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Improvised Dialogues Emergence and Creativity in Conversation
R. Keith Sawyer
Foreword by Michael Silverstein
Book Code: AB6771
ISBN: 1-56750-677-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-56750-677-8
280 pages
Ablex Publishing
Publication: 9/30/2002
List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £65.00)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Objectifying what is traditionally a subjective field, Sawyer offers a detailed analysis that evaluates and advocates the use of improvisational techniques for teachers as well as actors and directors....this is the first study to offer a frank analysis of the successes of improvisation and to explain why it works. For Sawyer, improvisation has produced a new vocabulary for the theater, especially for actors. Through serious work in this field, one can discover the truth in characters and in a natural sense of conversation. Sawyer comments knowingly about Chicago Improv, and his experiences with that group add validity to the book....provides excellent acting exercises for use in the classroom or studio. Acting teachers less comfortable with improvisation should read this title carefully. Essential. Collections supporting the study of performance, acting, and directing at the upper-division undergraduate level and above.
    —Choice     July/August 2003
Description: Improvised Dialogues is the first social-scientific study of Chicago improv theater. It focuses on the collaborative verbal creativity that improvising actors use to generate their unscripted dialogues. The author spent two years as a performer, and videotaped 15 different Chicago theater groups--both live performances and rehearsals--resulting in almost 50 hours of performance data. To analyze these dialogues, the book presents the theory of collaborative emergence, which focuses on how different pre-existing structures guide improvisation, and how actors use dialogue to jointly create a novel, dramatically coherent performance. Although the dialogue is not scripted, a highly structured performance emerges. Because these elements of improvisation are present in all linguistic interaction, the theory shows how these dialogues are relevant to all researchers who study verbal performance. Improvised Dialogues is thus positioned at the intersection of several fields, each of which includes a tradition of research on improvisation and conversation. In sociology, researchers such as conversation analysts have long studied how participants in interaction creatively produce an orderly dialogue. In folkloristics and linguistic anthropology, researchers have begun to emphasize the importance of creativity in performance. In psychology, contemporary creativity theory has begun to take account of interactional and social factors influencing creativity. All of these fields study collaborative, interactive craetivity; no single performer controls the group, but each performer is subtly influenced by the actions of the others.
LC Card Number: 2002018672
LCC Class: P95
Dewey Class: 302
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