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Books on Improv
Impro by Keith Johnstone. This is a sensational and thorough examination of key improv principles including "accept all all offers" and playing with status. If you are a beginner this is a key to the insider's world of improv, and if you are a seasoned improv professional this is essential reading. Put this in your top 5 books to buy list at number one or two.
Impro For Storytellers by Keith Johnstone. This is a good follow-up book to read after you've read Impro and yearn to learn more. This has more of a focus on constructing and creating scenes and stories and will be a valuable resource for any improv director, producer, and performer.
Improvisation for The Theatre by Viola Spolin. This is the classic and the number one place to start no matter what your improvisational intentions. This fabulous book contains all of the basic improv vocabulary, all of the foundational games, entire sequences that you can use as workshops, and every essential element that you need to get started and sustain your energy in improv. This book is wonderful for every age group.
Acting on Impulse: The Art of Making Improv Theater by Carol Hazenfield. This is a powerful resource when you are serious about having fun with improv. It covers a wealth of material including everything from raising the curtain, to defining your character, to playing with expanded long forms, to seeking an improvised path along your artist journey. This is essential reading for creating success through artistic play.
Do you want to see what else has been published on improv?
Links On Long Form Improv
Fast
- Moonstruck Drama Bookstore
- Theatre History
- Canadian Improv Games
- Improvisation web ring
- Viola Spolin
- The Improv Encylopedia
- Improv Olympic
- Second City
Here's a decent article on How To Be A Better Improvisor
Building on "The Harold" and other long-form improvs, described in this excerpt from the book, The Art of Chicago Improv: Short Cuts to Long Form Improvisation by Rob Kozlowski .
From Hugh MacLeod a decent primer on a variety of improvisational techniques, Learn Improv
The Purple Crayon presents this book of improv wisdom, essentially a list of improv rules.
You
could say that improv
started with Viola Spolin -- she's often referred to as the mother of
improv,
and at the very least she was the mother of Paul
Sills which would have been enough, except she also wrote the
seminal
book on improvisational exercises, Improvisation For The Theater.
Intuitive Learning Systems offers the Viola
Spolin Center with games, articles and links, etc.
Books on Improv
Impro by Keith Johnstone. This is a sensational and thorough examination of key improv principles including "accept all all offers" and playing with status. If you are a beginner this is a key to the insider's world of improv, and if you are a seasoned improv professional this is essential reading. Put this in your top 5 books to buy list at number one or two.
Impro For Storytellers by Keith Johnstone. This is a good follow-up book to read after you've read Impro and yearn to learn more. This has more of a focus on constructing and creating scenes and stories and will be a valuable resource for any improv director, producer, and performer.
Improvisation for The Theatre by Viola Spolin. This is the classic and the number one place to start no matter what your improvisational intentions. This fabulous book contains all of the basic improv vocabulary, all of the foundational games, entire sequences that you can use as workshops, and every essential element that you need to get started and sustain your energy in improv. This book is wonderful for every age group.
Acting on Impulse: The Art of Making Improv Theater by Carol Hazenfield. This is a powerful resource when you are serious about having fun with improv. It covers a wealth of material including everything from raising the curtain, to defining your character, to playing with expanded long forms, to seeking an improvised path along your artist journey. This is essential reading for creating success through artistic play.
Do you want to see what else has been published on improv?
Links On Long Form Improv
Connections to relevant writings on longer-form improvisational acting. Useful for actors who are studying the form and for those interested in exploring alternatives to the typical wild-and-funny improv. Del Close and Charna Halpern take credit for creating new types of long form improv and yet there are other ideas out there as well. You should certainly read both Truth in Comedy and Art by Committee to learn about what Close and Halpern refer to as "The Harold". Here are links to additional sources of inspiration on the long form.
The Living Playbook -- A long list and descriptions of improv forms, formats, and games. Extensive, but you'll be doing lots of scrolling thru the alphabet to find what you're looking for.
Improv Companies
iO is the self-proclaimed originator of the long-form improv. A parade of talented and many famous actors have worked here under the coaching of Charna Halpern, the late Del Close, and others. A great Chicago style company in, Chicago of course.
True Fiction Magazine -- the artwork at this site reinforces the nature of their work, longer form improv, each show completely different, "TFM's inspiration is the hard-bitten, emotion-driven fiction found in the pulp stories of the 30's and 40's, tempered by their own comic sensibilities, resulting in a myriad of unusual characters and the worlds they live in."
Mission Improvable takes a stab at defining "what is long-form improv?". They also describe some of their long-form show formats, and provide a useful set of links.
For more information, please contact Doug.