Improvisation in The Books Store

For more than 20 years of directing, teaching, and participating in improvisation, Mick Napier has watched thousands of scenes. His experience as founder of the acclaimed Annoyance Theatre/Annoyance Productions, as well as Resident Director and Artistic Consultant for The Second City, has led him to continually question why and how scenes work or don't work and what one must do in order for a scene to be successful.

In this book, Napier takes an irreverent, but constructive look at the art and practice of improvised scenes. He covers such topics as:

• two-person scenes
• group scenes
• entering scenes
• techniques to achieve richer, more layered scenes
• auditioning
• solo exercises for practice at home.

"A practical, fascinating, and funny guidebook. I've already begun applying hints from
Improvisation for the Spirit, and I'm hoping that from now on, when people point and laugh at me, it will be for more appropriate reasons. A delightful read, filled with wonderful strategies."
- Martha Beck, Life Coach Columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine, and author of Steering by Starlight

Wish you could gag your Inner Critic? Feeling blocked creatively? Want to make a big change, but fear taking the leap?

Comedy improv requires quick thinking, collaboration, getting out of your own way, and being in the moment without being a perfectionist. Katie Goodman, an internationally touring improv comedian and comedy writer, uses her witty and encouraging style to show you how to acquire the skills of improv comedy and apply them to every aspect of daily life. Along the way Goodman shares hilarious and insightful stories from her experiences onstage, as well as step-by-step exercises from her popular self-discovery workshops and retreats. Packed with creative, original, and, most importantly, fun exercises, Improvisation for the Spirit offers a truly transformational guide for anyone wanting to get more out of life.

"Bottom line: Katie is funny. She teaches you to live your life like an improv scene - no fear and fully committed."
- Wayne Brady, improv comedian, Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Don't Forget the Lyrics

"Katie Goodman's writing fl ows and then jumps with anecdotes and prescriptions for finding courage. Fun to read, hard to put down."
- Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes

"If you feel that something is holding you back, that the life you are meant to live is out there somewhere if only you could fi nd it, then this book should go straight to the top of your reading list."
- Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slowness and Under Pressure

Drama Worlds by Cecily O'Neill will be a book for the 90s and beyond. . . . It will promote considerable direction for educators, press their thinking forward, and constitute an invaluable resource in the advocacy for process drama.

- NADIE Journal

Drama Worlds examines the complex improvised event called process drama and identifies it as an essential part of today's theatre. Cecily O'Neill considers process drama's sources and connections with more familiar kinds of improvisation: the texts it generates, the kinds of roles available, factors such as audience and dramatic time, and the leader's function in the event.

She provides examples of several process dramas and identifies key dramatic strategies and characteristics.

The explicit associations between theatre form and process drama make this approach accessible and its purposes and possibilities easy to understand, particularly to those working in actor training and theatre. Teachers and directors will discover effective ways to explore drama worlds and achieve a significant dramatic experience for all participants.