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The Improv Handbook

The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Comedy, Theatre, and Beyond

Tom Salinsky author Deborah Frances-White author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:1st Jul '08

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Improv Handbook cover

The Improv Handbook is a great new guide from a husband and wife team who have years of studying, performance, and teaching behind them. Beginning with a history of improvisation, the book works through different types of format and performance, including TheatreSports and the inventions of Keith Johnstone and Del Close. The core section of the book is called, simply, "How To Improvise" and includes chapters on spontaneity, the fundamentals of storytelling, working together, upping the ante, and characters.

A guide that covers the history of improvisation and includes chapters on spontaneity and the fundamentals of storytelling. It includes section on how to improvise in front of an audience and - just as crucially - how to attract an audience in the first place."The Improv Handbook" is a great new guide that covers the history of improvisation and includes chapters on spontaneity and the fundamentals of storytelling.Although there are already several successful books on the market about the theory and practice of improvised theatre, there's nothing comprehensive, helpful, fun and full of experience and advice."The Improv Handbook" is a great new guide from a husband and wife team who have years of studying, performance and teaching behind them. Beginning with a history of improvisation, the book works through different types of format and performance including TheatreSports and the inventions of Keith Johnstone and Del Close. The core section of the book is called, simply, "How To Improvise" and includes chapters on spontaneity, the fundamentals of storytelling, working together, upping the ante and characters.Having established the fundamentals, the two authors go on to elaborate on more advanced techniques and skills. The book concludes with sections on how to improvise in front of an audience and - just as crucially - how to attract an audience in the first place." The Improv Handbook" should become a standard book in the field - it's smart, fun, helpful, and inspiring, and it's on a mission to bring Improv to a much wider audience.

Title mention in Bookseller Buyers Guide.
"Cofounders of the London-based improvisational theater company The Spontaneity Shop, Salinsky and Frances-White provide a wonderful addition to the growing literature on theatrical improvisation. The book can serve as both a scholarly resource, since it covers the history of improvisation from its beginnings to the present, and a practical guide, for the beginner and advanced improviser... The authors include interviews with ten leading international improvisers, and they conclude with an appendix that details many of the most common improvisational games used in academic and professional settings. This book is a must for institutions supporting theater and performance programs. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers, all levels." -S.W. Cole, CHOICE, January 2009

ISBN: 9780826428592

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

448 pages