Conducted by Hazel Ho and Kim Tan from the Improv Company, “Improv 101: Learning to Play” consists of 5 weekly 3-hour classes, covering the basics of improv theatre, getting right into the creative process with fellow improvisers / partners, engage audience and building an entire story / environment from nothing.

Improv or ‘improvised theatre’ is the form of theatre in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers, without use of prepared, written script.

Improv is about creating new reality with your partner. The plot, characters and dialogue of the scenes are made up in the moment - Nothing exists until it’s made real. It’s about cooperating and building engaging experience with your partner and audience together.

Players learn to work on undefined and unstructured world by accepting whatever being offered and building upon the ideas of others. It requires everyone to be paying attention to details and not to disregard premise, no matter how outrageous. It is also about actively discovering ideas quickly, embrace changes in order to learn and improve. To achieve this, there are 3 fundamental ‘rules’ of Improv which provides us with mindset, safe framework to the collaborate and embrace the unexpected:

• “Yes, And”,
• “Make your partner looks good” and
• “Embrace failure”.

Practicing improv is a great way to place humans at the centre, learn how to think on your feet, be flexible, work collaboratively with others–all practices critical to UX and design thinking process. Such skills and processes of improvisation are increasingly applied outside the context of performing arts as a way to develop communication skills, creative problem solving, and teamwork.

Reference: The Improv Company