Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre - Softcover

JOHNSTONE, KEITH

Softcover

ISBN 10: 041346430X ISBN 13: 9780413464309

Publisher: Routledge, 1981

Synopsis

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 the year of Look Back in Anger in 1956. A few years later he was himself Associate Artistic Director, in particular helping to run the writers' group. The 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 a fascinating exploration of the nature of spontaneous creativity." If teachers were honoured in the British theatre along-side directors, designers and playwrights, Keith Johnstone would be as familiar a name as are those of Jocelyn Herbert, Edward Bond and other young talents who were drawn to the great lodestone of the Royal Court Theatre in the late 1950s. As head of the script department, Johnstone played a crucial part in the development of the 'writers' theatre '" (Irving Wardle)

About this title

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.

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 this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 041346430X
• ISBN 13: 9780413464309
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208