... don't be prepared...
...when in doubt find a zipper...
... always look for whats needed...
... if you have a chance, be positive...
... take it forward, step by step...
... get your ego out of the way...
... be average...
...you're only limited by your lack of imagination and fear of looking stupid...
... there are no rules, only suggestions...
...the more specific you are, the more you have to use...
... dare to suck...
... there's no right or wrong, it's a f*** exploration, people!...
...meet the monster...
...torment the hero...
...the more definitive and bold you can be, the better... get to the point!...
...big reactions...
... take risks...
... live on the edge...
... jump in!...
... random emotion...
... just do (and justify later)...
... accept...
... make it about the realtion...
... be altered...
... BA ....
...anytime you get lost in a scene, revisit and heighten something earlier....
...improvised wedding...
... passenger...
... being in the moment...
... blind offer...
... yes let's...
... evil voice...
... platforms & tilts...
... save each others ass...
... 30 seconds....
... be obvious...
.... define...
... status....
... interaction...
...exploit every little bit of the idea you create...
...if you're affected by something on stage, we'll be affected too...
... input & output...
... gibberish...
... action...
... re-incorporate (Ouroboros)
... what comes next?...
... take everything as if it is the most important thing that's been said....
...take it one step at a time and let it build from there....
...slow down and be affected by your partner - listen to what they're trying to say...
...someone needs to change in the scene...
..."If there is a slower paced scene, your physicality and actions can speed up the next scene. Change the pace and energy to speed it up."
...
...the humor comes out of the seriousness of the scene...
..."every time a theme comes back, it becomes more important"...
..."treat each line of dialogue as if it could be the "thing" the scene is about." ...
..."connected ideas that get more and more specific build the history of the characters. this is great for 2 reasons: believability, and for callbacks during long forms."...
...
Improv Quotes - May The Moose Be With You
“the flow is more important than the rules”
-stephen sim
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"How do you know when you're on the way? When your map no longer serves you." - H. Trevino
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"Improv is not like working without a net. It's like knowing that your net is always there, within yourself."
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"Throw away the lifebelts!" - Keith Johnstone
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There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.
(Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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"Stop analyzing it and start doing it."
(lawcomic)
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"Improvisation is getting on a stage and making stuff up as you go along."---------Mick Napier
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"The actor may get bored with perfecting his craft in order to perform in outdated plays; soon he will want not only to act but to compose for himself as well. Then at last we shall see the rebirth of the theatre of improvisation."---------Vsevolod Meyerhold
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When you start a scene, bring a brick not a cathedral.
(Possibly Del Close?)
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"take even the negative things as a gift for your character. if someone calls you an asshole, then you just found out your character's an asshole. that's great!" (Paul Grondy)
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Be aware - So often, we go through our days on automatic pilot, but lacking the Zen inner awareness.
(Daniel Goleman et. al.)
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the "game" of the scene? simple: i do something to you which makes you do something to me, etc. that's it.
(Peter Gwinn)
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"Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater... If the environment permits it, anyone can learn whatever he chooses tolearn, and if the individual permits it, the environment will teach him everything it has to teach. ... 'Talent' or 'lack of talent' have very little to do with it."
---Viola Spolin, "Improvisation for the Theater"
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Theatre sports is the best improv training period.
(Wayne Brady)
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you're only limited by your lack of imagination and fear of looking stupid (Susan Messing)
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"The only rule is that there are no rules."
---Del Close, Improv guru and founder of the ImprovOlympic
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"Fall, then figure out what to do on the way down." -- Del Close
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Most success springs from an obstacle or failure.
(Scott Adams)
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we don't get disappointed in what you do, we get disappointed in what you drop. (Susan Messing)
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you can't "find" the game. you ARE the game
(susan Messing)
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"If there is no risk, why bother doing it?"
Keith Johnstone
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"If it stops being fun, stop doing it"
Bart Shattuck
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"Dig your own hole, that way at least you'll know how deep it is."
Robin Selfridge
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"If it stops being fun, stop doing it"
Bart Shattuck
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Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?
(M. C. Escher)
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... nichts auf der Welt ist so mächtig wie ein Impuls, dessen Zeit gekommen ist (Victor Hugo)
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Trust that little voice in your head that says "Wouldn't it be interesting if..."; And then do it.
(Duane Michals)
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Wenn man genau weiss, was man machen wird, wozu soll man es machen? (Picasso)
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Man muss etwas Neues machen, um etwas Neues zu sehen. (Lichtenberg)
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Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
(Cecil Beaton)
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In art as in love, instinct is enough.
(Anatole France)
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Trying to force creativity is never good.
(Sarah McLachlan)
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Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... let me go upstairs and check.
(M. C. Escher)
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In creative problem-solving, a mistake is an experiment to learn from, valuable information about what to try next (...) But if you take no chances and make no mistakes, you fail to learn, let alone do anything unusual or innovative.
(Daniel Goleman et. al.)____________________________
We adore chaos because we love to produce order.
(M. C. Escher)
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Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
(Scott Adams)
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I wasn't afraid to fail. Something good always comes out of failure.
(Anne Baxter)
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Yes, one sees by virtue of this slight liberation that in fact all works of imagination are improvisation at some stage, at the beginning certainly. And one sees how precious this sheer invention is in the making of a work of art.
(Robert Fitzgerald)
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Improvisation is almost like the retarded cousin in the comedy world. We've been trying forever to get improvisation on TV. It's just like stand-up. It's best when it's just left alone. It doesn't translate always on TV. It's best live.
(Amy Poehler)
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"Nice People + Nice Choices= Boring Scenes"- Liz Allen/Jimmy Carrane
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"Be more interesting"- Miles Stroth
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"It's toilet paper, throw it away" - Todd Stashwick to a classmate after a bad scene
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Also, Todd's addition, "Improv is like toliet paper. Flush it when you are done. Don't frame and hang it on the wall."
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"no matter how much i like my idea, i like YOUR idea better."
(Paul Groundy)
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"Turn mistakes into gifts."
Susan Messing
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"Trying harder is like trying to slam a revolving door."
Keith Johnstone
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"Questions stall. Why not choose to have that knowledge? Don't rely on another human being to get your needs met."
Susan Messing
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"The qualities needed for the best acting are also those needed for the best living."--Hodgson
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"What are you saying 'no' too? He is speaking in gibberish to you and you are responding by saying 'no'. It's a lot easier for most people to say 'no' than to jump on the 'blah blah train'. "- Les McGehee
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"Latch on to someone's physical energy. It'll help you prevent conflict and connect to that person."
Susan Messing
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"It is not what you do. It is that you do."- Mick Napier
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"It's like watching five men fall downstairs together and land standing up."
Charna Halpern
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"The longer you wait, the more the jump rope turns into a big, fucking steel cable." - Susan Messing
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"What makes you think that your initiation has to be brilliant?" --Kent McCarty
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"Own the fucking stage whenever you step onto it." --Mick Napier
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"If you think about it, the game should be renamed 'Unfreeze Tag'." --Dr. Dave Russ
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"Any player who 'steals' a scene is a thief."
"In scene improvisations, for better or for worse, we all throw ourselves into the same pool."
"No one knows the outcome of a game until he plays it."
-Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theater
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"Whatever is fun, do it more."
Jill Bernard
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"Life is what happens while you're busy making plans." John Lennon
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"The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference."
-Henry Miller
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"Better to fail, than to fail to try."
Matthew Krewat
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You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."
---Plato, a Greek guy from many years ago.
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"if you're on stage, you belong there... and we'll discover why."
Susan Messing
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"Spontaneity. Creativity. Increased intelligence. Emotional connections. Being in the moment. They are all present when improvising. It is impossible for all these things not to be there when improvising."
---Joey Novick, comedian and improv teacher.
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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artists once we grow up."
---Pablo Picasso
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"For the skilled improviser, however, time slows down (rather like in The Matrix). They see a palette of possibilities in front of them and make instant connections, using what they have."
---Julie Sheldon Huffaker, Brad Robertson, Gary Hirsch and Rob Poynton
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"The focus of Improv leads to conversers being present, meaning they exist in the here and now. The acceptance in Improv leads to the speaker's connection, meaning each becomes part of a co-creation team. The distance between the communicators is thereby no longer a gap to be closed. It becomes a connector, filling the space between bodies like a see-saw connects the two riders on either end. Each is dependent on the other for flow and movement. This synchronicity of focus and acceptance is what results in full body listening."
---Izzy Gesell, Wide Angle Humor
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"Many people have the idea that to improvise you have to get up on a stage and 'make it up.' While it's true that that's the bulk of it, it could also be said that the bulk of driving is pointing the car, so let's allow five-year-olds to do it. Bad idea. To master the art of improv can take many years, and a great understanding, not just of improv's tenets, but those of many different disciplines. Because there are fewer parameters than any other performing art, one must be prepared for anything that comes your way. That includes forays into the worlds of writing, directing, design, dance, music, singing, mime, stage combat, and especially acting. Once you've got all of these down, then you can say that improv is easy."
--- Jeff Catanese, Improv Review
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"Once you figure out your strengths, those could become your weaknesses. Never stop learning."
Susan Messing
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Q: "what can i do to make this better?"
A: "do what you do, and that will support what's going on."
Susan Messing
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"When the crative spirit stirs, it animates a style of being: a lifetime filled with the desire to innovate, to explore new ways of doing things, to bring dreams to reality."
(Daniel Goleman et. al.)
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"The unconscious mind is far mroe suited to creative insight than the conscious mind."
(Daniel Goleman et. al.)
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Books
Stuart McLean
VINYL CAFE DIARIES
Yann Martel
Life of Pi
Malcolm Gladwell
blink - The Poser of Thinking without Thinking
Mitch Albom
tuesdays with Morrie
Bill Bryson
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Keith Johnstone
Improvisation und Theater
Robert McKee
Story - Die Prinzipien des Drehbuchschreibens
Keith Johnstone
Theaterspiele
Mary Lawson
Crow Lake
Brian Clark
Whose life is it anyway?
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Die Physiker
Eugène Ionesco
Rhinocéros
Gunter Lösel, Roland Trescher, Bernd Witte, Eugen Gerein, Lorenz Kabas
Blinde Angebote - Fünf Interviews zum Improtheater
Peter Brook
Der leere Raum
Films
La Vita è bella
Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei
Good bye Lenin
Elling
Så som i himmelen
Little Miss Sunshine
Der Pianist
Rain Man
Forrest Gump
Opus
brassed off
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Shine
Little Miss Sunshine
Rhythm Is It!
RENT
Quotes
Lasst uns aus der Rollen fallen...damit wir aus der Falle rollen. Graffiti
Kunst kommt von Können, käme sie von Wollen, so würde sie Wulst heissen. Max Liebermann
Du bist deine eigene Grenze, erhebe dich darüber. Hafiz
Um Träume zu verwirklichen, muss man wach werden. Graffiti
Ziele nach dem Mond. Selbst wenn du ihn verpasst, wirst du zwischen den Sternen landen. Les Brown
Improvenös
Improvenös - Impro-Theater, das unter die Haut geht!
www.improvenoes.ch/
http://www.improakademie.ch/
