Sketch-Based Improv—The Scene’s the Thing

Abstract

Sketch-based improv is nothing new to the world of improvisation or, indeed, the world of theatre. Simply put, sketch-based improvisation is a series of short scenes compiled together to create an evening of entertainment. The scenes are created from improvised ideas, then refined and polished in a rehearsal process before performance. The rehearsal process itself is what separates this form from the short and long forms of performance improvisation where the process of improvisation is the entertainment. In sketch-based improv, the rehearsal allows the faults to be worked out of a scene before it is performed for an audience—putting the product before the process. But the process of creation is still improvised for sketch-based improv, making it part of the improvisation in performance trio.KeywordsShort FormTraining CenterAudience MemberTheatre SceneRehearsal ProcessThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.