Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

Theatre educator Keith Johnstone's 1979 book explores spontaneous creativity through four sections: Status, Spontaneity, Narrative Skills, and Masks and Trance, presenting techniques developed from his actors' studio to The Theatre Machine company. The book aims to rediscover imaginative responses in adults and rekindle children's creativity, teaching that "the more obvious the improviser is, the more original he appears"—reversing normal education's drive to reduce spontaneity. Johnstone's Status chapter is particularly influential, arguing that deciding whether to play high or low status relative to other actors is the only preparation needed for improvisation.

11 sections · 50 lessons

Course outline

Status Foundations

  1. Status Dynamics
  2. Status Gaps
  3. Body Language
  4. Observing Status
  5. Status Foundations

Status Dynamics

  1. Status Transactions
  2. Status Reversals
  3. Playing Lower
  4. Territory
  5. Master-Servant
  6. Status Dynamics

Educational Conditioning

  1. School & Creativity
  2. Unlearning Blocks
  3. Educational Conditioning

Spontaneity Principles

  1. Trusting First Thoughts
  2. Bypassing the Censor
  3. Accepting versus Blocking
  4. Recognizing Blocks
  5. Spontaneity Principles

Yes And

  1. Yes And Foundation
  2. Yes And in Action
  3. Making Strong Offers
  4. Gift-Giving Mindset
  5. Yes And

Narrative Structure

  1. Routine & Story
  2. Platform Tilt Resolution
  3. Platform Practice
  4. Reincorporation
  5. Reincorporation Patterns
  6. Narrative Structure

Collaborative Creation

  1. Story Circles
  2. Obvious Over Clever
  3. Word at a Time
  4. Collective Intelligence
  5. Overaccepting
  6. The Presents Exercise
  7. Collaborative Creation

Trance and Masks

  1. Natural Trance States
  2. Personality Driven Out
  3. Neutral Mask
  4. Neutral Mask Training
  5. Character Masks
  6. The Mask Process
  7. Trance and Masks

Accessing the Unconscious

  1. Unconscious Source
  2. Unconscious Techniques
  3. First Thought Wisdom
  4. Accessing the Unconscious

Teaching Practice

  1. Fear
  2. Reframing Failure
  3. Psychological Safety
  4. Creating the Container
  5. Reversing Assumptions
  6. Modeling Behavior
  7. Teaching Practice

Real-World Integration

  1. Professional Status
  2. Yes And in Business
  3. Creative Spontaneity
  4. Teaching Applications
  5. Living Improvisationally
  6. Real-World Integration

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