Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see
Applied improvisation
Applied improvisation is the application of improvisational theatrical methods in various non-theatrical fields, including consulting, training, and teaching. It is known to be used as an experiential educational approach, one which enables partic ...
.
Improvisation also exists outside the arts. Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand.
Improvised weapon
An improvised weapon is an object that was not designed to be used as a weapon but can be put to that use. They are generally used for self-defence or if the person is otherwise unarmed. In some cases, improvised weapons are commonly used by attac ...
s are often used by guerrillas, insurgents and criminals.
Engineering
Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand. Examples of such improvisation was the re-engineering of carbon dioxide scrubbers with the materials on hand during the
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted aft ...
space mission, or the use of a knife in place of a screwdriver to turn a screw.
![WestBankCowbell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/WestBankCowbell.jpg)
Engineering improvisations may be needed because of emergencies,
embargo,
obsolescence
Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service, or practice is no longer maintained or required even though it may still be in good working order. It usually happens when something that is more efficient or less risky r ...
of a product and the loss of manufacturer support, or just a lack of funding appropriate for a better solution. Users of motor vehicles in parts of Africa develop improvised solutions where it is not feasible to obtain manufacturer-approved spare parts.
The popular television program
MacGyver used as its gimmick a hero who could solve almost any problem with
jury rigged devices from everyday materials, a Swiss Army knife and some
duct tape.
Performing arts
![Improv austin 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Improv_austin_2009.jpg)
Improvisation can be thought of as an "on the spot" or "off the cuff" spontaneous moment of sudden inventiveness that can just come to mind, body and spirit as an inspiration.
Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be ...
created
theater games The theatre games tradition is a method of training actors that was developed in the 20th century by practitioners such as Joan Littlewood, Viola Spolin, Paul Sills, Clive Barker, Keith Johnstone, Jerzy Grotowski and Augusto Boal. Theatre games ar ...
as a method of training improvisational acting. Her son,
Paul Sills
Paul Sills (born Paul Silverberg; November 18, 1927 – June 2, 2008) was an American director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.
Life and career
Sills was born Paul Silverberg in Chicago, Illinois ...
popularized improvisational theater, or IMPROV, by using Spolin's techniques to train
The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...
in Chicago, the first totally improvisational theater company in the US. However, Improvisation in any life or art form can occur more often if it is practiced as a way of encouraging creative behavior. That practice includes learning to use one's
intuition, as well as learning a technical understanding of the necessary skills and concerns within the domain in which one is improvising. This can be when an individual or group is acting, dancing, singing, playing
musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
s, talking, creating artworks, problem-solving, or reacting in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or new ways to act.
Improvisation was originally rarely used on dramatic television. A major exception was the situation comedy ''
Mork & Mindy'' where star
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
was allotted specific sections in each episode where he was allowed to perform freely.
Music
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous ...
is usually defined as the spontaneous performance of music without previous preparation or any written notes. In other words, the art of improvisation can be understood as composing music "on the fly". There have been experiments by Charles Limb, using
functional magnetic resonance imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...
, that show the brain activity during musical improvisation. Limb showed increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is an area associated with an increase in self-expression. Further, there was decreased activity in the
lateral prefrontal cortex
In human brain anatomy, the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is part of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). According to Striedter the PFC of humans can be delineated into two functionally, morphologically, and evolutionarily different regions: the ven ...
, which is an area associated with self-monitoring. This change in activity is thought to reduce the inhibitions that normally prevent individuals from taking risks and improvising.
Improvisation can take place as a solo performance, or interdependently in an ensemble with other players. When done well, it often elicits gratifying emotional responses from the audience. One notable improvisational pianist is
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
. The origins of Liszt's improvisation in an earlier tradition of playing variations on a theme were mastered and epitomized by
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
, and
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
.
Notable improvisational musicians from the modern era include
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a ...
, an improvisational jazz pianist and multi-instrumentalist who has performed many improvised concerts all over the world;
W. A. Mathieu William Allaudin Mathieu (born 1937) is a composer, pianist, choir director, music teacher, and author. He began studying piano at the age of six, and began recording his music and compositions in the 1970s on his record label, Cold Mountain Music. ...
a.k.a. William Allaudin Mathieu, the musical director for
The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...
in Chicago, the first ongoing improvisational theatre troupe in the United States, and later musical director for another improv theatre,
The Committee, an offshoot of The Second City in San Francisco;
Derek Bailey, an improvisational guitarist; and
Eugene Friesen, an improvisational cellist.
Improvised
freestyle rap is commonly practiced as a part of
rappers' creative processes, as a "finished product" for release on recordings (when the improvisation is judged good enough), as a spiritual event, as a means of verbal combat in
battle rap, and, simply, for fun. As mentioned above, studies have suggested that improvisation allows a musician to relax the control filters in their mind during this exercise. It often incorporates insults similar to those in the African-American game
The Dozens, and complex rhythmic and sometimes melodic forms comparable to those heard in jazz improvisation.
In the realm of
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
music, there are a small number of musicians whose work has been recognized as exceptional by critics, scholars and audiences alike; these include
Neil Brand
Neil Brand (born 18 March 1958) is an English dramatist, composer and author. In addition to being a regular silent film accompanist at London's National Film Theatre, Brand has composed new scores for two restored films from the 1920s, '' The ...
and John Sweeney, among others who are all performers at the
Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy. Their performances must match the style and pacing of those films which they accompany and the knowledge of a wide range of musical styles is required, as well as the stamina to play for films which occasionally run more than three hours, without a pause.
Theatre
Improvisation, in theatre, is the playing of dramatic scenes without written dialogue and with minimal or no predetermined dramatic activity. The method has been used for different purposes in theatrical history.
Comedy
Improvisational comedy is a theatre art performed throughout the world and has had an on-again, off-again status throughout history.
Some of the more famous improv theatres and training centers in the world include:
i.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic) in Chicago and Los Angeles,
The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...
in Chicago and Toronto,
The Players Workshop in Chicago,
National Comedy Theatre
National Comedy Theatre is a chain of comedy venues, founded in January 2000 by several owners of ComedySportz franchises.
In July 2000, the name was extended to an association of theaters across the United States, including locations in San Jose, ...
in San Diego, New York and Phoenix,
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, Ri ...
, the
Peoples Improv Theater
The Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), also known as the PIT, is a comedy theater and training center in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows combine improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up, theater, and variety. Ea ...
, the
Magnet Theater
The Magnet Theater is an improvisational comedy theatre and improv school in New York City.
The Magnet Theater was founded in March 2005 by Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman and Shannon Manning. Diaz, Manning and Herbstman were friends from Chicago, w ...
in New York,
The Groundlings
The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improvisational theater techniques ...
in Los Angeles,
BATS Improv
{{Primary sources, date=January 2008
BATS Improv (formerly known as "Bay Area Theatresports") is a non-profit improvisational theatre company in San Francisco. Founded in 1986, their unique style of acting-based improvisational theatre is well know ...
(Bay Area Theatre Sports) in San Francisco,
Wing-It Productions
Wing-It Productions, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theater company based in Seattle, Washington, United States which exclusively produces improvised theater. Wing-It operates from their theater located at 55th Avenue and University Way NE in Seattle' ...
in Seattle,
Philly Improv Theater
Philly Improv Theater, or PHIT (pronounced "fit"), is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania comedy theater which produces and presents shows at The Adrienne Theatre in Center City Philadelphia. The theater also operates a training center with programs in i ...
in Philadelphia,
Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis,
ComedySportz in Milwaukee,
Theatresports in Calgary and Improv Comedy Copenhagen.
There are also many well known university improv teams, including
Theatre Strike Force
Theatre Strike Force is the University of Florida's premier improv and sketch comedy troupe. The group also goes by TSF. The style of improv performed by Theatre Strike Force is a combination long form and short form. They both teach and perfor ...
at the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
, Gigglepants at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, and
Erasable Inc.
Erase may refer to:
*Data erasure, a method of software-based overwriting that completely destroys all electronic data
*Data remanence, the residual representation of data that has been, in some way, nominally erased or removed
* ''Erase'' (album ...
at the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
. Improvisation found a home at universities. The origins of
the Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...
was the
Compass Players, an offshoot of theatre programs at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in the 1950s. Later, once improv had been established as an art form, improv groups sprung up on college campuses, starting in the 1980s where crowds were easy to find and teams could perform frequently. Now an improv group is a common staple of college extra curricular activities.
Notable pioneers in the field of improvisation, comedic or otherwise, include
Mike Myers,
Neil Mullarkey,
Paul Merton,
Stephen Fry,
John Sessions
John Marshall (11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020), better known by the stage name John Sessions, was a British actor and comedian. He was known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', as a panellist o ...
,
Josie Lawrence,
Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be ...
,
Paul Sills
Paul Sills (born Paul Silverberg; November 18, 1927 – June 2, 2008) was an American director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.
Life and career
Sills was born Paul Silverberg in Chicago, Illinois ...
,
David Shepherd,
Del Close
Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was ...
,
Josephine Forsberg,
Gary Austin
Gary Austin (born Gary Moore; October 18, 1941 – April 1, 2017) was an American improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director who founded The Groundlings theatre company in 1974.
Early life
Austin grew up in the Nazarene Church and in ...
,
Martin de Maat Martin de Maat (January 12, 1949 – February 15, 2001) was a teacher and artistic director at The Second City in Chicago. He also taught at Columbia College and Players Workshop. He studied under Viola Spolin. De Maat and Del Close were the two ...
, and
Keith Johnstone. Notable performers include:
Paul Merton,
Stephen Colbert,
Steve Carell,
Bill Murray,
Harold Ramis,
Robert Townsend,
Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie (; born November 30, 1957) is a Scottish-born Canadian actor, writer, producer and improvisational comedian, best known for his appearances on the British and US versions of the improvisational TV show ''Whose Line Is It A ...
,
Ryan Stiles,
Ross Noble,
Eddie Izzard,
Tony Slattery
Tony Declan James Slattery (born 9 November 1959) is an English actor and comedian. He appeared on British television regularly from the mid-1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' His ...
,
Mike McShane,
Sandi Toksvig,
Wayne Brady,
Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also h ...
,
T. J. Jagodowski
Thomas James Jagodowski (born September 2, 1971) is an American comedian, actor, and improvisational performer who resides in Chicago. He has been a member of The Second City as well as a performer and teacher at iO Theater, formerly known as "Imp ...
,
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
,
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...
and
David Pasquesi
David Pasquesi (born December 22, 1960) is an American actor and comedian. His screen credits include ''Groundhog Day'', ''Strangers with Candy'', ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', ''Return to Me'', '' The Ice Harvest'', ''Veep'', ''At Home with Amy Sed ...
.
Dance
Dance improvisation Dance improvisation is the process of spontaneously creating movement. Development of movement material is facilitated through a variety of creative explorations including body mapping through levels, shape and dynamics schema.
Improvisation is a f ...
as a
choreographic tool: Improvisation is used as a choreographic tool in
dance composition
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...
. Experimenting with the concepts of shape, space, time, and energy while moving without inhibition or cognitive thinking can create unique and innovative movement designs, spatial configuration, dynamics, and unpredictable rhythms. Improvisation without inhibition allows the choreographer to connect to their deepest creative self, which in turn clears the way for pure invention. This cognitive inhibition is similar to the inhibition described by Limb for musical improvisation, which can be found in the music section above.
Contact improvisation: a form developed in 1973, that is now practiced around the world. Contact improvisation originated from the movement studies of Steve Paxton in the 1970s and developed through the continued exploration of the
Judson Dance Theater. It is a dance form based on weight sharing, partnering, playing with weight, exploring negative space and unpredictable outcomes.
Skills and techniques
The skills of improvisation can apply to many different abilities or forms of communication and expression across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines. For example, improvisation can make a significant contribution in music, dance, cooking, presenting a speech, sales, personal or romantic relationships, sports, flower arranging, martial arts, psychotherapy, and much more.
Techniques of improvisation are widely used in training for performing arts or entertainment; for example, music, theatre and dance. To "''extemporize''" or "ad lib" is basically the same as improvising. Colloquial terms such as "let's play it by the ear", "take it as it comes", and "make it up as we go along" are all used to describe "improvisation".
The simple act of speaking requires a good deal of improvisation because the mind is addressing its own thought and creating its unrehearsed delivery in words, sounds and gestures, forming unpredictable statements that further feed the thought process (the performer as the listener), creating an enriched process that is not unlike instantaneous composition
ith a given set or repertoire of elements
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
Where the improvisation is intended to solve a problem on a temporary basis, the "proper" solution being unavailable at the time, it may be known as a "stop-gap". This applies to the field of engineering. Another improvisational, group problem-solving technique being used in organizations of all kinds is ''brainstorming'', in which any and all ideas that a group member may have are permitted and encouraged to be expressed, regardless of actual practicality. As in all improvisation, the process of brainstorming opens up the minds of the people involved to new, unexpected and possibly useful ideas. The colloquial term for this is "thinking outside the box."
Artificial intelligence
Sculpture
Sculpture often relies on the enlargement of a small model or
maquette to create the final work in a chosen material. Where the material is ''plastic'' such as
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
, a working structure or
armature often needs to be built to allow the pre-determined design to be realized.
Alan Thornhill
Alan Thornhill (1921 – March 4, 2020) was a British artist and sculptor whose long association with clay developed from pottery into sculpture. His output includes pottery, small and large scale sculptures, portrait heads, paintings and dr ...
's method for working with clay abandons the maquette, seeing it as ''ultimately deadening to creativity''. Without the restrictions of the armature, a clay matrix of elements allows that when recognizable forms start to emerge, they can be essentially disregarded by turning the work, allowing for infinite possibility and the chance for the unforeseen to emerge more powerfully at a later stage.
Moving from ''adding and taking away'' to purely reductive working, the architectural considerations of turning the work are eased considerably but continued removal of material through the rejection of forms deemed ''too obvious'' can mean one ends up with nothing. Former pupil
Jon Edgar uses Thornhill's method as a creative extension to
direct carving
This page describe terms and jargon related to sculpture and sculpting.
__NOTOC__
A
armature
:An armature is an internal frame or skeleton which supports a modelled sculpture. A typical armature for a small sculpture is made of heavy gauge ...
in stone and wood.
Film
The director
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design ...
uses lengthy improvisations developed over a period of weeks to build characters and story lines for his films. He starts with some sketch ideas of how he thinks things might develop but does not reveal all his intentions with the cast who discover their fate and act out their responses as their destinies are gradually revealed, including significant aspects of their lives which will not subsequently be shown onscreen. The final filming draws on dialogue and actions that have been recorded during the improvisation period.
Writing
Improvisational writing is an exercise that imposes limitations on a writer such as a time limit, word limit, a specific topic, or rules on what can be written. This forces the writer to work within
stream of consciousness and write without judgment of the work they produce. This technique is used for a variety of reasons, such as to bypass
writer's block
Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...
, improve creativity, strengthen one's writing instinct and enhance one's flexibility in writing.
Some improvisational writing is collaborative, focusing on an almost
dadaist form of
collaborative fiction. This can take a variety of forms, from as basic as passing a notebook around a circle of writers with each writing a sentence, to coded environments that focus on collaborative novel-writing, like ''
OtherSpace
''Fallen Earth'' is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Reloaded Productions (formerly by North Carolina-based Icarus Studios and Fallen Earth). The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland located a ...
''.
Improvised weapons
Improvised weapon
An improvised weapon is an object that was not designed to be used as a weapon but can be put to that use. They are generally used for self-defence or if the person is otherwise unarmed. In some cases, improvised weapons are commonly used by attac ...
s are often used by guerrillas, insurgents and criminals as conventional weapons may be unavailable. Such weapons vary in sophistication from simple sharpened sticks, to petrol bombs and homemade napalm, to
improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechan ...
s and makeshift
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...
aircraft. Weapons are also improvised by regular military organizations and formations as "stop-gap" measures when purpose-built equipment is either not on hand or is simply not yet available.
Notes
References
* Abbot, John. 2009. ''Improvisation in Rehearsal''.
Nick Hern Books. .
* Abbot, John. 2007. ''The Improvisation Book''.
Nick Hern Books. .
* Harrigan, Pat. 2002. ''First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and Game''.
MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962.
History
The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
. .
* Johnston, Chris. 2006. ''The Improvisation Game: Discovering the Secrets of Spontaneous Performance''.
Nick Hern Books. .
* Madson, Patricia Ryan. 2005. ''Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up''. Bell Tower. .
External links
*
*
Critical studies in improvisationEasy piano improvisation
{{Authority control
Engineering concepts
Cinematic techniques
Music genres
Poetic devices
Sculpture techniques
Theatre