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Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre [Paperback]

Keith Johnstone
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 7, 1987 0878301178 978-0878301171
Keith Johnstone's involvement with the theatre began when George Devine and Tony Richardson, artistic directors of the Royal Court Theatre, commissioned a play from him. This was in 1956. A few years later he was himself Associate Artistic Director, working as a play-reader and director, in particular helping to run the Writers' Group. The improvisatory techniques and exercises evolved there to foster spontaneity and narrative skills were developed further in the actors' studio then in demonstrations to schools and colleges and ultimately in the founding of a company of performers, called The Theatre Machine.

Divided into four sections, 'Status', 'Spontaneity', 'Narrative Skills', and 'Masks and Trance', arranged more or less in the order a group might approach them, the book sets out the specific techniques and exercises which Johnstone has himself found most useful and most stimulating. The result is both an ideas book and a fascinating exploration of the nature of spontaneous creativity.


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Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre + Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation + Improvise.: Scene from the Inside Out
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Impro ought to be required reading not only for theatre people generally but also for teachers, educators, and students of all kinds and persuassions. Readers of this book are not going to agree with everything in it; but if they are not challenged by it, if they do not ultimately succumb to its wisdom and whimsicality, they are in a very sad state indeed . . . .Johnstone seeks to liberate the imagination, to cultivate in the adult the creative power of the child . . . .Deserves to be widely read and tested in the classroom and rehearsal hall . . .Full of excellent good sense, actual observations and inspired assetions.
CHOICE: Books for College Libraries

About the Author

Keith Johnstone is an internationally recognized authority in the field of improvisation. His books Impro, and Impro For Storytellers, have been translated into many languages. He leads master classes in improvisation around the world. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge (January 7, 1987)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0878301178
  • ISBN-13: 978-0878301171
  • Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

It will expand your creativity and improve your physical awareness onstage. "sarahtacey"  |  9 reviewers made a similar statement
It seems that there is always something new to discover in this book. Denoumonster  |  6 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 52 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Not a theatre book, but a teacher's manifesto June 19, 2001
Format:Paperback
Keith Johnstone's book has influenced countless acting classes. Many artists who have not yet heard of this book are doing exercises based on his experiments in England with actors using improvisation to discover status operations within a scene, narrative structure, and the importance of structure and process over "content" (a sticking point for the improvisator, the public speaker, and everyone who has ever said, 'I can't think of anything.') It also provides one of the best short introductions to mask work around. So it might seem like an indispensable theatre book. And it is that. Indispensable.

Yet read Johnstone's first chapter - a memoir of his early teaching career, in which he discovered the process by which children learn to be uncreative as a tragic coping skill. This is not a theatre book. Theatre classes were the arena, but this is a book about teaching! This is about opening doors that have been slammed shut, and acquainting people with the creativity and exuberance that is everybody's birthright. The exercises, and analyses of his students' work with improvisation, along with Johnstone's unflagging faith in every person's imagination, have much to show us even on repeated readings and practice.

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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Keith Johnstone is a maverick educator and theatrical innovator.
This book, first published in 1979, remains the most important book on improvisation written in English.
Johnstone divides the world of improvising into four categories:Spontenaity, Narrative, Status and Masks.
The stories about his own loss of creativity through the demands of public education set the frame for his illuminating description of what it takes to return us all to our creative selves.
This book is a must read for anyone involved in the creative process, for all teachers of the arts and anyone who has ever wondered where his creativity has gone.
Patricia Ryan,
Head of Acting
Stanford University
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Meaningful stuff, makes you think. June 12, 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was the first improv book that I ever read, and in retrospect I kind of wish I'd read something like Charna Halpern's TRUTH IN COMEDY or Mick Napier's IMPROVISE first. Those books will give you a better introduction to what most of us know of as group improvisation - the "Whose Line is it anyway" sort of thing. They'll give you a better framework to work with.

Keith Johnstone's book, on the other hand, is kind of like a complete rethinking of the Improv framework ... he writes about things I haven't read about anywhere else. And it really made me think about things in a different way.

First of all, I have to admit that the first couple of sections are pretty dry. I had to struggle to get through the section on "Status" ... I was thinking to myself, why did people give this BORING book a good review?? ... I did consider that maybe it's because the man is British (I think), and so the style of writing and the type of humor is a little different than I'm used to.

However, when he gets around to talking about the story/narrative, suddenly there is a flash of brilliance and it all started to make sense ... basically he talks about just letting GO of the things that are inhibiting us, how to stop listening to the voice that is telling us NO all the time ... and, I don't know, there's just something very profound in the way that he discusses it - little insights here and there that are just, for lack of a better word, very MEANINGUL.

For example, he says, of parents and teachers who scold their children, to keep their undesirable 'creativeness' under wraps: "... when these children grow up, and perhaps crack up, then they'll find themselves in therapy groups where they'll be encouraged to say all the things that the teacher would have forbidden during school." SO TRUE. This is what all the group therapies in Psych hospitals do - try to bring back the creativeness of the child. Why do we limit it in the first place??

Basically he stresses that EVERYONE has "weird" thoughts and an "artistic" nature that many of us have learned to say NO to, because they are forbidden or at least not encouraged. He says, "In one moment I knew that the valuing of men by their intelligence is crazy, that the peasants watching the night sky might feel more than I feel, that the man who dances might be superior to myself - word-bound and unable to dance. From then on I noticed how warped many people of great intelligence are, and I began to value people for their actions, rather than their thoughts."

And that's not EVEN getting into the last chapter, on MASKS - at first I was thinking, "OK, this is weird, why is there a huge chapter on MASKS in a book about IMPROV"? But the things he describes there are perhaps the most amazing, and disturbing, of the whole book. It almost makes me fear what I would "do" if I were to follow his instructions and suggestions ... but it's an excited sort of 'fear' - actually I wish I had readier access to instructors who are comfortable in these methods ... well, I can't really describe it much better than that.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars awesome book for actors, artists and everyone, really
The book is split into two man parts: statuses in acting and life, and trances/Mask work.

Both parts are very illuminating, if you are a human being, you should read... Read more
Published 18 days ago by M. Martogne
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling!
Johnstone is an inspiring read. Anyone studying theater would would benefit from the ideas in this book. We are using it as a guide in our improv group.
Published 25 days ago by Jo W McCutchan
5.0 out of 5 stars enthralling view of the human condition
I read all the time and this is the first time I've ever written a review. I can't put this book down. Read more
Published 2 months ago by a customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Eh, it's ok
Required to read this for Acting. I liked the imagery used in the text, but overall I thought it was self explanitory and didn't really need to read about it in a book.
Published 2 months ago by fairydustxo
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating read,
Amazing book that had plenty of concepts that could be applied in real life. I recommend this book to everyone.
Published 3 months ago by Pet Owner
5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading
This book could change our world. Should be required reading for the entire human race. The section on maskwork, trance, is spooky in it's esoteric implications.
Published 4 months ago by James M. Proctor
5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is For Everyone
This book is for you if you are artsy, creative, want to be artsy or creative, or don't want to be artsy or creative, or couldn't be artsy or creative if you wanted to be. Read more
Published 4 months ago by NPunk42
5.0 out of 5 stars Magical - a laugh and cry experience
Remember the last time you started a book, and in just a few pages, maybe even the first page, you knew that that book was going to be a magical experience? Read more
Published 10 months ago by David Phillips
5.0 out of 5 stars A Thought Provoking Read
It's not a how-to manual, or a guide in the traditional sense -- it will not teach you how to improv. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Denoumonster
5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable even for people outside the theater
I heard about this book from a discussion on general social interaction. In particular, how people could learn to employee various behavioral characteristics that lead others... Read more
Published 21 months ago by James Britt
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