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any performance that involves spontaneous creation
Whether playing a blue-sky story or working from a scenario, interactive performance is built on the things that spects say and do. Since there’s no way to predict every offer that a spect might make, inter-actors always need the ability to improvise.
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Keith Johnstone
Presented in the form of practical experiences, this book contains a wealth of concepts and techniques that enhance the quality of improvisational work. Each of the sections—Status, Spontaneity, Narrative Skills, and Masks and Trance—is rich with examples that bring the techniques to life.
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Viola Spolin
A vast reference work that focuses on freeing the natural ability to play and perform through the use of improvisational theatre games. Also includes sections on coaching improvisation and working with children.
Exercises
A scene is played in which Player A follows Player B’s offers by doing physical actions.
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an offer that involves doing something
It’s easy to fall into the trap of talking heads. Actional offers help avoid this trap. In addition to speaking, do things. Actional offers advance the story through the things you do and often introduce props into the story world. The props serve an immediate purpose and they can also be reincorporated later in the story.
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thinking of something related to something else
If you hear the word “birthday,” what do you think of? Birthday cakes? Parties? Presents? Getting old? Whatever you think of, those are associations.
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to respond to an offer as though it were false
Blocking is the opposite of accepting. Accepting supports the truth of an offer; blocking contradicts it. When offers are blocked, players have to negotiate what’s true and what’s not before they can continue to play in a shared fiction.
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getting stuck trying to come up with an idea
Trying to come up with an idea can cause your brain to lock up. The harder you try, the more stuck you become. If brain lock occurs, take your time, breathe deep, and focus on what is present. Respond to that. You can also break mental logjams by doing a physical action or speaking before you know what you’re going to say.
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