Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

Keith Johnstone has a very interesting worldview. This book is clearly aimed at people who want to either learn about improvisational theater, or even moreso people who want to teach it. There are a few explicit exercises, but the text is mostly prose about the nature of improvisation, and the way that relates to human psychology. As an example of an interesting psychological insight, Johnstone discusses trance states. He strongly recommends using theatrical masks for improvisation, and his method for using them—though he references many earlier teachers with the same idea—involves using mirrors and skillful encouragement in order to take the student out of their normative self and get them to really experience being something else. But we are in fact always going in and out of trance states, he explains: it's impossible to always be "in control," and attempting that just leads to frustration and anxiety. Another basic point is that imagination is a kind of natural state of the human mind. At one point he says explicitly that imagination is the "true self," which is if nothing else a fascinating hypothesis. His take on school education recalls other writers, especially John Holt, whom he cites several times: basically, modern education tends to discourage spontaneity and imagination. Finally, his structural way of seeing theater, comedy, and human interaction in general, involves "status games," which makes a lot of sense. For example, he loves Beckett's way of playing with master-servant dynamics, one-upping, etc. He describes a method of teaching theater that involves getting people to understand their own habits of "status posturing," in order to assume other positions and act naturally. He says that long spontaneous improvisation sessions can grow out of just a simple configuration of status, and gives examples of such games. Johnstone's outlook reminds me of life's strange beauty. Life is indeed much like improvisational theater, and it's great to learn from the insights of someone whose life work involves taking this seriously.

Ok hear me our. The whole first half of the book is on status games. There was one line that hit me so hard and that totally unpacked years of family drama. It was something like, “good relationships involves being able to play with status roles, the ability to enter and exit them consciously and an acknowledgment that when we choose to take on an uneven status roles.” Totally paraphrasing but it made me realize how a great deal of my family history was a constant unaddressed status game. “I really liked this movie I saw…” “oh, I heard it wasn’t very good…” On the surface, that’s just two opinions, but when it’s truly constant, it ends up being a fight for frame control. Now, in all my friendships and relationships, I work hard to raise other people status, realizing I don’t need to lower mine to do so. Everyone wins. Anyway, great book on improv and excellent book on shuffle improvement.

This was the first improv book that I ever read, and in retrospect I kind of wish I'd read something like Charna Halpern's TRUTH IN COMEDY or Mick Napier's IMPROVISE first. Those books will give you a better introduction to what most of us know of as group improvisation - the "Whose Line is it anyway" sort of thing. They'll give you a better framework to work with. Keith Johnstone's book, on the other hand, is kind of like a complete rethinking of the Improv framework ... he writes about things I haven't read about anywhere else. And it really made me think about things in a different way. First of all, I have to admit that the first couple of sections are pretty dry. I had to struggle to get through the section on "Status" ... I was thinking to myself, why did people give this BORING book a good review?? ... I did consider that maybe it's because the man is British (I think), and so the style of writing and the type of humor is a little different than I'm used to. However, when he gets around to talking about the story/narrative, suddenly there is a flash of brilliance and it all started to make sense ... basically he talks about just letting GO of the things that are inhibiting us, how to stop listening to the voice that is telling us NO all the time ... and, I don't know, there's just something very profound in the way that he discusses it - little insights here and there that are just, for lack of a better word, very MEANINGUL. For example, he says, of parents and teachers who scold their children, to keep their undesirable 'creativeness' under wraps: "... when these children grow up, and perhaps crack up, then they'll find themselves in therapy groups where they'll be encouraged to say all the things that the teacher would have forbidden during school." SO TRUE. This is what all the group therapies in Psych hospitals do - try to bring back the creativeness of the child. Why do we limit it in the first place?? Basically he stresses that EVERYONE has "weird" thoughts and an "artistic" nature that many of us have learned to say NO to, because they are forbidden or at least not encouraged. He says, "In one moment I knew that the valuing of men by their intelligence is crazy, that the peasants watching the night sky might feel more than I feel, that the man who dances might be superior to myself - word-bound and unable to dance. From then on I noticed how warped many people of great intelligence are, and I began to value people for their actions, rather than their thoughts." And that's not EVEN getting into the last chapter, on MASKS - at first I was thinking, "OK, this is weird, why is there a huge chapter on MASKS in a book about IMPROV"? But the things he describes there are perhaps the most amazing, and disturbing, of the whole book. It almost makes me fear what I would "do" if I were to follow his instructions and suggestions ... but it's an excited sort of 'fear' - actually I wish I had readier access to instructors who are comfortable in these methods ... well, I can't really describe it much better than that.

I learned so much! Where to start? One thing that seems underappreciated in Keith Johnstone is his education philosophy. You could put this book in the category Philosophy of Education. He would resonate with Abraham Maslow and Fritz Frederick Perls on the Gestalt of discovery, that learning is a playful and creative process. I read the section on masks though it was the least useful to me. The masks on the cover make it seem like it is about mask work for the theater. Yes, that is in there but there is a lot more. Johnstone is permissive with actors acting out sexuality and violence, if that is genuine, just to let potential readers know what you might be reading. Johnstone recognizes that people doing improv do selfactualize or develop or release old patterns. However, he does not advocate doing improv as a form of therapy. He feels it is unnecessary to point out and analyze, like, "Do you see this thing you are acting out is really one of your issues?" because such talk will inhibit the person from acting out anything else. So it is more like self-discovery. Some Psychodrama therapists may say that it's not going to be therapeutic, the pattern will persist unless it is identified more consciously, and they may be right. Johnstone feels it is enough to just let the mind play out and it will do what it needs to do. I would like to write a thorough review of this book. It would be twenty pages or more, there is so much here to discover.

I have taken workshops under Mr. Johnstone, but was really glad I read his book beforehand. It is an excellent collection of exercises, anecdotes, and case studies of improv, scene building, and especially masks. The last fourth of the book includes numerous mask exercises and scenes, along with a good discussion of the origins and history of mask work. I have been using his book to teach mask workshops since 1981 with great success. I heartily recommend this book not just to actors, but to anyone who would like to understand better the profound influence our outer appearance has on our psyche and our relationships to others. How many times have you heard, "What do you mean by that look?" or "Don't give me that look." Very interesting and applicable to everyday life, not just theatre. I even use what I've learned in my voiceover auditions and sessions--because I've found that if I can make the face, I'm halfway to creating the voice needed, whether it be an impersonation of a famous personality, or even just a simple announce job. "Smile when you say that, partner!" is more than a cliche--it's a fact of human communication.

I heard about this book from a discussion on general social interaction. In particular, how people could learn to employee various behavioral characteristics that lead others granting you this or that social status. In other words, you can learn to get others to think of you as the boss or of otherwise high status. Or of low status, if that's your goal. The idea seemed both creepy and intriguing so I got the book. And while this is indeed discussed in this book, there is so much more. While ostensibly a book on teaching techniques for better improv theater the reasoning and discussion on *why* this or that technique works is amazing. The author talks about why most formal education stinks, why people who try too hard to be original often are anything but, how and why people befuddle their own imagination and inventiveness, and how one can get around all that. Even if you never partake in any improv theater the book will give you interesting and useful ideas on how people (including you) perceive things, how people react to the unfamiliar and challenging, and how you can open yourself up to more rewarding experiences.

This is a good intro book to improv from a philosopher and discoverer of improv. The learning is in the doing, but reading about it sparked a few new understandings.

First, the bad: for almost $30, I would expect a perfect Kindle edition. Not the case: a lot of weird spelling mistakes (probably made by the automatic conversion to the digital format). There's no excuse for a kindle ebook to cost that, much less a flawed version. Buy the physical version or borrow from someone / library. Now, the content... It's a manifesto about education; it's a valuable lesson about human interaction and their status transactions; it's a book about how the 'stiff' conscious mind can harm our unconscious and our 'other selves'. Oh, and it's also a book about theather and improvisation. I'm not involved in theather at all, I bought it because I like to study social dynamics and was not disappointed. You can 'look inside' the book here on Amazon - I skipped the 'guest' introduction and went straight to the author's words. If you like it, I recommend you read the whole book.

devoured the book quickly then dove back in for more in depth reading. So very glad this book is available on Kindle

Una obra maestra de su disciplina. Imprescindible. Es el mejor libro que he leído sobre improvisación de todos los que he leído. Es como leer los descubrimientos del maestro. Espectacular en todos los sentidos.

Keith Johnstone’s Impro is a foundational text that reaches far beyond the theatre. Divided into four distinct sections - Status, Spontaneity, Narrative Skills, and Masks - the book explores how to unlock human creativity by bypassing our internal censors. Johnstone’s observations on "status transactions" in everyday conversations are particularly eye-opening, offering a brilliant lens for understanding social dynamics. Whether you are an actor, a writer, or simply someone looking to shed self-consciousness and think more freely, this book is a wonderfully insightful and practical guide. It was a set text as an undergraduate, and I’m still buying friends copies forty years later.

Wonderful book for imagination

Fantastic book about the essence of improvising, and also the importance of working together as humans. Very interesting read.