you’ll stop reading for a moment and think of something you
wouldn’t want to happen to you, or to someone you love, then
you’ll have thought of something worth staging or filming. We
don’t want to walk into a restaurant and be hit in the face by a
custard pie, and we don’t want to suddenly glimpse Granny’s
wheelchair racing towards the edge of a cliff, but we’ll pay
money to attend enactments of such events. In life, most of us
are highly skilled at suppressing action. All the improvisation
teacher has to do is to reverse this skill and he creates very
‘gifted’ improvisers. Bad improvisers block action, often with a
high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.”
Here, for instance, is an improvised exchange between two
actors in a class that Johnstone was teaching:
A: I’m having trouble with my leg.
B: I’m afraid I’ll have to amputate.
A: You can’t do that, Doctor.
B: Why not?
A: Because I’m rather attached to it.
B: (Losing heart) Come on, man.
A: I’ve got this growth on my arm too, Doctor.