Download or read book Improv for Actors written by Dan Diggles and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-03-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this step-by-step guide, an actor and improvisational teacher brings his tested methods to the page to show how actors can take risks and gain spontaneity in all genres of scripted theater. Through 28 lessons—each of which includes warm-ups, points of concentration, and improvisation exercises—Improv for Actors provides insights into thinking and reacting with fluidity, exploring a character’s social status, using the voice and body as effective tools of storytelling, and more. Actors of all levels will soon be able to give a fresh, original approach to classic characters, create funnier performances in farce and comedy, and make dramatic characters richer and more believable.
Download or read book Mask Improvisation for Actor Training Performance written by Sears A. Eldredge and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because mask improvisation work is relatively new in American theater training, this book is designed not only to acquaint readers with the theory of mask improvisation but to instruct them in the techniques of method as well. Featuring dozens of improvisational exercises in the innovative spirit of Viola Spolin, and supplemented with practical appendices on mask design and construction, forms and checklists, and other classroom materials, this book is an invaluable tool for teacher and student alike, as well as compelling reading for anyone interested in acquiring a deeper understanding of masks as agents of transformation, creativity, and performance.
Download or read book Book on Acting written by Stephen Book and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Improvisation Technique is then applied to exercises with scripted lines, developing sophisticated improvisation skills for enhancing character, emotions, conflict, and agreement as well as improving the actor's audition process. Also included is a unique process for breaking down scripted scenes into improvisation choices."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Impro written by Keith Johnstone and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Improv Book written by Alison Goldie and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A smart, witty and accessible guide to the rewarding and joyful practice of improvisation. Classic improv games and variations Telling stories and creating characters Using improv to make theatre and comedy, from monologues to full-scale productions An asset to students and teachers of improvisation in schools, drama schools, higher education and theatre groups, both professional and amateur. It will also be of benefit to organisations and individual readers who want to discover how improv stimulates creativity and confidence in all areas of life. The Improv Book opens up this exciting discipline to a wider audience.
Download or read book Improvisation for Actors and Writers written by Bill Lynn and published by Meriwether Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far more than simply an overview of improv comedy, this book helps actors, writers and comedians learn the basics as taught in all the major comedy schools. First, the do's and don'ts of the Comedy Improv Commandments. The concepts that, when understood, hit the student like falling anvils: Anvil 1: Collaboration -- Working with the 'Group Mind', Anvil 2: Agreement -- 'Just say Yes', Anvil 3: Foundation -- 'Who, What and Where, Anvil 4: Exploring -- 'Finding the Game'. Successful improv requires the skill of the actor, the talent of the comedian and the ideas of the writer rolled into one. This book tells how it can all be done for performers or teachers.
Download or read book The Improv Handbook written by Tom Salinsky and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Improv Handbook is the most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improv available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes, it features a range of games, interviews, descriptions and exercises that illuminate and illustrate the exciting world of improvised performance. First published in 2008, this second edition features a new foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as new exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master-servant games, plus new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan. The Improv Handbook is a one-stop guide to the exciting world of improvisation. Whether you're a beginner, an expert, or would just love to try it if you weren't too scared, The Improv Handbook will guide you every step of the way.
Download or read book The Ultimate Improv Book written by Edward J. Nevraumont and published by Meriwether Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete improvisation curriculum in twenty-four class-length units. This comprehensive resource who shows the who, what, when, why and how of comedy improvisation. Main topics: What is improv?; Improvisational skills; Structuring; Strategies; How to start your own improvisation team. Includes many games and exercises.
Download or read book Enlivening Instruction with Drama and Improv written by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging and complete resource has everything you need to bring drama and theatre techniques into the ESL, EFL, or World Language Classroom. Are your students reluctant to speak out in class? Do they lack confidence in their language skills? The dynamic drama games in this book are the perfect catalyst to transform your students into engaged learners, and help them build confidence and language skills. The interactive theatre games and techniques are specifically designed for use in Second, Foreign, and World Language classrooms to empower students through meaningful, agentive language learning. With over 80 activities and games, and hundreds of extensions that can be catered to every level, this book provides teachers with clear, step-by-step instructions to teaching dramatic activities with L2 learners of all levels and backgrounds. The games and strategies in this book will enliven classrooms with communication that is creative, memorable, inspiring, and fun. Grounded in cutting-edge research, this book explains why teaching language through drama is effective and inspiring for teachers and students alike, directing readers to a wide array of resources and approaches to teaching language through theatre. You’ll also find guidance on leading drama games with language learners in a variety of online platforms, lesson planning models, and an example lesson plan for easy implementation in physical or virtual classroom spaces.
Download or read book Truth in Comedy written by Charna Halpern and published by Meriwether Publishing. This book was released on 1994 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'Harold', an innovative improvisational tool, helped many actors on the road to TV and film stardom, including George Wendt (Norm on Cheers). Now it is described fully in this new book for would-be actors and comics. The 'Harold' is a form of competitive improv involving 6 or 7 players. They take a theme suggestion from the audience and 'free associate' on the theme into a series of rapid-fire one-liners that build into totally unpredictable skits with hilarious results. The 'Harold' is a fun way to 'loosen up' and learn to think quickly, build continuity, develop characterisations and sharpen humour.
Download or read book Improvisation in Drama Theatre and Performance written by Anthony Frost and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-26 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improvisation is a tool for many things: performance training, rehearsal practice, playwriting, therapeutic interaction and somatic discovery. This book opens up the significance of improvisation across cultures, histories and ways of performing our life, offering key insights into the what, the how and the why of performance. It traces the origins of improvisation and its influences, both as a social and political phenomenon and its position in performance training. Including history, theory and practice, this new edition encompasses Theatre and performance studies as well as drama, acknowledging the rapid reconfiguration of these fields in recent years. Its coverage also now extends to improvisation in the USA, cinema, LARPing, street events and the improvising audience, while also looking at improv's relationship to stand-up comedy, jazz, poetry and free movement practices. With an index of exercises and an extensive bibliography, this book is indispensable to students of improvisation.
Download or read book Interactive Acting written by Jeff Wirth and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is and overview of concepts and techniques fundamental to interacticve theatre. It can serve as an introduction for those new to the field and as a brush up review for the most experienced interactors"--Introduction.
Download or read book Process written by Mary Scruggs and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Process: An Improviser's Journey is an invaluable resource for mastering improv. Author, teacher, and improviser Michael Gellman was given a mission by famed improv coach Del Close: “[T]o create improvised one-act plays of literary quality from scratch.” Already steeped in the world of improvisation, he took it upon himself to do this, in the form of a class for other improvisers in which they would build the skills necessary to execute such a seemingly tall order. Scruggs and Gellman’s book, modeled after Stanislavski’s timeless An Actor Prepares, follows a fictional young actor taking Gellman’s real-life class. Scruggs and Gellman introduce readers to Geoff, who has just moved to Chicago to pursue acting. He undergoes the standard trials of audition and rejection before he takes the advice of a fellow actor and turns to improv classes at Second City. At first, Geoff thinks improvisation is about laughs and loosening up, but he soon learns that it is a powerful tool as well as an end in itself. Through Geoff’s eyes, the book introduces readers to key tenets of improvisation: concentration, visualization, focus, object work, being in the moment, and the crucial “yes, and.” His experiences with the basics of improvisation do serve to get him a few roles, but his real breakthrough comes when he signs up for an improvised one-act class with Michael Gellman. He and his classmates arrive unprepared for the challenge, but with Gellman’s prompts and advice, they slowly move through process to performance over the course of three seasons in Chicago. The class culminates with their final project: a completely improvised one-act play performed in front of a live audience.
Download or read book Play Your Way Sane written by Clay Drinko and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stop negative thoughts, assuage anxiety, and live in the moment with these fun, easy games from improv expert Clay Drinko. If you’ve been feeling lost lately, you’re not alone! Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans were experiencing record levels of loneliness and anxiety. And in our current political turmoil, it’s safe to say that people are looking for new tools to help them feel more present, positive, and in sync with the world. So what better way to get there than play? In Play Your Way Sane, Dr. Clay Drinko offers 120 low-key, accessible activities that draw on the popular principles of improv comedy to help you tackle your everyday stress and reconnect with the people around you. Divided into twelve fun sections, including “Killing Debbie Downer” and “Thou Shalt Not Be Judgy,” the games emphasize openness, reciprocation, and active listening as the keys to a mindful and satisfying life. Whether you’re looking to improve your personal relationships, find new meaning at work, or just survive our trying times, Play Your Way Sane offers serious self-help with a side of Second City sass.
Download or read book Improv and the Actor s Imagination written by Robert Z. Grant and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written for actors, IMPROV AND THE ACTOR'S IMAGINATION brings to life the skills of improvisation through practical exercises, games, and scenes, and applies those skills to the craft of acting and beyond. Author Robert Z Grant shares his own improvised approach to both scripted and unscripted work, developed over decades as a professional actor and improviser. Actors and everyone looking to expand their possibilities are encouraged to learn to give themselves permission to follow their own instincts, and to release the awesome power of their imaginations. Get yourself into trouble and see what happens!
Download or read book Improv written by Greg Atkins and published by Heinemann Drama. This book was released on 1994 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This friendly, informative book looks at the reasons many actors hate improvisation, while quietly reinforcing the reasons improv is a vital part of acting and of theatre.
Download or read book Improvising Out Loud written by Jeff Corey and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jeff Corey (1914--2002) made a name for himself in the 1940s as a character actor in films like Superman and the Mole Men (1951), Joan of Arc (1948), and The Killers (1946). Everything changed in 1951, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Corey refused to name names and was promptly blacklisted, which forced him to walk away from a vibrant livelihood as an actor and embark on a career as one of the industry's most revered acting instructors. In Improvising Out Loud: My Life Teaching Hollywood How to Act, Corey recounts his extraordinary story. Among the actors who would soon fill his classes were James Dean, Kirk Douglas, Jane Fonda, Rob Reiner, Jack Nicholson, and Leonard Nimoy. In 1962, when the blacklist ended, Corey was one of the industry's first trailblazers to seamlessly reboot his acting career and secure roles in some of the classic films of the era, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), True Grit (1969), and Little Big Man (1970), in which he starred as the infamous Wild Bill Hickok. Throughout his life, Corey sought to capture the human heart: in conflict, in terror, in love, and in all of its small triumphs. His memoir, which he wrote with his daughter Emily Corey, provides a unique and personal perspective on the man whose teaching inspired some of Hollywood's biggest names to star in the roles that made them famous.
