Drama society starts improvisation theatre group
Today the UAL Drama Society announced it will start an improvisation theatre group. Robin Wijnhold, MA Journalism at the LCC, will teach this group: “I’ve been doing Impro for a few years, so when I found out the Drama society did not have their own group, I offered them to start one.”
What is impro?
You might have seen shows based on improvisation theatre methods like Fast and Loose on BBC2 or Who's Line is it Anyway? on Dave, but what is it exactly? Angelina Castellini, impro teacher at the London School of Economics drama society explains:
“As the word says, improvisation theatre is an on-the-spot form of theatre. Nothing is planned beforehand which leads to absolutely original scenes every time.
“It is about making reality of your imagination. It’s easier than normal theatre, at the same time it is much harder than normal theatre because you expose yourself more. You learn to accept your own and other people’s imagination”.
Daniel Baker, from Fat Kittens Improv, "Peter Brook once said 'when you have an empty stage and a man walks accross it, that's theatre.' I suppose the Improv part is if he doesn't know what will happen when he gets there".
Improvisation works with a large variety of games and scenes that helps you trigger your creativity and imagination.
By working together and accepting other people’s ideas, often beautiful, funny and original scenes develop.
Robin says: “It might sound a bit pretentious but Einstein once said ‘imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.' Impro is all about setting your imagination free”.
History
It's a kind of theatre that combines methods and games that have existed since the origins of theatre, but only became a fully independent artform in the 1970s.
Homegrown drama instructor Keith Johnstone started experimenting with doing impro games in the late 60's.
His methods and theatre group The Loose Moose, became such a success that they are now employed worldwide and many consider him the founding father of modern improvisational theatre.
Improvisers put to the test
improvisers claim to do everything unscripted and to invent scenes on the spot. Watching a show often makes this hard to believe because actors do not show a trace of hesitation.
We decided to put them through the test. We give four professional improvisers an opening line and ask them to make up a story on the spot. The opening line is "John takes off his wig, he no longer has to hide". Listen to the audio tracks to hear what amazing stories they came up with:
Also want to learn how to make up stories on the spot? Join the UAL Improv workshops! The first workshop will be held Sunday February 20 from 13:30-16:00 at the activities studio on the ground floor of 272 High Holborn.
There is room for 15 students.
For more info email r.wijnhold1@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Related links:
A brief history of impro theatre