The Improv Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Comedy, Theatre, and Beyond

Description

The Improv Handbook is the most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improv available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes, it features a range of games, interviews, descriptions and exercises that illuminate and illustrate the exciting world of improvised performance. First published in 2008, this second edition features a new foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as new exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master-servant games, plus new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan. The Improv Handbook is a one-stop guide to the exciting world of improvisation. Whether you're a beginner, an expert, or would just love to try it if you weren't too scared, The Improv Handbook will guide you every step of the way.

Tom Salinsky is the co-founder (with Deborah Frances-White) of The Spontaneity Shop. He and Deborah have performed improvisation for the Royal Court, the RSC Summer Season, the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Festival, and at the Bloomsbury Theatre. They have toured the world and performed at many comedy festivals by invitation. They teach at RADA, The Actors Centre, The National Youth Theatre, and many other colleges and institutions, as well as their own successful workshop program. Deborah Frances-White is a stand-up comedian best known for her BBC Radio 4 show Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice. She's performed comedy around the world including The Edinburgh Festival, The Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Roadshow and The London Storytelling Festival. Her book Off the Mic, co-authored with Marsha Shandur, was published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama in 2015.

Co-founders 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. * CHOICE on the first edition * A brilliant guide for those embarking on an improv journey, or those with more experience looking to recap and refresh. * Drama Magazine *