.” Teams and public are part of a process of growth, fun and pleasure. Prefaced by the promoter of Match in Spain, Georges Laferriére, Professor of Dramatic Arts Didactics at the University of Quebec in Montreal; The book deals with how a Match team can be trained in its early phases and its in-depth study of this work, all seasoned with keys for its pedagogical use. For fans of this game-technique; for actors and actresses; for trainers who wish to apply it in the workshop or classroom.

“Clive Barker’s book is more than just a guidebook of improvisational games for actors: it is, rather a comprehensive exploration of acting techniques” New York Theatre Review “Theatre Games is a massive contribution to the art of theatre…A bulging portfolio of credo, craft, advice and instruction…It is dazzlingly astute and a thrilling read – quite unlike a text-book, rather a long, fascinating chat into the small hours” The Stage Theatre games are a method of training actors that was developed in the 20th century by leading practitioners including Clive Barker, who trained actors at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop in its heyday. He developed his “theatre games” system over 20 years and proved its effectiveness for teachers, students and actors alike. His famous book combines his philosophy and approach to games, describes how to play them and the acting skills which can develop out of them. The games are arranged in order of complexity and illustrated with photographs and diagrams. This re-issue of this classic and timeless text now includes a DVD with video material showing Clive Barker teaching his games in a studio and contains background information and first hand material from Clive himself. Theatre Games will enable anyone involved…

Free Play discusses the inner sources of spontaneous creation, explains how to learn the skills of improvisation, and suggests ways to overcome common obstacles to creativity.