My first job was shelving books in the Richmond Virginia Public Library. I realized that spending time with a book was like spending time with the author.
Spend time with some of the leading thinkers in the world of Improvisation. |
IMPRO: Improvisation and the theatre
by Keith Johnstone
Keith wrote this book in the 1960s in England when everything that was put on a stage had to be approved by the censors. [Hard to imagine, isn't it?] The answer? Put Impro [Keith's word for Improvisation] in public by calling it an open class, because there was no censorship on class content.
He told me once that he put it in the desk draw for 10 years because "as soon as I wrote something down, I started to disagree with it."
And that's Keith in a nutshell: The paradox of learning how to be spontaneously creative on stage with others. For example: He suggests that playing games badly help you learn because it takes away the fear...and you're using the same skills anyway. To most this is counter-intuitive, but for Keith it's obvious.
Want more?
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Impro for Storytellers
by Keith Johnstone
This book is chock full of exercises and games that give insight to the performer, workshop leader and student. A perfect balance of theory and activity this book is a requirement for those improvisers that want to take their improv to the next level. [and by 'next level' I mean a deeper level of connection and theatrical impact].
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Improv Wisdom
by Patricia Ryan Madson
The promise of improvisation is a playful environment where everyone plays well together, anything is possible and people around you constantly say, "yes, and...".
Patricia Ryan Madson examines how these pillars of Improvisational Theatre play out in our lives.
On stage saying yes is not 'really' risking very much. On stage an improv actor might say to you, "I head a noise coming from the basement, why don't you go down there and see if it's safe?" Your response might well be, "sure, it's pretty dark, but I'll go down there, you stay up here." Why? Because on stage there is no basement, no monster no danger. It's pure storytelling adventure.
But in life - it's different. There are real actions and real consequences. So how can we take the joy we find on the stage with improv and get it into our life? Get this book. Every chapter includes activities.
Patricia not only builds the path she points the way.
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Training to Imagine
by Kat Koppett
Once you feel the transformative power of improv personally and see what it does to a group of people, you want to spread the insights with everyone...particularly at work.
This is a must have book for trainers who have some improv back ground and want to do some business-training. Kat lays it all out for you. She tells you which exercise [in the corporate world they are most often called 'exercises' because who would pay you to lead games?!] to use, how to set it up and how to debrief it for the desired outcome.
Her philosophy is that an exercise is just an excuse to get to the debrief. And I agree.
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