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  • Impro

  • Improvisation and the Theatre
  • By: Keith Johnstone
  • Narrated by: William Reay
  • Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)
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Impro

By: Keith Johnstone
Narrated by: William Reay
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Summary

"Impro is the most dynamic, funny, wise, practical, and provocative book on theatre craft that I have ever read." (James Roose-Evans, British theatre director, priest, and writer)

Keith Johnstone's involvement with the theatre began when George Devine and Tony Richardson, artistic directors of the Royal Court Theatre, commissioned a play from him. This was in 1956. A few years later, he was associate artistic director, working as a playreader and director, in particular helping to run the writers' group. The improvisatory techniques and exercises that evolved there, fostering spontaneity and narrative skills, were developed further in the actors' studio and, then, in demonstrations to schools and colleges. This ultimately resulted in the founding of a company of performers called The Theatre Machine.

Divided into four sections - "Status", "Spontaneity", "Narrative Skills", and "Masks and Trance" - and arranged more or less in the order a group might approach them, the audiobook sets out the specific techniques and exercises which Johnstone has himself found most useful and most stimulating. The result is both an audiobook of ideas and a fascinating exploration of the nature of spontaneous creativity. This audio edition of Impro is skillfully narrated by William Reay and includes as a second appendix a previously unpublished essay "The Full Mask", which Johnstone wrote 50 years after the original publication of the book.

©1979, 1981 Keith Johnstone, Irving Wardle (P)2020 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

What listeners say about Impro

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Beautiful - read if only for the insight

I don't think a single read (listen) is enough. This book is so rich in experience and insight that one pass is not enough. Even if the performing arts are not what you do, there is enough here to overlay into every area of life. I am a trainer and I decided to use some of Johnstone's techniques in two of my training sessions in the last week. I was a bit nervous about doing it because I was unsure of how it would carry into a training intervention on communication. I did it anyway and I was completely astonished by the results. The delegates took to it like ducks to water and enjoyed the session immensely.
I have committed to going through it again to extract more of the pearls of wisdom in this book.
Some areas are a lot more difficult to follow (for me at least) and one of those for me, was where he deals, in-depth, with the subject of Trance. I am not sure that I was following it like he intended it to be, and maybe on the second pass, it will resonate more with me.
Have a read for yourself and perhaps you will find something in it that you can apply to your world.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant

Engaging, enlightening, and beautifully narrated by William Reay, whose delivery held my full attention, demonstrated a very good understanding and brought humour and humanity where it was due.

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AMAZING

I'm a discovery writer and this book has been a godsend to me. Mr Johnstone details his decades of practical experience freely and truthfully. there are real exercises and knowledge based on constant application, not ruminating. if you are creative, this book will provide for you a magic carpet. if you're devoid of creativity, here lies the key to unlock within what was lost.

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