ABSTRACT
At the Dacapo Theatre we use theatre as a mode of consulting to organizations. Improvisation has always been a key aspect of our work. However, when we started ten years ago we mainly did three-hour workshops, and the first half of the workshop was a straightforward theatre performance, while the second half was improvised work using the issues and situations arising in the performance. One of our first performances has so far been performed over five hundred times, but despite this obvious success, our work has gradually moved away from performance towards more and more improvisation. Today we may work for a day with the staff, or some of the staff, of a company without using any rehearsed theatrical material at all. This movement is not the result of a deliberate decision but has happened gradually over time as a result of many small decisions from job to job. This led us to reflect on why we have developed in that direction, and these reflections probably helped us take a next step in another situation. So we did not plan it; we did not wake up one morning and realize that we had moved away from performance to more improvising. Rather, it has been a process of interwoven action and reflection. This movement has taken place despite demands from clients, which could have influenced us to stay with the use of theatre performances. Consider an example of such a demand.
