A Subversive’s Guide to Improvisation: Moving Beyond “Yes, And” Hey, improvisers, you can do whatever you want. In A Subversive’s Guide to Improvisation, Razowsky throws conventional improv wisdom on its head by giving you a unique take on how to create masterful improv scenes. He describes how his life philosophy and improv methodology have evolved on his journey from struggling actor to one of the world’s most respected improvisers and coaches. The challenge for most improvisers is sticking to “the rules” and believing “Yes, and” is the magic formula for a successful scene. Characters meander and travel from a state of fluidity to a mess of frustration and ask, “How did I go wrong?” A Subversive’s Guide to Improvisation provides methods and exercises that teach you to connect to your partner and the scene without worrying about responding with “yes, and.” Over 30 groundbreaking exercises will teach you how to: * Freely express your feelings. * Focus on the present. * Ask questions. * Say “no” to energize your scene. * Start a scene without establishing who, what, and where. David Razowsky studied, performed, taught, and directed at Second City with Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Michael Keegan-Key, among others….

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.

Improvisation for the Spirit: Live a More Creative, Spontaneous, and Courageous Life Using the Tools of Improv Comedy Wish you could gag your Inner Critic? Feeling blocked creatively? Want to make a big change, but fear taking the leap? Comedy improv requires quick thinking, collaboration, getting out of your own way, and being in the moment without being a perfectionist. Katie Goodman, an internationally touring improv comedian and comedy writer, uses her witty and encouraging style to show you how to acquire the skills of improv comedy and apply them to every aspect of daily life. Along the way Goodman shares hilarious and insightful stories from her experiences onstage, as well as step-by-step exercises from her popular self-discovery workshops and retreats. Packed with creative, original, and, most importantly, fun exercises, Improvisation for the Spirit offers a truly transformational guide for anyone wanting to get more out of life. “A practical, fascinating, and funny guidebook. I’ve already begun applying hints from Improvisation for the Spirit, and I’m hoping that from now on, when people point and laugh at me, it will be for more appropriate reasons. A delightful read, filled with wonderful strategies.” ― Martha Beck, Life Coach Columnist for O,…

Book on Acting: Improvisation Technique for the Professional Actor in Film, Theater, and Television Stephen Book is a top Hollywood acting coach and teacher and a theatre director. His students have won Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, Obies, and Grammys. Thirteen of his present or former students are featured in either starring roles or as cast regulars in the current primetime television schedule. This book contains film and television scenes in which Book-coached actors, used his Improvisation Technique to create their performances. These scenes, showing the actors’ performance choices, demonstrate the use of Improvisation Technique in different genres of acting. Well-known theatre and film scenes are included, as well as scenes from such TV shows as ‘Frasier’, ‘Melrose Place’, ‘Star Trek: Voyager’, ‘LA Law’ and ‘The Practice’.

Interactive Acting: Acting, Improvisation, and Interacting for Audience Participatory Theatre A Ground-breaking guide to audience participatory theatre. Interactive acting is a step-by-step handbook that teaches actors how to successfully perform in audience participatory theatre. This book includes: – Descriptions of interactive performances – Methods to draw out good audience participation – Techniques to handle the unexpected – Performance tactics for off-stage environments – A concise review of improvisation skills – And much more

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…

What if we play theater? What if we all have fun together, students and teachers, while learning fundamental dramatic techniques? Here is a guide to the auxiliary techniques of numerous expression games to practice dramatization. On our horizon, the fact that perhaps the group will then be encouraged to create its own play and perform it, or that it will be the student who wants to be the author of his or her own play and perform it as a whole. class… And beyond, to the limit: the joy and satisfaction of playing with theater.

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.

This is a manual for children and young people of this century to learn how to do theater. A book aimed at educators and parents who want to offer their students and children one of the best tools known to expand their personal horizon. From the age of four to 17, theatrical exercises take place here in a simple and fun way with which children and young people will master body language. This manual shows us that guaranteeing theatrical experiences in the teaching of children and young people is an urgent task in which we must all be part.