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What Is Improvisation In The Theatre?

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    Improvisation is a tool that can teach the actor some of the most valuable lessons of the stage.  These lessons are best learned through some skills classes, such as learning to say Yes to what you receive (a key acting lesson anyway) and also learning how to build on that.  Improvisation is a foundation skill for actors, perhaps it can help them stay in acting fitness, but I doubt its actually use in rehearsal.

    Improvisation has been much abused following Stanislavski's attempts at using it to help the actor 'find their character' (I always thought the character was the person in the play, didn't they look there?).  These usually involve long periods of pretending to be someone else doing something else.

    Etudes using improvisation are more useful, teaching the actor to do less and still try to achieve something within the imaginary circumstances created for the improvisation itself.
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    Epictetus 

    answered 3 years ago

    Improvisation in the theatre is taught to actors mainly in the event that lines are dropped or missed, other actors on stage, while still in character, can make things up on the spot to get the play back on track. Stanislavski's use of it can be a useful tool if an actor is having a hard time relating to the character by finding other ways to say what the character is saying.
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    Mikety

    Mikety

    commented 9 months ago

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