Improvisation
Encyclopedia
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
and technical understanding of the necessary skills and concerns within the improvised domain. Improvisation can be thought of as an "on the spot" or "off the cuff" spontaneous
Spontaneous
Spontaneous* Spontaneous abortion* Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis* Spontaneous combustion* Spontaneous emission* Spontaneous fission* Spontaneous generation* Spontaneous human combustion* Spontaneous Music Ensemble* Spontaneous order...
activity.
The skills of improvisation can apply to many different abilities or forms of communication and expression across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines. For example, improvisation can make a significant contribution in music, dance, cooking, presenting a speech, sales, personal or romantic relationships, sports, flower arranging, martial arts, psychotherapy, and much more. Techniques of improvisation are widely trained in the entertainment arts; for example, music, theatre and dance. To "extemporize" or "ad lib" is basically the same as improvising. Colloquial terms such as "let's play it by the ear," "take it as it comes," and "make it up as we go along" are all used to describe "improvisation."
The simple act of speaking requires a good deal of improvisation because the mind is addressing its own thought and creating its unrehearsed delivery in words, sounds and gestures, forming unpredictable statements that feed back into the thought process (the performer as listener), creating an enriched process that is not unlike instantaneous composition [with a given set or repertoire of elements].
Where the improvisation is intended to solve a problem on a temporary basis, the 'proper' solution being unavailable at the time, it may be known as a stop-gap. This particularly applies to engineering improvisations.
Music
Improvisation is usually defined as the composition of music while simultaneously singing or playing an instrument. In other words, the art of improvisation can be understood as composing music "on the flyOn the fly
-Colloquial usage:In colloquial use, on the fly means something created when needed. The phrase is used to mean:# something that was not planned ahead# changes that are made during the execution of same activity: ex tempore, impromptu.-Automotive usage:...
". Improvisation can take place as a solo performance, or interdependently in ensemble with other players. When done well, it often elicits gratifying emotional responses from the audience. One notable improvisational pianist is Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
. The origins of Liszt's improvisation in an earlier tradition of playing variations on a theme were mastered and epitomized by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, and Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
.
Other notable improvisational musicians include: Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
, an improvisational jazz pianist and multi-instrumentalist who has performed many completely improvised concerts all over the world; Derek Bailey, an improvisational guitarist; and Eugene Friesen
Eugene Friesen
Eugene Friesen is an American cellist and composer.Friesen is a graduate of the Yale School of Music. He has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since 1978, and performs with Howard Levy and Glen Velez as Trio Globo...
, an improvisational cellist.
Improvised freestyle rap
Freestyle rap
Freestyle rap commonly refers to rap lyrics which are improvised through a acapella or with instrumental beats, i.e. performed with no previously composed lyrics, or "off the top of the head"...
is commonly practiced as a part of rappers' creative processes, as a "finished product" for release on recordings (when the improvisation is judged good enough), as a spiritual event, as a means of verbal combat in battle rap
Battle Rap
Battle rap is a type of rapping that includes a lot of braggadocio content "combined with put-downs, insults, and disses against real or imaginary opponents"...
, and, simply, for fun. It often incorporates insults similar to those in the African-American game the dozens
The dozens
The Dozens is a game that has its origins in African American slavery. The game originates from the devaluing and bargaining off of deformed or defective slaves in auction houses. This element of the African American oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a...
, and complex rhythmic and sometimes melodic forms comparable to those heard in jazz improvisation.
A few pianists have given modern recitals of improvisation in the baroque style. An example of an improvisational pianist in the style of baroque improvisation was Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach...
. There have also been a few other exceptional improvised solo piano concerts in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Southern Germany in the 1990s.
In the realm of silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
music, there are also a small number of musicians whose work has been recognized as exceptional by critics, scholars and audiences alike; these include Neil Brand
Neil Brand
Neil Brand , is a British dramatist, composer and author. In addition to being regular silent film accompanist at London's National Film Theatre, Brand has composed new scores for two recently restored films from the 1920s, namely The Wrecker and Anthony Asquith's Underground. Brand has also acted...
and John Sweeney, among others who are all performers at "Le Giornate del Cinema Muto", the annual conference on silent film in Pordenone, Italy. Their performances must match the style and pacing of those films which they accompany and the knowledge of a wide range of musical styles is required, as well as the stamina to play for films which occasionally run more than three hours in length, without a pause. Improvisation literally means "thinking on your feet." For example rappers, when they are preforming a freestyle rap
Freestyle rap
Freestyle rap commonly refers to rap lyrics which are improvised through a acapella or with instrumental beats, i.e. performed with no previously composed lyrics, or "off the top of the head"...
they improvise.
Theatre
Dance
Dance improvisationDance improvisation
Dance improvisation is the process of spontaneously creating movement. Development of improvised movement material is facilitated through a variety of creative explorations including body mapping through body mind centering, levels, shape and dynamics , sensory experiences through touch or contact...
as a choreographic
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
tool: Improvisation is used as a choreographic tool in dance composition
Dance composition
The term dance composition is used to describe the practice and teaching of choreography and the navigation or connection of choreographic structures....
. Experimenting with the concepts of shape, space, time, and energy while moving without inhibition or cognitive thinking can create unique and innovative movement designs, spatial configuration, dynamics, and unpredictable rhythms. Improvisation without inhibition allows the choreographer to connect to their deepest creative self, which in turn clears the way for pure invention.
Contact improvisation
Contact improvisation
Contact improvisation is a dance technique in which points of physical contact provide the starting point for exploration through movement improvisation...
: a form developed in 1973, that is now practiced around the world. Contact improvisation originated from the movement studies of Steve Paxton in the 1970s and developed through the continued exploration of the Judson Dance Theater
Judson Dance Theater
Judson Dance Theater was an informal group of dancers who performed at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, Manhattan New York City between 1962 and 1964. It grew out of a dance composition class taught by Robert Dunn, a musician who had studied with John Cage...
. It is a dance form based on sharing weight, partnering, playing with weight and unpredictable outcomes.
Comedy
Improvisational comedy is a theater art performed throughout the world and has had on-again, off-again status throughout history.Some of the more famous improv theaters and training centers in the world include: i.O.
I.O.
iO, or iO Chicago, is a theater located at 3541 N. Clark St., in Chicago, Illinois, one-half block south of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The theater both has performances of, and teaches improvisational comedy. It was founded in the 1980s by Del Close and Charna Halpern...
(formerly ImprovOlympic) in Chicago and Los Angeles, The Second City
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
in Chicago and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, The Players Workshop
The Players Workshop
Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of Improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred to as Players Workshop Of The Second City, due to...
in Chicago, National Comedy Theatre
National Comedy Theatre
National Comedy Theatre was founded in Los Angeles in January 2000 by several owners of ComedySportz franchises.In July 2000, the name was extended to an association of theaters across the United States, including locations in San Jose, Kansas City, Indianapolis, San Diego, New York and Austin, Texas...
in San Diego, New York and Phoenix, Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...
, The Peoples Improv Theater in New York City, the Groundlings, BATS Improv
BATS Improv
BATS Improv is a non-profit improvisational theatre company in San Francisco. Founded in 1986, their unique style of acting-based improvisational theatre is well-known in improv circles around the world...
in San Francisco, Wing-It Productions
Wing-It Productions
Wing-It Productions, sometimes simply called “Wing-It,” is a 501 non-profit theater company based in Seattle, Washington, USA which exclusively produces improvised theater...
in Seattle, Philly Improv Theater in Philadelphia], Dudley Riggs BraveNew Workshop
Brave New Workshop
The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre , located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy and improvisation performances for 50 years – longer than any other theatre in the nation...
in Minneapolis, ComedySportz
ComedySportz
ComedySportz is an improvisational comedy organization started in 1984 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by a group of local comedians including Dick Chudnow, Bob Orvis, Brian Green and many others.-Format:...
in Milwaukee, Washington Improv Theater
Washington Improv Theater
Washington Improv Theater is an improv comedy theater and school based in Washington, D.C..Washington Improv Theater was founded in 1986 by Carole Douglis, and then was disbanded in 1992. Three years later, Douglis started training a new cohort of improvisors, some of whom remain in WIT today...
in Washington D.C., and Theatresports
Theatresports
Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges...
in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Canada.
There are also many well known university improv teams, including Theatre Strike Force
Theatre Strike Force
Theatre Strike Force is the University of Florida's premier improv and sketch comedy troupe. The style of improv performed by Theatre Strike Force is primarily short form, however several outlets for long form improvisation exist within the group...
at the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
.
Notable pioneers in the field of improvisation, comedic or otherwise, include Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin was an important innovator of the American theater in the 20th century. She created directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life...
, Paul Sills
Paul Sills
Paul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...
, David Shepherd
David Shepherd (producer)
David Shepherd is an American producer, director, and actor primarily noted for his work in improvisational theatre-Career:Born in 1924, in the city of New York City to an old money family, Shepherd grew up with left-leaning sensibilities. He studied English at Harvard and received an M.A. in the...
, Del Close
Del Close
Del Close was an actor, improviser, writer, and teacher. Considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows...
, Josephine Forsberg
Josephine Forsberg
Josephine Forsberg , ex-wife of film director Rolf Forsberg was hired by Paul Sills and Viola Spolin to join the original Second City in 1959 as the female understudy and Spolin's teaching assistant...
, Stan Wells
Empty Stage Comedy Theatre
The Empty Stage Comedy Theatre is a sketch comedy and improvisational theatre located in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. The Empty Stage was started and is currently owned by Stan Wells....
, Gary Austin
Gary Austin
Gary Austin is an American comedian, improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director. He has written two solo shows, "Church" and "Oil," and has performed them coast to coast...
, Martin de Maat
Martin de Maat
Martin de Maat was a teacher and artistic director at The Second City in Chicago. He also taught at Columbia College and Players Workshop. He studied under Viola Spolin...
, and Keith Johnstone
Keith Johnstone
Keith Johnstone is a drama instructor whose teachings and books have focused on improvisational theatre and have had a major influence on the art of improvisation.-Education:...
. Notable performers include: Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...
, Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
, Steve Carell
Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
, Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
, Harold Ramis
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
, Robert Townsend, Colin Mochrie
Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.-Early life:...
, Ryan Stiles
Ryan Stiles
Ryan Lee Stiles is an American actor, comedian, director, and voice actor whose work is often associated with improvisational comedy. He is best known for his improv and co-production work on the American and British versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the role of Lewis Kiniski on The Drew...
, Ross Noble
Ross Noble
Ross Markham Noble is an English stand-up comedian, brought up in Cramlington, Northumberland, England.Noble rose to mainstream popularity through making appearances on British television, particularly interviews and on celebrity quiz shows such as Have I Got News for You...
, Wayne Brady
Wayne Brady
Wayne Alphonso Brady is an actor, singer, comedian and television personality, known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and as the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show...
, Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Winters
-Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...
, Bill Chott
Bill Chott
Bill Chott is an American actor and comedian.- Early life :During his school years, Chott appeared in numerous plays and musicals. As a graduate of Ritenour High School he was inducted into the school's hall of fame for his tremendous success...
, and Gil Christner
Gil Christner
Gil Christner is an American actor, writer and comedian living and working in Los Angeles.-Early life:...
.
Poetry
Traditional epic poetryEpic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
included improvisation moments where the reciter flattered the audience (especially the authorities) or to substitute a forgotten passage. There are also societies that value improvised poetry as a genre, often as a debate or "poetic joust
Jousting
Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two knights mounted on horses and using lances, often as part of a tournament.Jousting emerged in the High Middle Ages based on the military use of the lance by heavy cavalry. The first camels tournament was staged in 1066, but jousting itself did not...
", where improvisators compete for public approval. Some of these impromptu
Impromptu
An impromptu is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ex tempore improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano...
poems are later recorded in paper or transmitted orally.
Some of these forms also include humour.
But Michel Ducom established himself within Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
poetical improvisation movement in the 1990s but has since composed and performed with a wide range of poets working in diverse poetical areas (Bernat Manciet
Bernat Manciet
Bernat Manciet was a major Occitan author.-Biography:Manciet attended school first in his native Sabres and then spent three years in the lycée of Talence where he lived at his uncles', who were priests. They taught him Latin and Ancient Greek...
, Serge Pey, Méryl Marchetti
Méryl Marchetti
Méryl Marchetti is a French writer and poet.Since 1999, Méryl Marchetti founds in Pau the group “La Travarde” where he criticizes the form collection and invents other modes of organization of the corpora of poems such as the play-of-tanks, circles polypoetic...
…). The emergence of poetical improvisation, like previous developments in French poetry, was largely tied to the free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
experience.
Sculpture
Sculpture often relies on the enlargement of a small model or maquetteMaquette
A maquette is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished architectural work or a sculpture...
to create the final work in a chosen material. Where the material is plastic such as clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
, a working structure or armature
Armature (sculpture)
In sculpture, an armature is a framework around which the sculpture is built. This framework provides structure and stability, especially when a plastic material such as wax or clay is being used as the medium...
often needs to be built to allow the pre-determined design to be realized. Alan Thornhill
Alan Thornhill
Alan Thornhill is a British artist and sculptor whose long association with clay developed from pottery into sculpture. His evolved methods of working enabled the dispensing of the sculptural armature to allow improvisation, whilst his portraiture challenges notions of normality through rigorous...
's method for working with clay abandons the maquette, seeing it as ultimately deadening to creativity. Without the restrictions of the armature, a clay matrix of elements allows that when recognisable forms start to emerge, they can be essentially disregarded by turning the work, allowing for infinite possibility and the chance for the unforeseen to emerge more powerfully at a later stage.
Moving from adding and taking away to purely reductive working, the architectural considerations of turning the work are eased considerably but continued removal of material through the rejection of forms deemed too obvious can mean one ends up with nothing. Former pupil Jon Edgar
Jon Edgar
Jon Edgar is a British artist born in Rustington, West Sussex in 1968, the grandson of British cartoonist Brian White. He direct-carves in wood and stone using methods of improvisation, and works in clay.-Biography:...
uses Thornhill's method as a creative extension to direct carving in stone and wood.
Film
The director Mike LeighMike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
uses lengthy improvisations developed over a period of weeks to build characters and story lines for his films. He starts with some sketch ideas of how he thinks things might develop but does not reveal all his intentions with the cast who discover their fate and act out their responses as their destinies are gradually revealed, including significant aspects of their lives which will not subsequently be shown onscreen. The final filming draws on dialogue and actions that have been recorded during the improvisation period.
The film company ACT 2 CAM
ACT 2 CAM
ACT 2 CAM is a production company and acting school based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.The company is notable for producing independent films with cast and crew of young people from 8 to 18 years old...
uses improvisation to create the characters, contexts and plot for their films. Improvisation also forms a large part of the final filmed product.
Television
Improvisation was originally rarely used on dramatic television. A major exception was the situation comedySituation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Mork and Mindy
Mork and Mindy
Mork & Mindy is an American science fiction sitcom broadcast from 1978 until 1982 on ABC. The series starred Robin Williams as Mork, an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a small, one-man egg-shaped spaceship. Pam Dawber co-starred as Mindy McConnell, his human friend and roommate...
where star Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
, famed for this kind of performing, was allotted specific sections in each episode where he was allowed to perform freely.
In the 1990s, a TV show called Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. Originally a British radio programme, it moved to television in 1988 as a series made for the UK's Channel 4, for a 10 series run...
popularized shortform comedic improvisation; the original version aired on British television
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
, but it was later revived and popularized in the United States, with Drew Carey
Drew Carey
Drew Allison Carey is an American actor, singer, comedian, photographer, sports executive, and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey eventually gained popularity starring on his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and serving as...
as its host. With improvisation becoming a more common aspect of television, there have been television shows which have garnered great success by utilizing partial improvisation to create longer-form programs with more dramatic flavor while some shows are completely improvised in terms of lines, including: The Office, Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...
, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
, Significant Others, The Loop
The Loop (TV series)
The Loop is an American sitcom that ran from March 15, 2006 to July 1, 2007 on Fox. The show starred Bret Harrison as Sam Sullivan, a young professional trying to balance the needs of his social life with the pressures of working at the corporate headquarters of TransAlliance Airways, a major U.S....
, Sons & Daughters, 10 Items or Less, Dog Bites Man
Dog Bites Man
Dog Bites Man is a partially improvised comedy television show on Comedy Central that aired in summer 2006. It began airing on The Comedy Channel in Australia in June 2007...
, Halfway Home
Halfway Home (TV series)
Halfway Home is an American comedy series that aired on Comedy Central in Spring 2007.On its official website, Halfway Home is described as an "improvised half-hour show featuring the daily exploits of five ex-cons living together in a residential rehab facility" .After airing 10 episodes, on June...
, Reno 911!
Reno 911!
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central that ran from 2003 to 2009. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically COPS, with comic actors playing the police officers. Most of the material is improvised, using a broad outline, and...
, Free Ride
Free Ride (TV series)
Free Ride is a Fox partially improvised sitcom starring Josh Dean as "Nate Stahlings", a recent college graduate re-adjusting to life at home with his parents in Johnson City, Missouri...
, Campus Ladies
Campus Ladies
Campus Ladies is an American sitcom that premiered on Oxygen on January 8, 2006. It stars Christen Sussin and Carrie Aizley as two 40-something women who decide to go enroll at the fictional University of the Midwest...
, Players
Players (2010 TV series)
Players is an American comedy series which premiered on the Spike network on March 2, 2010. The series is a partially-scripted/mostly-improvised comedy about two brothers who run a sports bar together. After airing 3 episodes, Players was removed from the Spike schedule and put on hiatus. The...
, and After Lately
After Lately
After Lately is an American reality-style sitcom that began airing on the E! network on March 6, 2011. The series goes behind-the-scenes of Chelsea Handler's late night talk show, Chelsea Lately...
.
In Canada, the Global Television
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
soap opera Train 48
Train 48
Train 48 was a Canadian television soap opera, broadcast on Global Television Network or CH airing from 2003 until 2005.Train 48 was based on the format of an Australian television program called Going Home....
, based on the Australian series Going Home, uses a form of structured improvisation, in which actors improvise dialog from written plot outlines. Australia's Thank God You're Here
Thank God You're Here
Thank God You're Here is an Australian television improvised comedy program created by Working Dog Productions, which premiered on Network Ten on 5 April 2006, and aired for the first three seasons with Seven for the fourth season...
is a game show where celebrities are put into scenes they know nothing about and have to improvise.
Engineering
Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand. A classic example of such improvisation was the re-engineering of carbon dioxide scrubbers with the materials on hand during the Apollo 13Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
space mission.
Engineering improvisations may be needed because of emergencies, embargo
Embargo
An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...
, obsolescence
Obsolescence
Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service or practice is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order. Obsolescence frequently occurs because a replacement has become available that is superior in one or more aspects. Obsolete refers to something...
of a product and the loss of manufacturer support, or perhaps just a lack of funding appropriate for a better solution.
The popular television program MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
used as its gimmick a hero who could solve almost any problem with jury rig
Jury rig
Jury rigging refers to makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand. Originally a nautical term, on sailing ships a jury rig is a replacement mast and yards improvised in case of damage or loss of the original mast.-Etymology:The...
ged devices from everyday materials, a Swiss Army knife and some duct tape.
Improvised weapons
Improvised weaponsImprovised weapons
An Improvised weapon is a device that was not designed to be used as a weapon but can be put to that use. They are generally used for self-defence or where the person is otherwise unarmed...
are often used by guerrillas, insurgents and criminals as conventional weapons may be unavailable. Such weapons vary in sophistication from simple sharpened sticks, to petrol bombs and home made napalm, to IEDs
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
and make shift bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
aircraft.
General references
- Abbot, John. 2009. Improvisation in Rehearsal. Nick Hern BooksNick Hern BooksNick Hern Books is a London-based independent specialist publisher of plays, theatre books and screenplays. The company was founded by the former Methuen drama editor Nick Hern in 1988.-History:...
. ISBN 978-1-85459-523-2 - Abbot, John. 2007. The Improvisation Book. Nick Hern BooksNick Hern BooksNick Hern Books is a London-based independent specialist publisher of plays, theatre books and screenplays. The company was founded by the former Methuen drama editor Nick Hern in 1988.-History:...
. ISBN 978-1-85459-961-2 - Johnston, Chris. 2006. The Improvisation Game: Discovering the Secrets of Spontaneous Performance. Nick Hern BooksNick Hern BooksNick Hern Books is a London-based independent specialist publisher of plays, theatre books and screenplays. The company was founded by the former Methuen drama editor Nick Hern in 1988.-History:...
. ISBN 978-1-85459-668-0 - Nachmanovitch, Stephen. 1990. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and ArtFree Play: Improvisation in Life and ArtFree Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, is a book written by Stephen Nachmanovitch and originally published in 1990 by Jeremy Tarcher of the Penguin Group....
. Penguin/Tarcher. ISBN 0-87477-578-7 (cloth); ISBN 0-87477-631-7 (pbk)