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Review
'For insight into a truly creative mind, read Impro.'
--Psychologies (February 2010)
--Psychologies (February 2010)
Reviews Gate (August 2007)
'If you don't have this book - get it quick... Johnstone's insights are as powerfully clear as ever... It's a treasure trove of ideas and methods; it will ease and enrich work and studies... An invigorating read.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
one of those very few books that can change how you work in fundamental ways... Brilliantly funny, thoughtful and perceptive about the ways that teachers deal with their students and the games they unintentionally or unconsciously play with each other in classrooms; highly practical in its sections on mask, narratives, spontaneity, and improvisation; subversive and constructive at the same time. Sadly, very much better than his follow-up 'Impro in storytelling 'which recycles many of the ideas from this. As it says above - buy it, share it...
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Keith Johnstone is a visionary in the field of improvisation theatre. His concepts of status hierarchies are ground-breaking. They show that humans, like animals, are at ease with each other when the underlying status hierarchy is understood and undisputed.
However, all kinds of interesting tensions are created when the status hierarchy IS disputed. For actors, this concept from Keith's book is golden:
1) If you want to be seen as a natural performer, you need to know your status in relation to the other humans, and even things around you.
2) If you want to create interesting drama, you and your co-actors need to manipulate your statuses in interesting ways. These dynamic movements and challenges are interesting and funny for the audience.
Keith describes this and much, much more in his fascinating book. The generous use of actual improvisation situations makes the book very hands-on, funny and analytical.
Impro also expands from improvisation acting to such areas as creative writing, teaching and mask and trance work. Even the bits one does not agree with are superbly constructed and offer an insightful view on the sometimes weird and wonderful world of creative minds at work.
The improvisation actors in such shows as "Whose line is it anyway?" or London's Comedy Store borrow many of their techniques from Keith.
This book is one to read, whether you are an actor, spectator or just plain interested in smooth, congruent human interactions. Pure genius.
However, all kinds of interesting tensions are created when the status hierarchy IS disputed. For actors, this concept from Keith's book is golden:
1) If you want to be seen as a natural performer, you need to know your status in relation to the other humans, and even things around you.
2) If you want to create interesting drama, you and your co-actors need to manipulate your statuses in interesting ways. These dynamic movements and challenges are interesting and funny for the audience.
Keith describes this and much, much more in his fascinating book. The generous use of actual improvisation situations makes the book very hands-on, funny and analytical.
Impro also expands from improvisation acting to such areas as creative writing, teaching and mask and trance work. Even the bits one does not agree with are superbly constructed and offer an insightful view on the sometimes weird and wonderful world of creative minds at work.
The improvisation actors in such shows as "Whose line is it anyway?" or London's Comedy Store borrow many of their techniques from Keith.
This book is one to read, whether you are an actor, spectator or just plain interested in smooth, congruent human interactions. Pure genius.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
not a very creative summary, but it's true. I've owned this book for a number of years and have kept going back to it for creative impetus. I'm in no way associated with theatre (though I did go once), in fact my career is very humdrum and involves maths, computers and finance! The point is that I've used the books techniques in each of these areas to help boost my creativity. It contains some great techniques and I found the writing very clear, precise and (of course)original. Most books on creativity tend to be very 'uncreative' and keep repeating the same ideas. I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone looking to kick start their imagination in any area.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
key
I think Johnstone's book revitalized performing for me. Reading it was talking with a great friend, and continually proved, and still proves inspiring. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Almos
Thought provoking and fascinating
Was recommended to me by a friend who re-reads it every year. The first part of the book was the most interesting for me. Read more
Published 8 months ago by G Colborne
Good chapter on status but there are better improv books
There seem to be two distinct camps in improv; those who follow Keith Johnstone's teaching and those who prefer Del Close's. Read more
Published 8 months ago by J. LLOYD
Excellent book in excellent condition :)
The book I ordered arrived within 2 days and is in excellent condition. Along with the book came a friendly hand written 'thank you' note with a big smile on it, which gave the... Read more
Published 8 months ago by AndreaLisa
Fascinating and great techniques
I am not an actor or an aspiring actor but I am in interested in writing and I have found many of the techniques in this book to be very useful. Read more
Published 17 months ago by The Emperor
still crazy, after all these years
It's a brilliant, practical book, and things like this don't really date much because it's about the essence of dramatic improvisation. Read more
Published 19 months ago by cerrig
A pivot on which my understand of Impro turns
Strangely, this is one of the most best books that I've ever read but I didn't finish it.
This is a wry, incisive observation of how social animals interact and how you,... Read more
This is a wry, incisive observation of how social animals interact and how you,... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr Daniel W Sutton
An amazing book
THis fascinating book opened my mind to life in a totally fresh way. By asking what actors are actually doing when they play parts on TV, by deconstructing it, Mr Johnstone ends up... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Mr. J. Carr
Johnstone is an easy read
Impro does the necessary in introducing the actor, or artist into the ways of thinking which allow for improvisation.
Published on 14 Mar 2010 by Paul O'Malley
Interesting
This book was higly recommended by a friend who is heavily into psychology (both of us are engineers by our degree courses). Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2010 by Harry Sangha
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