Instant Songwriting is the ultimate how-to book for musical improvisers and an excellent resource for songwriters. With over two decades of musical improv experience, Nancy Howland Walker guides you with clear, logical and fun step-by-step exercises, from the very basics of putting a song together, to highly advanced song techniques. Whether you are new to the art form or experienced, your songs are improvised or written, or you do this for fun or profit, Instant Songwriting helps you take your song skills to the next level. Musical tracks are available to download for each exercise – to accompany you as you practice and master each step along the way. Now go and become the Songwriting Diva you were meant to be!

The Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the postmodern dance world. It was first articulated by choreographer Mary Overlie, who broke down the two dominant issues performers deal with—space and time—into six categories. Since that time, directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau have expanded her notions and adapted them for actors to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work. The Viewpoints are a set of names given to certain principles of movement through time and space—they constitute a language for talking about what happens on stage. Coupling this with Composition, which is the practice of selecting and arranging the separate components of theatrical language into a cohesive work of art, provides theatre artists with an important new tool for creating and understanding their art form. Primarily intended for the many theatre artists who, in the last several years, have become intrigued with Viewpoints yet have had no single source to refer to in their investigations. It can also be used by anyone with a general interest in collaboration and the creative process, whether in art, business or daily life. Anne Bogart is Artistic Director of the SITI Company, which she founded with…

Offering a complete collection of techniques, tips, and practical exercises from 25 years of experience, Improv For Everyone will give you step-by-step methods to create awesome scenes. This is the book for you: the improviser who loves improv and wants improv to love you back. You could try to figure improv on your own, or you could just read this book.

This book explores the Aerodynamics of Yes as an approach to celebrating one another, building ensemble and getting out of our heads and into our scenes. Good improv can seem magical, but let’s not make it more mystical than it is. Stop praying to the improv gods and take responsibility for what you can control. Sweat the technique, be empowered by it, study, be hard on yourself, understand the science and why it works. Then, trust in it, play confidently, and be excellent to each other.

Improvisation: The Guide is a bible for all teachers, actors and improvisors. It is a practical, hands-on feast of ideas, exercises and scene-work. Drama teachers at primary, secondary and university levels have found this book invaluable. The techniques have been used for corporate workshops, drama in education and professional actor training. Improvisation processes ignite spontaneity, develop lateral thinking, encourage teamwork and release the potential artist in us all.

After 25 years performing and teaching improv, and 40 plus years of devotion to Star Wars, Mary Carpenter has finally discovered a way to combine the two. Carpenter breaks down the “how-to,” and seeks out the “why” and “what else” to give you the tools to unlock your true Jedi improv powers. This book will not just teach you how to improvise, but how to become your own improviser. Buckle in because these are the droids you’re looking for, I have a good feeling about this, and it’s time to punch it Chewie!

The Triangle of the Scene: A simple, practical, powerful method for approaching improvisation In The Triangle of the Scene, veteran improv teacher and performer Paul Vaillancourt lays out a simple set of tools that enable improvisors old and new to use the three basic elements of a scene to super-charge their work and take it to the next level. In this book, Paul shows you how to better connect with your partner, how to use the ‘where’, and how to find the ever elusive game of the scene. The Triangle of the Scene is also the first improv book to use embedded videos to allow readers to see the book’s exercises and techniques in action. With 30 years of experience performing and teaching improv Paul (the Co-founder of the iO West and member of the legendary improv group Beer, Shark, Mice) shares with you the techniques that he has used to help thousands of students become more fearless, confident, and powerful improvisors.

Alan Alda has been on a decades-long journey to discover new ways to help people communicate and relate to one another more effectively. If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? is the warm, witty, and informative chronicle of how Alda found inspiration in everything from cutting-edge science to classic acting methods. His search began when he was host of PBS’s Scientific American Frontiers, where he interviewed thousands of scientists and developed a knack for helping them communicate complex ideas in ways a wide audience could understand—and Alda wondered if those techniques held a clue to better communication for the rest of us. In his wry and wise voice, Alda reflects on moments of miscommunication in his own life, when an absence of understanding resulted in problems both big and small. He guides us through his discoveries, showing how communication can be improved through learning to relate to the other person: listening with our eyes, looking for clues in another’s face, using the power of a compelling story, avoiding jargon, and reading another person so well that you become “in sync” with them, and know what they are thinking and feeling—especially when you’re talking about the…

Long-form Improvisation & the Art of Zen: A Manual for Advanced Performers If you’re already an improviser, even if you’re just starting out, this is the book for you. This book merges basic improvisation techniques with Zen philosophy in order to create a new way of performing scenes and shows. Based on decades of work with the art form, Jason R. Chin strips away pretense and creates a simple, yet elegant method of improvising longer, more rich scenes and characters. A powerful tool for the advanced improviser and a wonderful book for the beginner, Zen and the Art of Long-form Improvisation is a welcome addition to your improv library.

Jeux et enjeux : La boîte à outils de l’improvisation théâtrale Whether you’re a passionate beginner or a seasoned professional, Games and Challenges: The Improv Theater Toolkit is an invaluable source of information for anyone interested in the art of improvisational theater. Packed with 130 exercises, covering the basics as well as short and longer forms of improvisation, this book is designed as a practical support allowing the theory to come to life. Thanks to a unique blend of European and North American traditions, it offers you a great diversity of approach, and explores areas ranging from spontaneity to narration, from masks to the adaptation for the stage of theories of Travel of Heroes of Joseph Campbell.