Improv Glossary

Accept

The most important rule of improvisation is: accept offers of players. Rejecting automatically stops, disrupts, or impedes every improvis...

Action and Reaction

Improv rarely fails for lack of ideas, usually it fails for the exact opposite. Whoever feels they need to deliver right now keeps pushin...

Ask For

Ask Fors are concepts, facts or things which the improv player or the moderator ascertains or receives from the audience, before beginnin...

Attitude

In improvisational theater attitude can have several meanings. An attitude, a personal opinion, or a feeling about something: a personal...

Audience

The audience has several tasks and functions in improvisation theatre. conventional theatre In conventional (staged) theatre, the audie...

Authenticity: The art of getting out of your own way We talk about it all the time in training, we go after it in every scene like it's ...

Picture this: you're at a party telling a joke. You hit the punchline, everyone laughs — and then you just keep talking about the weather...

Blocking: When we steal the show from ourselves Blocking — or just "blocking" — is honestly the classic improv mistake we all make on st...

Break

Taking a break during a performance is always recommended when the whole performance lasts longer than about one hour. If the group has d...

Cancel

During a performance, the host may, in exceptional cases, call off an ongoing scene — that is, end it definitively when it has completely...

Chairs

Chairs are usually the only real prop, which is present from the outset or at the edge of the stage and actually used when needed for gam...

Character

The character in improv theater is the represented fictional being that does not exist in reality. This being can be a human or animal or...

Clapping

The clapping of a player not involved on the current scene, or of the moderator, is the common way to signal the currently active players...

Clothes

A theatre group can agree to wear items of clothing of one color or several colors during an appearance For example, it is common (also f...

Conflict

It is often the conflict that makes a scene interesting. For example, when the room is set up and the routines are established, thus th...

CROW is an acronym of: C- Character R- Relation O- Objective W- Where/When It is a mnemonic for the things that should be defined wi...

Curtain

Since improvised theatre usually does not require props and the end of the scene is determined by the moderator or the players, the curta...

Encore

As a rule, it is advisable to schedule the addition of the program during program preparation. Sometimes it is advisable not to comply w...

Fail

Fail happens at the improv theater, when one has made mistakes, which has led to, that the scene has been a failure or the scenes have be...

Focus

Focus refers to the attention of the audience (and the actors, too) on certain people on the stage. If there are two people, then the att...

Gags: When the joke eats the scene We all know that moment on stage: the scene is finally hitting its stride, the tension is building — ...

Gibberish

Gibberish (also gromolo) is a kind of pretend language which consists of a series of imaginative, but meaningless letter and word sequenc...

Gossip

Gossip means that a player talks about something that is taking place or has taken place elsewhere. No interactions takes place. Example...

Headline

Ask for a headline (or get a headline at random from the newspaper). Do a scene that could have lead to that headline.

Ignoring

Similar to blocking, though here other people's offers are not directly blocked, but simply not paid attention to. This can happen throug...

Interruption

The interruption of a scene means (as opposed to a cut) that the actor from the current scene only inserts a brief pause where their moti...

Kissing

One has to be clear in the theatre group how one creates kissing scenes. In particular if the group members still do not properly know th...

Long Form

Long forms are more or less closely connected sequences of scenes, usually from 20 to 45 minutes in length, but also full-length formats ...

Microphone

The use of microphones can be sensible in certain situations, to some extent even necessary. In smaller, enclosed spaces (lofts) their u...

Musician

A musician can stand alongside in support of a group's performances. Keyboard instruments are widespread, i.e. piano and keyboard, rarely...

Offer

An offer is an activity or a comment of a player, which refers to a teammate or is directed at him, and requires a gestural/mimed or verb...

Play Bill

Before one "performs", most should agree on the "parts" to be "played" and other points too. The relevant program can/should include: Co...

Questions

Questions can have multiple meanings in improvisational theatre. Ask for As a moderator I can ask the audience for guidelines. It may b...

Requisite

Stage props are real objects on the stage. As a rule improvisation theater takes place without props. Usually only chairs are allowed. A...

Rhymes

Improvised plays, songs or scenes can have a special allure and effect when they rhyme. Rhyme means that words connect with similar soun...

Shortform

"Short Forms" are games that consist of one Scene or a few scenes and, due to their basic conception, only last a few seconds or a few mi...

The term "soap" describes a widely spread television program format, but also, borrowing from it, a evening-filling long-form format for ...

Stage

The stage is a place, on which a theatrical play occurs. In Improvisional theater, it is the custom to act in a suitable open area that i...

Stage Hog

As stage hog is referred players who always play in the foreground. This type of player is more often than others on the stage to see and...

In improvisational theater, "status" refers to the power difference in the relationship between two characters. A character in a high sta...

Stringency

Stringency is a component of the dramaturgical list of ingredients of improvisation theater. Stringency means that the happenings on the ...

Taboo

Taboos in improvisation theatre mean that games, game ideas, specifications or behaviours are deliberately avoided or ignored for certain...

Theatresport

Theatersport (TM) is the term coined by Keith Johnstone for a popular form of improvisation theatre, in which two teams of actors compete...

Trust

A scene will not succeed, if an actor tries to assert his own ideas. It is important with an clear head to step on the stage and to trust...

Waffling: When the mouth runs faster than the scene You know the feeling. You're on stage, your partner has just offered something great...

What is Improv?

Improvisation theatre (often also called improv for short) is a form of theatre in which improvisation is performed, i.e. one or more pre...

What is Playback Theatre?

Telling everyday experiences and immediately watching them on stage is playback theater. Actors and musicians are happy to be able to spo...

Work Exhibition

A work show is suitable for new groups or for new members of existing groups, if they have gained their first knowledge and experience in...