ABSTRACT
Improv is not a genre per se; it is rather an umbrella term to refer to the trend of largely unscripted group performances that emerged throughout the 20th century, from the early experiments of Viola Spolin with theater games in the 1940s and the influential work of The Compass or Second City in Chicago in the 1950s all the way to the international dissemination of improv through Keith Johnstone’s Theatersports and Del Close’s Harold – a loose structure for long-form improvisation that is now used all over the world. Obviously, collective theatrical improvisation is a very challenging process, as performers have to create individual scenes on the spot, all the while aiming to maintain a certain degree of overall coherence. It should also be noted that the “release” mechanism is typically combined with the “superiority” mechanism in some performance strategies made possible by the improvised setting.
