Improv isn’t just fun and games (though it is fun and there are a lot of games!).  It’s a powerful set of skills that can lift an actor — and indeed, an entire ensemble — to another level.  James Thomas Bailey is an experienced classroom teacher, producer of the longest running stage production in Los Angeles (decades) and creator of the largest teen improv program in the United States.  In this book, he’s created a practical, humorous guide to teaching improvisation for theatre educators and directors at all levels.  Included are sequential lessons and methods for applying them — ten weeks of curriculum if taught in full — complete with a ”script” for teaching and debriefing questions for greater conversation and even more understanding.  Ready to give yourself a shot in the arm and a pat on the back?!  Go!

(201 pages, 6 x 9, paperback)


”I have used James’s improv book for five years.  Mine is highlighted, Post-it-flagged and tea-stained because I use it every single day of the school year for warm-up exercises (or entire lessons).  The reflection questions and discussion tips he gives alongside the ’games’ elevate the instruction to so much more than theatre skills and fun moments (which they certainly are).  Some of the reflection times are the breakthrough moments where those reluctant ’I didn’t sign up for this’ students see how theatre can be instructive for their growth as humans.”  -Lea Marshall, Leon High School (Tallahassee, FL).

ISBN

Textbook

978-1-63932-081-3