The Applied Improvisation Network

Spreading the Transforming Power of Improvisation

Paul Levy

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Rain - a wonderful, simple, contact improvisation

You might think the following exercise would work well with music or with a sound effects CD. I'd propose it works best without either. Create a comfortable space for some contact work. A group forms in the space and begins in stillness. The facilitator speaks the following words: "Light, gentle rain, hardly noticeable, a little pitter patter" The improvisation begins, inspired by a shared sense of being light, gentle rain - drops touching the ground, touching trees, people can become the r… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on December 1, 2009 at 7:00am — No Comments

Into the Woods - An Encounter Improvisation Exercise

This is an activity for exploring the dynamics of two people encountering each other. It allows exploration of: - pair dynamics - personal space and proximity - connection and disconnection - power and status - eye contact - interpersonal communication - competition and collaboration and many more themes! It works best with a group of about 8-10 people though this can be varied. The Process Two people enter a wood, encounter each other. Six people or more stand still in the spa… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on November 20, 2009 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Crystal Ball - an exercise in present and future improvisation

This is a lovely game for exploring the role of "visioning" and "futuring" in improvisation. When is knowing or deciding the future a help or a hindrance? Start with a group of five, with everyone else watching. Decide a scene to be played out. For example, a picnic. Choose someone to be crystal ball gazer (can be fun if you play this with a real crystal ball - a football or goldfish bowl will do! At any point during the scene, a member of the audience can shout "Crystal ball!" at which poin… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on November 19, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Into the dark - a collaborative improvisation activity

This exercise explores the difference between visual and aural cues. It can be done in a small group of three or a bigger group. Stand in a small circle and begin a small improvised scene. You can have a rule that you must stay in the circle or, more challengingly, the circle can be broken and you can move into a fully acted scene. This can be done with as many groups as you like as long as their is space to move. In a small room, keep people in their circle. Examples of scenes can include:… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on November 19, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

A Wonderfully Strange Improvisation Activity

A lot of impro games try to get you into the "spontaneity zone", in the present, in the moment. Some bring you right up to the present moment, but still allow you a few seconds before the present moment to "make something up". And, after all, a few seconds before the "moment" is so damn near the moment, it might just as well be "in the moment" anyway. But what about the moments "after the present moment"? Sit in a circle and start to tell a group story. One short sentence each is enough. It c… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on November 18, 2009 at 4:00am — No Comments

The Breath Improvisation

This is another strange and wonderfully minimalist exercise. Minimalist improvisation really can create a non-verbal experience of improvisation in its most essential form. This is best done in threes, sitting in a circle, close together, set apart from other groups. It can also be done VERY close together with foreheads touching. It can also be done standing in a circle with hands on the high back of the person in front of you. The aim is to be able to feel the breathing of the others in t… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on November 18, 2009 at 4:00am — 3 Comments

John Cremer discusses Improvisation.

John Cremer discusses Improvisation. http://www.fringereview.co.uk/pageView.php?pagename=Improvising%20An%20Interview%20with%20John%20Cremer Continue

Added by Paul Levy on May 9, 2009 at 5:24pm — No Comments

Scripted Improv - an activity

For a group of 5-8. This can be done seated or walking around. It can be done with one copy of a script shared, or one copy each. Find a piece of writing - from a play, a story or even an article. Someone starts reading aloud (can also be sight-performed). At any time someone else takes over, even in mid-sentence and carries on until the script has been fully read together. Whole sentences might be read by one person, or just one word before someone takes over. The idea is to play with the… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on October 1, 2008 at 12:13am — 3 Comments

A neat little breathing exercise

The aim of this exercise is for a group of 3-7 people to complete a breath together. Stand in a circle. The exercise proceeds around the circle in sequence and should be done gently (to avoid hyperventiliating!) The first person breathes in a little and everyone breathes in a little with him/her, following the pace and amount of breath. The seconf person is tagged with eye contact (or takes over spontaneously) and continuies, taking a little more air in. This continues round the circle until… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on October 1, 2008 at 12:08am — 1 Comment

A rather different Impro warm up

Needed - some large paper (perhaps flipchart paper), pens or crayons) A group of 3 to 5 people. Put the paper on the floor, give everyone a pen or crayon and ask them to gather around a large piece of paper. Touch each person on the shoulder and allocate them one of the following each: - circle - square - line - dot - squiggle (a chaotic line). Then say "start"! The exercise can have as many rounds as you like. Start with 3 rounds and then stop, look at the pictures and share a bit of disc… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on October 1, 2008 at 12:02am — No Comments

An exercise in falling into impro

For a group. Stand in a circle. Simply focus on breathing calmly at whatever personal pace suits. Quiet breathing. At any point someone can say the word BEAT. When they say beat everyone must look at them and hold their breath. Slowly the breathing returns to normal. In discussion afterwards, explore what triggers a person to instigate the word "beat". Repeat the activity for longer until the moment when beat is said is not managed or planned but arises in the moment. he exercise is very… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on September 30, 2008 at 11:30pm — 1 Comment

Effortless, weightless Weights

I saw and reviewed a play at the Edinburgh Fringe 2008 called Weights. We also gave it an award. You can read the review here. Weights is a scripted, performed one man show written and performed by Lynn Manning, telling the story of his blindness and his arrival in the theatre world as a writer and actor. It's uplifting and real. What's of interest is that Lynn, in my view, improvises an already told story, an already existin… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on August 29, 2008 at 12:57pm — 2 Comments

On Leadership (new version)

I believe leadership is a process of conducting the music of the future in a way that it begins to play into the present (creating the improvisaitonal moment) and then transforming the past. Leadership is essentially a present-located process of time travel. The future lies behind us, the past ahead, in the sense that we can transform our history, in a way that changes the present. When a leader INSPIRES she challenges the process of history, inspiring the historical process to re-align itself… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on March 28, 2008 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Jack Martin Leith and I had a chat once about icebreakers. He (also a facilitator) said he didn't li…

Jack Martin Leith and I had a chat once about icebreakers. He (also a facilitator) said he didn't like the word "ice-breaker" as it assumes "ice" is in the room right from the start. I agree. The term "energiser" might be better, but even that assumes that energy is low and somehow needs to be lifted. Energy might need to be changed in some way but is it always low at the start? I think, quite the opposite. So, what is that first, fifteen minute activity? Is it an "orienter"? or an "opener"?… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on March 3, 2008 at 2:37am — 20 Comments

Breaking Free

I have looked to the groups of central and eastern Europe and found too much of our own theatre wanting. For theirs is a Theatre of the Heart, a drama of the soul, s stage of tears and laughter alike, of hate, love, loss and renewal. Of blood and fire. Of the family, the clan, the ancestors, of the madness of change, of loyalty and loss, of revolution, of being caged and breaking free, of soul-touch and conflict.

… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on February 7, 2008 at 2:39pm — 3 Comments

Stepping into the moment

The hardest part is the easiest part: stepping into the moment before being in the moment. In that blink of an eye before the now, what are we doing? If we are plotting the next blink, planning the instant to follow, are we improvising at all?

Stepping over the precipice and finding we do no fall, held in the mid-air of the emerging now, by our own willed playfulness.

In that moment, the whole of reality becomes renewed

… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on February 6, 2008 at 3:29am — No Comments

Insipid Positivity

"It is an art to dream a dream, a science to dream an illusion"

"It is so often the insane who pronounce the sane mad."

"The greatest cruelty is to target an honest person for being honest."

One strategy for justifying any almost any action is to employ the language of law. Clever arguments are brought forth in the name of sincerity.

One example of this is the dogmatic use of "positivity" as an antidote to any personal action that causes pain and hur

… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on January 29, 2008 at 4:52am — 1 Comment

The "Who blew the wind?" Phenomenon

A perspective on personal conflict


The "Who blew the wind?" phenomenon crops up often in inter-personal conflict situations where both parties are convinced that the other party "started it" and that all they are now doing is reacting innocently to an attack. It often crops up in de-briefs from impro'd organisational theatre work exploring conflict.

Over time the audit trail back to the original trigger (which may also be in their heads rather an any explicit de

… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on January 27, 2008 at 4:30am — 3 Comments

Distraction in Impro and Performance - some workshop thoughts and reflections

We worked with the theme of distraction, on stage and in life. Each actor chose a short monologue, which they performed in front of the group who sat in a traditional audience seating. At the end of the performance the actor reflected on any distractions that had helped or hinder their performance. Distractions seemed to take them out of character, even if only for a moment, but it was enough to dilute the performance and some members of the audience could immediately tell. Distracti

… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on January 19, 2008 at 1:37am — No Comments

An intensive day of impro work - drawing on physical theatre genres

A day of further work on very simple improvisation. Three chairs placed upon the stage. Three actors. One hour.

The following rules: to allow reaction to occur rather than pro-action. Yet of course someone has to make a move yet no one quite knws who - the reaction emerges quickly.

Three rules to the improvisation (apart from no proactivity)
- actors may look at each other
- actors may move across the stage
- actors may stand or sit
No other action or reaction… Continue

Added by Paul Levy on January 16, 2008 at 6:30pm — No Comments

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