This is a course in improvisational performance, a mode of performance evolving from
audience participation and creative spontaneity.  This course will examine improvisation in a
number of settings—theatrical performance, nightclub entertainment, political protest, and
the ritual process.  As a class, we will explore what make improvisation a distinct mode of
performance, and what elements these diverse settings have in common.  While this course
will examine improvisational performance theoretically and historically, through an
engagement with various texts on the subject, it will also require the class as a whole to
participate in a variety of improvisation techniques.  The class will combine discussion and
reading with active improvisational methods, culminating in a class performance at the
Collins Living Learning Center.