Most people know The Second City as an innovative school for improvisation that has turned out leading talents such as Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. This groundbreaking company has also trained thousands of educators and students through its Improvisation for Creative Pedagogy program, which uses improv exercises to teach a wide variety of content areas, and boost skills that are crucial for student learning: listening, teamwork, communication, idea-generation, vocabulary, and more.
Executives from The Second City—the world’s premier comedy theater and school of improvisation—reveal improvisational techniques that can help any organization develop innovators, encourage adaptable leaders, and build transformational businesses. For more than fifty years, The Second City comedy theater in Chicago has been a training ground for some of the best comic minds in the industry—including John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. But it also provides one-of-a-kind leadership training to cutting-edge companies, nonprofits, and public sector organizations—all aimed at increasing creativity, collaboration, and teamwork. The rules for leadership and teamwork have changed, and the skills that got professionals ahead a generation ago don’t work anymore. Now The Second City provides a new toolkit individuals and organizations can use to thrive in a world increasingly shaped by speed, social communication, and decentralization. Based on eight principles of improvisation, Yes, And helps to develop these skills and foster them in high-potential leaders and their teams, including: Mastering the ability to co-create in an ensemble Fostering a “yes, and” approach to work Embracing failure to accelerate high performance Leading by listening and by learning to follow Innovating by making something out of nothing Yes, And is a must-read for professionals and organizations, helping to develop the invaluable leadership skills needed to succeed today.
Process: An Improviser's Journey is an invaluable resource for mastering improv. Author, teacher, and improviser Michael Gellman was given a mission by famed improv coach Del Close: “[T]o create improvised one-act plays of literary quality from scratch.” Already steeped in the world of improvisation, he took it upon himself to do this, in the form of a class for other improvisers in which they would build the skills necessary to execute such a seemingly tall order. Scruggs and Gellman’s book, modeled after Stanislavski’s timeless An Actor Prepares, follows a fictional young actor taking Gellman’s real-life class. Scruggs and Gellman introduce readers to Geoff, who has just moved to Chicago to pursue acting. He undergoes the standard trials of audition and rejection before he takes the advice of a fellow actor and turns to improv classes at Second City. At first, Geoff thinks improvisation is about laughs and loosening up, but he soon learns that it is a powerful tool as well as an end in itself. Through Geoff’s eyes, the book introduces readers to key tenets of improvisation: concentration, visualization, focus, object work, being in the moment, and the crucial “yes, and.” His experiences with the basics of improvisation do serve to get him a few roles, but his real breakthrough comes when he signs up for an improvised one-act class with Michael Gellman. He and his classmates arrive unprepared for the challenge, but with Gellman’s prompts and advice, they slowly move through process to performance over the course of three seasons in Chicago. The class culminates with their final project: a completely improvised one-act play performed in front of a live audience.
The Improv Handbook is the most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improv available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes, it features a range of games, interviews, descriptions and exercises that illuminate and illustrate the exciting world of improvised performance. First published in 2008, this second edition features a new foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as new exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master-servant games, plus new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan. The Improv Handbook is a one-stop guide to the exciting world of improvisation. Whether you're a beginner, an expert, or would just love to try it if you weren't too scared, The Improv Handbook will guide you every step of the way.
"An easy to read self-help book created with the new generation of improviser in mind. It's written for today's performers, looking for a quick fix to their performance problems... Will give you simple tools for repairing your improvisation through original and enhanced exercises. This book addresses improvisation as a whole, including how offstage issues affect onstage performance." -- Back cover.
Teaching in the Art Museum investigates the mission, history, theory, practice, and future prospects of museum education. In this book Rika Burnham and Elliott Kai-Kee define and articulate a new approach to gallery teaching, one that offers groups of visitors deep and meaningful experiences of interpreting art works through a process of intense, sustained looking and thoughtfully facilitated dialogue.--[book cover].
Do you want to teach improv, but don't know where to start? Are you looking for ways to structure improv games into effective lesson plans? Introducing Teaching Improv: The Essential Handbook, a new resource packed with 16 step-by-step lesson plans that will take the stress out of planning your improv classes. We've done the hard work for you, by organizing today's best improv games into fun, skill-based lessons that your students will absolutely love. More importantly, you'll see them grow into confident and creative performers. This resource was created by the same award-winning publisher of Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook, a #1 best-seller on Amazon which has sold over 35,000 copies and has been translated into 5 languages. Go beyond improv games. With this book you'll get: 16 detailed, full-proof lesson plans that cover the "9 rules of improv" Notes on how to introduce improv concepts in clear, concise language Over 114 improv games and activities Reflection and journaling exercises after each lesson Homework handouts and YouTube video links to deepen understanding Sample "performance line-ups" for every age/experience level A troubleshooting guide to address common issues Bonus Digital Material with 23 Videos to demonstrate how games are played Below are just a few of the topics covered in the lessons: Teamwork and Trust. Students will demonstrate an understanding of improv and develop trust with their classmates. Make Associations. Students will practice making associations and discover tools to help them think quickly and creatively. Yes, and. Students will demonstrate the ability to accept a statement or action that they are given and add something to it. Listen. Students will listen to each other by observing how their classmates move and absorbing what their classmates say. Relate. Students will learn to internalize and connect with whatever has been communicated. Be honest. Students will demonstrate honesty in their creation of environments, objects and characters. Be in the present. Students will make strong initiations that are rooted in the present. Tell a story. Students will learn how to incorporate the Important Elements of Storytelling into their scenes. Develop Relationships. Students will explore how status affects relationships, and how it can be used to enhance a scene for comedic or dramatic effect. Scenework. Students will create entertaining scenes with characters who have a strong relationship, locations, a strong initiation, and a conflict.
A brief description of the history and goals of two improvizational comedy groups, the Compass and Second City, accompanies interviews with past members from Mike Nichols to Gilda Radner
