Art App

MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY-GENERAL SANTOS CITY
Improvisation in different
Artforms
Enero, Arjelyn A. Montenid, Stephen S.
Castillo, Bryle Steven R.
Objectives:
1. Define improvisation;
2. Discuss the body as the basic tool in expression and communication;
3. Discuss different types of Improvisation techniques;
What is Improvisation?
Improvisation is when you act creatively and perform
spontaneously without much preparation. Improvisation (also known
as improv, impro, or impromptu) has been a component of
performance since the beginnings of Ancient Greek theatre with the
improvisations by the leaders of the dithyrambs (Brockett, 13 in Scott,
2014.)
Improvisation Techniques
1. Improvised Music
Music in theater can be voice, music, or sound effects. In most cases,

sound in theater operates as an auxiliary that heightens the effect or
emphasizes this message of the story as John A. Leonard points out in
his book Theater Sound (Leonard, 2001).
2. Improvised Dance
It is the process of spontaneously creating a movement. Development

of movement material is facilitated through a variety of creative
explorations including body mapping through levels, shape, and
dynamics schema.
3. Improvised Design
It has something to do with the visual arts used as background of the

entire milieu of the presentation: lighting, backdrop, props, and
costumes. It may be mock-ups, or realias depending on how the story
wants to convey its tangibility and concreteness.
4. Improvised Theater/Drama
It involves the spot of role-playing and exchanging dialog in which

most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created
spontaneously by the performers.
5. Improvised Problem Solving
This challenges a performer to provide on-the-spot dialog and

conversation as the situation and interaction gap arise leaving it a silent
lull. This might be the failure of one performer to do the task on stage
and you find a way to cover it up before the audience.
Types of Improvisational Theater

Comedy
A kind of catharsis through laughter and amusement- helps remind us

of our frailties and helps keep us sane.
A way of looking at the world on which basic values are asserted but
natural laws suspended
To underscore human follies and foolishness- sometimes awry, rueful,

hilarious.

Examples of Comedy
“Home, I’m Darling” by Laura “Fat Pig” by Neil Labute in 2014
Wade in 2018
Non-comedy
Sad at the onset but suggests a happy ending, -- serious with some
elements of humor emerging throughout the whole play.

Examples of Non-Comedy
“Enron” by Lucy Prebble in 2009 “Love and Money” by Dennis Kelly
Experimental
Altered traditional conventions of space (black box theater), theme,

movement, mood, tension, language, symbolism, conventional rules
and other elements.

Examples of Experimental
“The White Whore and the Bit Player” “The Coming Storm” by Tim Etchells in
by Brad Mays 2012

Dramatic
Simplified characters, drawn without psychological depth, and larger

than life.
A largely standard set oof characters fitting stock roles– villains, good
guys, damsels in distress, sidekicks and a handful of others.

Examples of Dramatic
“Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf” by “Dear Evan Hansen” by Adam Feldman
Edward Albee

Narrative-Based
- Catchy music in a popular style.

- Solo songs, duets, choruses, and ensembles.
- Orchestra or band accompaniment
- spoken dialogue
- Dance
- sequences, stage spectacles and magnificent costumes

Examples of Narrative-Based
“Ang Huling El Bimbo” by Ely Buendia “American Utopia” by David Byrne
Contact Body Improvisation

Contact body improvisation involves the exploration of one’s
body in relationship to others by using the fundamentals of sharing
weight, touch, and movement awareness (Banes, 1987). It follows a
pattern of rhythm.
The 5 rhythms in the context of body

movement improvisation
1. Flowing
It is the impulse to follow the flow of one’s energy, to be true to

oneself, listen, and attend to one’s needs, be receptive to one’s inner
and outer world. When we open up to the flow of our physical beings,
all other possibilities open.

2. Staccato
Staccato is the gateway to the heart. It shows us how to step out into
the world connected to our feet and feelings. It is the part of us that
stands up for what we care about and who/what we love.

3. Chaos
Chaos breaks us free from our illusions. It takes us on a journey from

‘I can’t’ to ‘I will’. The simple practices of chaos immediately bring us
back to our bodies, to the moment. This rhythm liberates us from all
ideas about who we are and gives us a real experience of being total,
free, intuitive, and creative.

4. Lyrical
We practice how to break our of destructive patterns and surrender to

the depths of the fluid, creative repetitions of our soulful selves.
Lyrical is expansive and connects us to our humanity, timeless
rhythms, repetitions, patterns, and cycles. Lyrical is more of a state of
being than a rhythm.

5. Stillness
Stillness moves, both within and all around us. The dance is our
vehicle, our destination is the rhythm of stillness; our challenge is to be
a vessel that keeps moving and changing. Each time we dance into
stillness, we practice the art of making humble and mindful endings.
The 5Rhythms work is divided into different levels, all of which form
a base for our deeply personal practice. Each level of the work builds
on the one before as we naturally unfold and unravel towards our
authentic self. Each level of the curriculum has an essential teaching:
Waves: Being/Body
Heartbeat: Loving/Heart
Cycles: Knowing/Mind
Mirrors: Seeing/Soul
The Silver Desert: Healing/Spirit
Medicine Mandala by Gabrielle Roth
Such medicine mandala is a series of

maps that explores the terrain of the
inner and outer worlds of individuals,
their relationships to others and the
space around them. The maps offer a
soul journey by exploring embodiment,
emotions, the life cycle, the psyche, and
the archetypes.
Sound Improvisation
Sound in theater can be voice, music, or sound effects. In most cases,
sound in theatre operates as an auxiliary that heightens the effect or
emphasizes this nucleus of the text, body, or the spectacle. In this sense
it plays a subordinate and supporting role to the central event in theater
(Sahai, 2009).
Musical/Sound improvisation (also known as musical

extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate (“in the
moment”) musical composition, which combines performance with
communication or emotions and instrumental technique as well as
spontaneous response to other musicians (The Free Dictionary. Com).
Theater Improvisation
If there is an improvised body movement and improvised music, they
can form together to come up with improvised theater.
Improvisational theater, or improv, consists of a comedic, poignant, or

dramatic stage performance, usually with a wide cast of actors and
actresses.
Theater Improvisation
The players must incorporate a wide array of skills, including listening
and maintaining conscious awareness of other actors and actresses on
stage.
Improvisational performers work together to define the rules of the

scene. Different props, uniforms and settings are used yo co-create the
storyline.
Five Distinctive Approaches to Improvisation

by: Karen Erickson
1. Basic Performance Improvisation
This type of improvisation is used to introduce improvisation to students,

or to create comedy sketches which will be performed for a formal or
informal audience. Actors might take suggestions from the audience to
build humorous or (very rarely) serous scenes on the spot.
Basic Performance Improvisation -- Example

“Who’s Line Is It Anyway?

by: Karen Erickson
2. Devised Theater
This type of improvisation is used to create longer works of original

theater. This work can be used for classroom sharing or can grow into
works for performance in front of an audience. Actors are guided step-by-
step through the process of creating more fully developed and usually
more thorough dramatic pieces or full-length plays, sometimes even
utilizing sets, costumes, etc.
Devised Theater-- Example

The Albany Park Theater Project in Chicago

by: Karen Erickson
3. Applied Theater
This type of improvisation is not focused on entertainment, but rather

facilitates the exploration of an idea, theme, conflict, or question by a
group of people. The purpose of communication among the participant.
People who are trained or untrained in the arts can participate in applied
theater and it happens in a variety of community settings.
Applied Theater-- Example

Augusta Boal’s work (Forum Theater, Legislative Theater, etc.

by: Karen Erickson
4. Drama in the Classroom (Creative Drama)
Whenever students are acting a story without a script, or making up their

own stories based on history, science, or a favorite book, they are
improvising. Teachers who engage students in drama in the classroom
without having students memorize a set script are already teaching
improvisation.

by: Karen Erickson
5. Improvisation as Scripted Theater Rehearsal
This type of improvisation is used by stage directors to illuminate a

character’s backstory or the hidden subtext in a script. This
improvisational technique can help students dig deeper into their
characters in a play. It is also a method of building skills in actors that
might be needed to strengthen the production, including listening,
spontaneity and timing.
Improvisation as Scripted Theater Rehearsal- Example
Viola Spolin’s work

Solving Improvisational Challenges

A. Identifying the Pivotal Word
The technique is to identify the pivotal or operative word that energizes

that line or phrase. Most often it’s a verb, noun, adjective, or adverb. But it
could be any word in a sentence or phrase. How to fill in the gap with your
missing thought or language? Use necessary conjunctions, adverbs,
intervening phrases or even fillers to give a short break and you can think
of the next line as you make transition.
B. Recovering language Sensibility
This challenge can be twisted and recovered by shifting the topic or

modifying it that the flow of the story does not change. Besides, you can
be also of help if the other presenter whom you talk to on stage commits
such mistake.
C. Controlling the Trouble Step
It has something to do with body contact or in dance movement in group

synchrony (dance in unison), group randomly (dance in unison but of
different steps), partner (dance in pair), or individual (dance alone).
Trouble step says more on dancing on the floor with others and you find
yourself hemmed in.
D. Going to the Extreme
Find a moment in the scene where you feel it is becoming false, stale, or
ineffective and have the actors go to the opposite end of spectrum utilizing
a new emotion, intensity, tempo, rhythm, pace, etc.
Thank you for listening!

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MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY-GENERAL SANTOS CITY

Music in theater can be voice, music, or sound effects. In most cases,

It is the process of spontaneously creating a movement. Development

It has something to do with the visual arts used as background of the

It involves the spot of role-playing and exchanging dialog in which

This challenges a performer to provide on-the-spot dialog and

Types of Improvisational Theater

A kind of catharsis through laughter and amusement- helps remind us

To underscore human follies and foolishness- sometimes awry, rueful,

Types of Improvisational Theater

Types of Improvisational Theater

Types of Improvisational Theater

Types of Improvisational Theater

Altered traditional conventions of space (black box theater), theme,

Types of Improvisational Theater

Types of Improvisational Theater

Simplified characters, drawn without psychological depth, and larger

Types of Improvisational Theater

Types of Improvisational Theater

- Catchy music in a popular style.

Types of Improvisational Theater

Contact Body Improvisation

The 5 rhythms in the context of body

It is the impulse to follow the flow of one’s energy, to be true to

The 5 rhythms in the context of body

The 5 rhythms in the context of body

Chaos breaks us free from our illusions. It takes us on a journey from

The 5 rhythms in the context of body

We practice how to break our of destructive patterns and surrender to

The 5 rhythms in the context of body

Medicine Mandala by Gabrielle Roth

Such medicine mandala is a series of

Musical/Sound improvisation (also known as musical

Improvisational theater, or improv, consists of a comedic, poignant, or

Improvisational performers work together to define the rules of the

Five Distinctive Approaches to Improvisation

1. Basic Performance Improvisation

This type of improvisation is used to introduce improvisation to students,

Basic Performance Improvisation -- Example

Five Distinctive Approaches to Improvisation

This type of improvisation is used to create longer works of original

Devised Theater-- Example

Five Distinctive Approaches to Improvisation

This type of improvisation is not focused on entertainment, but rather

Applied Theater-- Example

Five Distinctive Approaches to Improvisation

Whenever students are acting a story without a script, or making up their

Five Distinctive Approaches to Improvisation

This type of improvisation is used by stage directors to illuminate a

Improvisation as Scripted Theater Rehearsal- Example

Viola Spolin’s work

Solving Improvisational Challenges

The technique is to identify the pivotal or operative word that energizes

Solving Improvisational Challenges

B. Recovering language Sensibility

This challenge can be twisted and recovered by shifting the topic or

Solving Improvisational Challenges

C. Controlling the Trouble Step

It has something to do with body contact or in dance movement in group

Solving Improvisational Challenges

D. Going to the Extreme

Thank you for listening!

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