I’m currently reading a few books about improvisation, looking for ideas about how to apply the ideas more broadly – to solo gaming and to life in general. The “life in general” part is an important theme of Life Unscripted by Jeff Katzman and Dan O’Connor.
One of the authors is a professor of psychiatry who has studied improvisational theatre, while the other author is an actor, improviser and director. Both have used techniques from improvisational theatre as tools for teaching.
The book’s subtitle is “Using Improv Principles to Get Unstuck, Boost Confidence and Transform Your Life”.
Notes
- An improvisational mindset can be a way to break out of routines and patterns in our daily lives. The authors acknowledge that routines are vital for getting through life. But there can also be benefits from getting out of these routines every so often.
- Many of the warm-up exercises used in improvisational workshops are intended to encourage spontaneity. The games are designed to be fun, silly or a bit strange, and participants are asked to speak or take actions without judging whether what they are doing is ‘good’ or ‘wrong’. Later on, the book discusses strategies for dealing with our inner critic, by personifying it and by deliberately listening to alternative viewpoints.
- A key part of the improvisational mindset is to be able to incorporate mistakes and unexpected events while still creating meaningful storytelling through the “CORE” approach of discovering Character, Objective, Relationship and Environment.
- Our connections to the other people in improvisational theatre are particularly important – we need to build on their contributions and to be curious about their experiences. This is a perspective that we can bring to real-life relationships.
Reflections
Structure/spontaneity is another pair of opposing concepts that we can try switching between: see On “Navigating Ambiguity”.
I was particularly interested in the chapter on empathy and shifting our focus to other people. There’s a type of person who we might expect to be very good at improvisational theatre: charismatic, funny, quick-thinking, skilled at holding other people’s attention. But such people don’t do well at improvisation unless they’re also curious about the other participants and offer them opportunities to shine.
Related
The Art of Is has a similar theme but takes a rather different approach. My notes are here: On “The Art of Is”.