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Is Improvisational Theatre Really Improvised? : The Inherent Structure in Improvised Performances
Improvisational theatre, often called impro, is a form of theatre that has no scripts or pre-planning. It was systematized in Britain and the United States in the 1950s and used to train actors, and also developed as a performance genre in its own right. Gradually, it spread to various countries and is now used in various other fields, such as school education, business, and community development. Today, the concept of “improvisation” in itself attracts considerable attention, and there is a tendency for people to regard it as a panacea for various problems. For example, it is viewed as a way of heightening our ability to live through unpredictable times and of changing rigid social structures.
In our research, we first investigated discourses about “improvisation” in books and websites to clarify the meaning of “improvisation” in modern society. This revealed that “improvisation” is explained using highly positive concepts such as “freedom”, “flexibility”, and “resilience”, which are contrasted with the concept of the “structure” of society.
Secondly, we did fieldwork in The Laboratory School of Improvisation, which is an impro group that carries out impro performances and workshops in Japan, and interviewed its members. We found that when improvising on stage, the performers don’t express ideas freely in their own separate ways. They embody and share “formats” which constitute the explicit/implicit manners and rules of impro.
In short, “improvisation” has paradoxical properties. Though “improvisation” is represented as a concept that frees us from social “structures” and enables us to create stories with others flexibly, performers in fact acquire freedom by means of “formats” when practicing impro.