Improvisational Acting
Improvisational acting, or Improve, is unscripted live theatre. While anytime someone speaks without a script, it can be said they are improvising. Anyone who has seen Who’s Line Is It Anyway have witnessed first hand Improv acting made profitable.
There are several “flavors” of improv. Most people will encounter improv shows that tend to be set up more like games then actual theatrical performances. However, shows with plot and character development up to an hour long also are performed. While most people associate improv with comedy, dramatic improvisation can be as powerful.
Any good actor should have the ability to improv for those times when something goes wrong on stage. Turning improv into an entire show is another matter entirely. Great skill and aptitude are required to keep a show from turning droll and tedious.
Perhaps the least encountered improv acting is competition style. Competition style improv usually involves pairs of actors. At random, each pair is assigned a topic and a set amount of time to plan and execute a scene. Sometimes humorous, sometimes disastrous, competition improv is always a challenge.
Sporting Improv
Theater Sports has become a very popular way of improv-ing. Theater sports is a form of competition--
like the television show Who's Line Is It Anyway. Unlike on television, teams of four or five participate in games against other teams, usually for a total of two or three teams. Like in sports, there is a referee and he even gets to carry a whistle.
Two of the most important sporting leagues are TheatreSports and Comedy Sportz. Royalties must be paid to these organizations before any theatre group has a public performance of their copyrighted games.
Sporting events often have referees and judges chosen from the audience. Each team takes turns playing a different game or compete head to head. The judges choose between which team fulfilled the game requirements best, while entertaining the audience. Foul language and risqué subjects generally are prohibited, and players who abuse their scenes are penalized. Penalties often result in forfeit of the round and the offending player can be forced to wear a paper bag over his head ('The Bag' has eye, nose, and mouth holes). At the end of the game, a winner is determined to hold the title of undisputed improv team - at least until next week.
Setting up your own improv league—or a series of shows is easy. You can join one of the aforementioned leagues, or create your own games. A list of games is also provided here.
Holding an Improv Games Tournaments
As previously mentioned, most common improvisation games are copyrighted to Comedy Sports or TheatreSportz. You can pay royalties to them and join their leagues. However, setting up your own show tournament can be fun, and using original games is easy and cheap too.
Begin by selecting a producer for the show. The producer will essentially act as director and general manager. The producer should select two teams of actors (or three or four, but two is easiest for a first time round). Teams should have no less than four, and probably no more than six players. Once the teams are established, rehearsals with both teams and with one team at a time should begin. Players do not need to remain on the same team during rehearsals, but it will help the actors to work together.
The producer can act as referee, or select a separate referee. The referee will also host the tournament. He becomes the central figure in the entire event. The referee will also decide what games are played, select judges, control the bag, and award points. He can have a whistle and where a referee’s uniform if so desired.
The simplest way of running a tournament is to assign each team a side of the stage to sit on. For added effect, a coin toss can decide what side each team gets. Audience judges are then chosen, either at random or at the referees discretion. Audience judges award winners when no winner is determined by the outcome of the game—where it is the responsibility of the teams to demonstrate a greater aptitude at fulfilling the game requirements, or also in games where one team plays at a time.
The bag is literally a bag. It should be a plain brown shopping bag with eye slits and a mouth piece. Players are put in the bag if they course or use some form of inappropriate innuendo. It’s a family show. The bag may be claimed by one of the existing leagues, so a dunce cap can work just as well. Essentially the player is banned from playing a round or some pre determined penalty.
Some games are timed. The referee keeps official time. He also controls the bell (or whistle) used in some games to delineate change in action.
To begin the tournament show, the referee announces a game to be played, describes the plot for the audience and informs each team whether they are participating in the game or whether they are sitting out. Because each game requires different numbers of players, the referee is also responsible for assuring the correct number of players are on the field.
After each game, a team is awarded points based on a win or a loss. Several games, usually three or five, makeup a round. Several or more rounds makeup a tournament. For added drama, having a final match can be exciting.
Described here is one sort of tournament show. This setup should work with two or more teams. The reason for rehearsals is to ensure that the actors know what is expected of them. There is nothing more boring than bad improvisation. The varieties on tournament shows are endless. Creating your own games can be easy, or you can help yourselves to these.. Please do not use copyrighted games from the professional leagues.
Sporting Games for Improvisational Theater
The following games are original creations and any similarities to copyrighted material is coincidental.
Please feel free to use in performance this information provided credit to this site is provided.
Identical Twins
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two teams
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4 players
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Clock
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Identical twins requires two people from each team. One player from each team is a “twin”. Team A first does a thirty second scene. Team B must then do another unique thirty second scene. The “twin” must use the same lines of dialogue from Team A's identical twin, but his partner must use different lines.
The game is then repeated, but with Team B going first. Judges or referee determine a winner.
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Arf, Quack, Moo
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one team
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4 or more players
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Clock
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One player begins by leaving the room. The remaining players then get from the audience three animals. The first player is retrieved. The other players then perform a timed scene as their animal, however, they are not allowed to use the commonly associated sound. For example, a dog cannot bark. At the end of the time, the first player must identify the animals based on the scene. |
Politician
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one team
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2 players
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Clock, prepared topics
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We all know politicians are run by the people behind them, or at least they are in this game. Player One is assigned a random topic. He is then to act out his topic, speaking only in gibberish. Player Two must deliver a speech on the random topic without being told what it is, and knowing only what Player One acts out.
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Time Zones
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one team
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4 or more players
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Clock, bell
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Player One, Two, and Three are each assigned a time zone and must
take an appropriate place on stage. Player Four begins in time
zone one. With an audience suggestion, Player One and Four begin a
scene. At the sound of the bell, Player One moves to the next time
zone. Using the last noun or verb from the first scene, Player Two and Player
One begin a new unique scene. At the sound of the bell, Player One moves to the third player, and repeats the process. To end the game, Player One travels in reverse order through the time zones.
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You Only Live Once
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two teams
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4 or more players
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bell, clock
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Each team selects an equal number of players to participate. A single topic is given to the players. All the actors on stage are delivering a single monologue on the topic, one word at a time. Players stand in a line alternating teams. Each player is allowed one word per turn. If an actor speaks more than one word, or offers a word that does not make sense, the bell is wrung and that player steps out of line. The game is finished when the time runs out, or when one player remains. The winning team is the one left standing.
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Lovely Rita
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two teams
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2 or more players
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Audience member, clock
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An audience member is selected at random. Each player—at least one from each team, are about to get parking tickets from “Lovely, Rita”, the audience member. The responsibility of the audience member is simply to give each player a one word topic—such as “Lizard”—and the player must give his best answer as to why he should NOT get a parking ticket. Rita then decides at the end of the game which ONE player gets out of their parking tickets, awarding that team points. |
