Keith Johnstone. Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre. Faber & Faber, 1979.
The foundational text of modern improv pedagogy. Introduces the offer/accept/block framework, status transactions, spontaneity vs. planning, and the principle that drama is about one person being changed by another.
Key concepts originating here:
- Offers as the fundamental unit of improvisation — everything is an offer
- Blocking as the primary failure mode — refusing to accept what was established
- Status as behavior, not title — high and low status expressed through physicality
- The importance of being changed — "Improvisers usually try not to be altered. We need to be altered."
- Overaccepting — a distinct move beyond simple acceptance
- The cult of the obvious — "The more obvious an improviser is, the more original he appears"
- Spontaneity as a skill to be recovered, not learned
Referenced by atoms: accepting-the-offer, offers, status, blocking, be-changeable, obvious-choice, yes-and