Improvitional Theater: Saturday Night Live

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Often times when people discuss improvisation, they, in reality, discuss comedy. These people discuss shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyways? or Saturday Night Live, and while one of these shows is improvised, it does not begin to encompass all of the fluid aspects of improvisation or comedy. Evidence will not convince many of these people, outsiders to the art form, of the fact that improvisation is much more serious that just telling jokes. Those that practice and perform, the insiders, learn that this branch of performing arts is much bigger than humor. The insiders acknowledge that there is humor in the reality, honesty, connectivity of a scene or story, but these people know that improvisation is a personally and collectively beneficial and inter-professional discipline. Improvisational theater is a branch of performing arts that focuses on acting and performance created at the moment it is performed, without any written script or preparation1. The art originated as a tool used to train actors and actresses to prepare for any unexpected mistakes during onstage performances. The earliest instances of improvisation are said to have taken place during Plautus plays circa 200 BCE in Rome?. From then on, the tradition informally continued in theaters and performances until the 19th century—though theater was heavily inhibited by the Catholic Church for several of these centuries—when Italian masked performers, known as the Commedia dell'arte, spurred a movement of improvisation, through their performances based on broad framework scenarios or sketches given to them by spectators in the streets. While the Commedia dell’arte may have started the widespread instruction of improvisation, despite this, it was still considered t... ... middle of paper ... .... The Funniest One in the Room, the Lives and Legends of Del Close. Chicago, Illinois.: Chicago Review Press, 2008. Meer, Laurie Frederik. 2007. "Playback Theatre in Cuba: The Politics of Improvisation and Free Expression." TDR: The Drama Review 51, no. 4: 106-120. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed February 6, 2014). Pagano, Christopher J. 2012. "Exploring the Therapist's Use of Self: Enactments, Improvisation and Affect in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy." American Journal Of Psychotherapy 66, no. 3: 205-226. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed February 9, 2014). Shochet, Robert, Julie King, Rachel Levine, et al. 2013. "Thinking on my Feet: An Improvisation Course to Enhance Students' Confidence and Responsiveness in the Medical Interview." Education For Primary Care 24, no. 2: 119-124. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed February 8, 2014).

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