Abstract
The genesis of Theatre Machine is outlined by Keith Johnstone in his book Impro. The company was actually formed at Montreal’s EXPO 67 by Johnstone, as director, and four actors: Ben Benison, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Ric Morgan and John Muirhead. Primarily interested in comedy improvised in performance, the group had worked together at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the mid-1960s. They had given lecture-demonstrations to schools and teacher training colleges (educationalists were already becoming aware of the value of their techniques in teaching).
I think the most important moment in improvisation is when you don’t know what will happen next.
Roddy Maude-Roxby
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Terry Browne, Playwrights’ Theatre ( London: Pitman, 1975 ) pp. 46–7;
Philip Roberts, The Royal Court Theatre 1965–1972 ( London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986 ) pp. 24–5.
Also, to Grotowski, ‘the actor’ means ‘an individual in action, who aims not at acting, but at acting less than in daily life and who draws others to the simplest, the most human, the most direct actions’ (Talk on Polish Radio October 1979, in J. Kumiega, The Theatre of Grotowski ( London: Methuen, 1985 ) p. 236.
Susanne Langer, Feeling and Form ( London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959 ).
Jacques Lecoq, interviewed by Jim Hiley, ‘Moving Heaven and Earth’, Observer (20 March 1988) p. 40.
Jacques Lecoq (ed.), Théâtre du Geste ( Paris: Bordas, 1987 ) p. 17.
Jacques Lecoq, ‘Le Mouvement et le théâtre’, ATAC Informations, no. 13 (December 1967).
See S. Eldredge and H. Huston, ‘Actor Training in the Neutral Mask’, The Drama Review vol. 22, no. 4 (December 1978, Workshop Issue) pp. 20–1. And see also Part II below.
Charles Sanders Peirce, Collected Papers, 8 vols (Harvard University Press, 1931–58).
Keir Elam, The Semiotics of Drama and Theatre ( London: Methuen, 1980 ) pp. 21–7.
Jacques Lecoq, ‘Mime — Movement — Theater’, Yale Theater vol. 4, no. 1 (Winter 1973) pp. 119–20.
Quoted in John H. Towsen, Clowns ( New York: Hawthorne, 1976 ) pp. 353–4.
Samuel Beckett, The Beckett Trilogy (London: Calder, 1959). (This edition London: Picador, 1979 pp. 381–2.)
Stuart Hood, Introduction to Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Female Parts trans. Margaret Kunzle, adapted Olwen Wymark (London: Pluto Press, 1981) p. iv.
See David L. Hirst, Dario Fo and Franca Rame, to be published by Macmillan (1989)Our grateful thanks are due to the author for letting us read the manuscript in advance of publication.
Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. Walter Kaufmann ( Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1970 ).
Copyright information
© 1989 Anthony Frost and Ralph Yarrow
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Frost, A., Yarrow, R. (1989). Improvisation in Alternative Drama. In: Improvisation in Drama. New Directions in Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20948-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20948-4_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-38821-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-20948-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)