Improvised Dialogues: Emergence and Creativity in Conversation

✍ Scribed by Sawyer, Robert Keith

• Publisher: Ablex Publishing Corporation
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 276
• Series: Publications in Creativity Research
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Improvised Dialogues......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Foreword......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Chapter 1 Introduction......Page 14
IMPROVISED DIALOGUES AND EVERYDAY CONVERSATION......Page 19
INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY AND COLLABORATION......Page 21
OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK......Page 22
NOTES......Page 24
Chapter 2 Don’t Shoot the Piano Player......Page 26
THE EUROPEAN ROOTS OF CHICAGO IMPROV......Page 28
Konstantin Stanislavsky......Page 29
J.L.Moreno......Page 30
Jacques Copeau......Page 32
Commedia dell’Arte......Page 33
German Cabaret Theater......Page 34
THE FIRST CHICAGO IMPROV THEATER: THE COMPASS......Page 35
THE AUDIENCE......Page 37
MODERN CHICAGO IMPROVISATION......Page 39
Freeze Games......Page 40
Short Games......Page 41
Scene Improv......Page 43
Long-Form Improvisation......Page 44
Giant Wall of Plot Twists......Page 45
Genred Improvisation......Page 46
Structured Improvisation......Page 48
Jazz Freddy......Page 49
The Movie......Page 50
CONCLUSION: STRUCTURE AND IMPROVISATION......Page 51
NOTES......Page 53
Chapter 3 What Improvised Dialogue Creates......Page 54
Conversation Analysis......Page 60
The Ethnography of Speaking......Page 65
THE COLLABORATIVE EMERGENCE OF THE FRAME......Page 69
Unpredictability......Page 71
Processual Intersubjectivity......Page 72
Social Causation......Page 75
Metapragmatics in Improvised Dialogue......Page 76
NOTES......Page 77
Chapter 4 How Improvised Dialogues Create......Page 80
THE OFFER......Page 82
THE RESPONSE......Page 84
CAUSAL RELATIONS IN IMPROVISED DIALOGUE: METAPRAGMATICS, COLLABORATIVE EMERGENCE, AND DOWNWARD CAUSATION......Page 85
Type 1. Pair-Part Relations:The Interactional Power of Metapragmatic Strategies......Page 87
Where the Offer Is Addressed......Page 89
The Footing of the Speaker......Page 90
The Denotational Explicitness of the Offer......Page 91
Type 1 Predictions......Page 92
Type 2. Collaborative Emergence: The Emergence of the Interactional Frame......Page 93
1. As the Performance Progresses, Collaborative Emergence Will Result in the Increasing Elaboration and Complexity of the Interactional Frame......Page 95
2. More Powerful Metapragmatic Strategies Should Result in a More Rapid Emergence of the Interactional Frame......Page 96
Type 3. Downward Causation: The Interactional Power of the Interactional Frame......Page 97
1. As the Complexity of the Frame Increases, the Interactional Power of the Emergent Frame Also Increases, Reducing the Range of Possible Acts Available to the Next Speaker......Page 100
3. A More Complex Frame Enables New Creative Possibilities......Page 101
NOTES......Page 102
Chapter 5 What Actors Know......Page 104
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE IMPROVISATION......Page 106
Yes, and…......Page 107
No Denial......Page 109
The Problem with Individual Creativity......Page 112
Endowing......Page 115
Listen to the Group Mind......Page 118
Don’t Cross the Fourth Wall......Page 120
Show, Don’t Tell......Page 122
Don’t Make Jokes......Page 123
BUILDING THE EMERGENT FRAME......Page 124
Characters......Page 125
Relationships......Page 128
Beats: The Rule of Three......Page 129
Dramatic Trajectories: Divergent and Convergent Creative Processes......Page 130
WHERE DID THE RULES ORIGINATE?......Page 133
EMPHASIZING COLLABORATIVE EMERGENCE: THE PREFERENCE FOR WEAK METAPRAGMATIC STRATEGIES......Page 135
CONCLUSION......Page 137
NOTES......Page 138
Chapter 6 The Freeze Games......Page 140
THE PERFORMANCES......Page 141
Freeze Tag......Page 142
Event Freeze......Page 145
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE A FRAME?......Page 148
WHAT’S IN A FRAME?......Page 150
The Relationship......Page 151
The Activity......Page 152
What Aspects of the Frame Are Defined?......Page 153
WHEN IS THE FRAME DEFINED?......Page 156
Offers Per Turn......Page 157
HOW IS THE FRAME DEFINED? METAPRAGMATIC STRATEGY USAGE......Page 158
Double-Voiced Strategies......Page 159
Direct Strategies......Page 161
DOWNWARD CAUSATION OF THE CUMULATIVE FRAME......Page 163
Trends in Scene Length......Page 165
Building the Frame......Page 167
CONCLUSION......Page 169
NOTE......Page 170
Chapter 7 Improv Games......Page 172
DUBBING......Page 173
CONSCIENCE......Page 176
DUELING NARRATIVES......Page 177
THE SCRIPT GAME......Page 179
GENRE DEATH......Page 182
GENRE FAIRY TALE......Page 186
BIRTHDAY PARTY......Page 187
ENTRANCES AND EXITS......Page 190
AUDIENCE SUGGESTIONS......Page 192
Taking Suggestions in Advance......Page 193
Negotiating Suggestions with the Audience......Page 195
The Constraining Power of the Suggestion......Page 198
CONCLUSION......Page 199
Future Study......Page 200
NOTES......Page 201
Chapter 8 Collaborative Emergence in Long-Form Improvisation......Page 202
JAZZ FREDDY......Page 204
Convent Plot......Page 205
Plot Merge......Page 206
THE MOVIE......Page 209
16:08: Plots 1 and 2 (Medieval subplot)......Page 210
45:42: Plots 1, 2, 3, and 4......Page 211
1A. In the Movie, Director Talk that Targets a Specific Actor Will Be Followed by a Shorter Pause than Director Talk that Does Not Target a Specific Actor......Page 215
1C. In the Movie, Pauses before a Turn of Director Talk Will Be Shorter than Pauses before Enacted Dialogue......Page 217
1D. Pauses Preceding Enacted Dialogue in the Movie Will Be Shorter than in Jazz Freddy......Page 218
Summary: Type 1 Predictions......Page 219
TYPE 2 PREDICTIONS: COLLABORATIVE EMERGENCE......Page 220
2B. The Movie Will Merge Plots More Effectively......Page 222
2C. The Jazz Freddy Frame Will Contain More Developed Characters than the Movie Frame......Page 223
Summary: Type 2 Predictions......Page 225
TYPE 3 PREDICTIONS: THE DOWNWARD CAUSAL POWER OF THE EMERGENT FRAME......Page 226
3A. In Both Groups, Pause Should Decline over the Performance......Page 227
3B. In Both Groups, Scene Length Should Decline over the Performance......Page 229
3C. In the Movie, There Will Be More Dialogue, Relative to Director Talk, Toward the End of the Play......Page 230
3D. In Jazz Freddy, Edits Should Invoke Characters and Relationships More Often than the Movie, and More Frequently as the Play Progresses......Page 231
3E. As Both Performances Progress, Scenes Will Function in Multiple Plots, and This Pattern Will Be More Pronounced for the Movie......Page 233
3F. Plot Merges Will Use the Dramatic Frame......Page 234
Summary: Type 3 Predictions......Page 235
CONCLUSION......Page 236
NOTES......Page 239
Chapter 9 Conclusion......Page 242
INTERACTIONAL POWER AND METAPRAGMATIC STRATEGIES......Page 243
THE EMERGENCE OF THE FRAME......Page 246
Collaborative Emergence: Why Methodological Individualism Fails......Page 247
Downward Causation: Why Interpretivism Fails......Page 249
FUNCTIONALISM AND MULTIPLE REALIZABILITY......Page 251
INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY AND IMPROVISED DIALOGUES......Page 253
SUMMARY......Page 254
NOTES......Page 255
References......Page 256
Index......Page 268
About the Author......Page 276