This presentation was used in a Performance in Film and Videogames class at the University of Calgary

1. Games and Improv
Keith Johnstone and Augusto Boal
Ways these techniques can be used in film and videogames.

2. The Philosophical Premise
“Improvisation is intuition in action ...
A rapid fire of Choice, Choice,
Choice, Choice.”
[ Nachmanovich, ]
Stephen
Free Play, 1990
Spontaneity

3. Keith Johnstone (b. 1933)
• “You can't learn anything without
failing.”
• “Don't do your best. Trying to do your
best is trying to be better than you are.”
• “Release, receive, return; Make and
accept offers; Get into trouble.”
Games and Improv

4. Secret language of improv
• Disrupt the routine – Action begins with disruption of routine*
• Make and accept offers. Embrace the fantasy.
• Say “Yes, And” – ‘Yes And’ moves scenes forward instead of
shutting down with “No” or “Yes, But.”
• Be in the Now – Concentrate on the Relationships – stay
present in the scene. Really listen and let go of baggage.
• Make the other person look good –Make them look good, and
you will too!
Games and Improv

5. Story Story DIE
Four people line up and narrate a story together. An emcee
points from person to person, cutting off the words of one
and forcing the next to pick up where the story was left off.
When someone stumbles, repeats a word, or hesitates, the
audience yells "DIE!" When only one person remains, they
choose deaths for each of the defeated actors, who then
perform short scenes where they die according to their
defined destiny.
Samples of Improv Games

6. The Blob This exercise is also known as "Speaking in One
Voice." Two or more players link arms around each other's
waists or shoulders, moving and speaking in unison as a single
person (the Blob), either to the another Blob or in response to
questions from the audience. Blob members neither to lead nor
follow but to speak simultaneously while maintaining eye
contact with one another.
SNL Sketch
Samples of Improv Games

7. Augusto Boal (b. 1931 - 2009)
Forum Theatre is a dynamic place
of interactivity through direct action
and social change where the actors
are the authors and spectators
become “spect-actors.”
In both creative process and in
performance, it’s about Games.
Games and Improv

8. The actor’s work must involve:
• Sensitizing the instrument of expression; the body. Goal is to
freely manifest emotions through the body.
• Can use Muscular, Sensory, Memory, Imagination, and
Emotional exercises.
• The actors creation is interrelationships with other actors.
• Verbs, not adjectives. To act is to produce an action and every
action produces a reaction – conflict.
Structure of the Actor’s Work. From Games for Actors and NonActors

9. Dialectic Structure of Actor’s Interpretation:
• Dialectic is: “Discourse between people holding different
points of view who wish to establish the truth guided by
reasoned arguments.”
• Fundamental for the actor is not the “being” of the
character but the “will.” Not “Who is this?” but rather
“What does he or she want?”
• The essence of theatricality is the conflict of wills.
Structure of the Actor’s Work. From Games for Actors and NonActors

10. Examples of Boal’s Games – In Creative Process

11. Examples of Boal’s Games – In Performance Mode
Forum Theatre (Uses games in creation mode).
• Actors perform a short play about a social issue (to climax).
• A Joker explains rules of the game and starts the play again.
• This time any spectator can yell “Stop” when they perceive a
better course of action for a character. Becomes a spect-actor.
• That person improvises within the scene to try out a different
set of consequences.
• Boal refers to this as a “Rehearsal for Reality.”

12. Actors Who have cut loose with ad-libs and improv:
Jim Carry/Jeff Daniels
Dumb and Dumber
Dustin Hoffman
Midnight Cowboy
Robert de Niro
Taxi Driver
Malcolm McDowell
Clockwork Orange
Improv in Film and Videogames

13. Bibliography
• Boal, Augusto. 2006. The Aesthetics of the Oppressed. Tr. Adrian Jackson.
London: Routledge.
---. 1992. Games for Actors and Non-actors. Routledge: London.
---. 1979. Theatre of the Oppressed. Tr. Adrian Jackson. Routledge: London.
• Johnstone, Keith. 1999. Impro for Storytellers. London: Faber and Faber. An
earlier version of this book was published by Loose Moose Theatre Company,
Canada, as Don’t Be Prepared, in 1994.
• Johnstone, Keith. 1981 Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre. New York:
Routledge.
• Nachmanovitch, Stephen. 1990. Free Play: The Power of Improvisation in Life
and the Arts. Los Angeles: Tarcher.
Games and Improv