Why Every Theatre Kid Should Be Required to Take Improv

Hannah Crawford, OnStage Blog Columnist

Strangely enough, improv was not taught at the school I attended, Pensacola Christian College. Why it wasn’t, I’ll never understand. Once I graduated, I moved back to my hometown and immediately joined the youth programs at my local community theatre. They had a strong youth improv team going, and it wasn’t long before I was the co-instructor. 

I quickly learned the value that improv brings to youth performers. We often think improv is only a necessity for those who wish to go into comedy, and I can assure you that it absolutely is not. Let’s dive into the value it can bring to all performers, not just comedians. 

Encouraging Spontaneity on Stage

One of the aspects I love most about improv is that it teaches actors how to think on their feet quickly. As much as you can rehearse improv games with your troupe, once it comes to actually performing in front of an audience, you have no idea what suggestions they will give. 

Perhaps you have to be a traffic cone, GI Joe in the middle of the desert, or the President of the United States. No matter the suggestion, our young performers must know how to adapt and be spontaneous immediately. 

Not knowing what suggestions might come up on stage can be incredibly terrifying. Being frozen with fear is a real thing for improv performers. However, during a live performance, our actors must learn how to adapt to the topics thrown at them. Being able to snap between characters or situations quickly is a valuable skill for a young performer looking to have a professional career in theatre.

Enhancing the Actor’s Confidence

How many kids do you know who have the most difficult time getting off script? As a youth theatre director, I had some kids who would take forever to get off script, regardless of how much I worked with them. They relied on their scripts like their crutch to get them through. 

This is why it is vital to set specific “off-script” rehearsals. Every director handles that differently, but I was incredibly strict about being off-script. If you weren't off-script, that was your problem. Kids couldn’t use them once we were off-script. So they would have to stand up there and come up with something. 

This is where improv skills come in very handy. There will be times as an actor in a show when you will forget a line or another cast member will forget theirs. We have to bridge that gap and creatively come up with lines to keep the production going. This not only helps the cast as a whole but also helps build confidence in our young performers as they start their careers. 

Strengthing the Collaboration of a Cast 

A fun thing to do as a director is to have one rehearsal where you go through the production purely based on improv. Zero scripts are used. The plot can be the same, but we’re teaching our young performers to develop lines independently and figure out how to keep the plot going.

Even better is when you don’t tell your cast this is being planned. Everyone shows up expecting just another rehearsal. And then you spring it on them in the moment. Everyone must put their scripts and phones in their bags (because we all know they have their scripts on their phones, too.)

If you do this, I can guarantee your cast will grow closer and stronger together. We have to encourage our actors to build scenes together. More importantly, they need to build solutions with their cast members. We all know that every production does not go as planned. There will undoubtedly be something off in every production that will require quick thinking and improv skills to fix it. 

Relying on Immediate Creative Solutions 

Now, perhaps for my favorite section of this blog, I'd like to discuss how we can help our young performers use improv to rely on immediate creative solutions. 

Take the show “Anne of Green Gables,” which was perhaps one of my favorite productions I directed. What would happen if the cast forgot to bring out the slates during the school scene when Anne hits Gabriel? 

Or if during “Peter Pan,” the technical booth forgot to cue the lights and sounds for a critical moment when Tinker Bell is supposed to come out? 

It is up to the performers on stage to help bridge the gap they are experiencing. If actors are not taught the improvisational skills they need, they won’t know how to deal with them when moments like this come up. And it is up to us as directors and instructors to teach our young performers how to be prepared for anything coming their way. 

An extremely important aspect to teach your kid performers is that there is no way you can prepare them for everything that might happen. This right here is the beauty of improv. Actors are able to have an immediate solution to a problem occurring on stage and make it so the audience doesn’t even notice it. 

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen issues happen on stage, and an actor has covered for them. Then, after the show was over, telling a friend in the audience, and their response was, “Oh, I couldn’t even tell.” And that is precisely what we want to happen with our performers! 

Can Improv Help Outside of Theatre?

In short, yes, it can. We are teaching our young people the valuable skills of facing whatever situation comes their way. The first thing that comes to mind about how improv can help outside of theatre is job interviews. One of my favorite classes to teach is public speaking, and I always incorporate improv into my public speaking classes. Improv and public speaking often go hand in hand. 

The next generation of theatre students we teach will have to face various job interviews throughout their lives. If there is anything interviews have taught me, no two have ever been the same. Improv helps teach our students how to quickly adapt to situations that might be thrown at them in an interview. Whether it is negotiating salary, the interviewer showing up late, or arriving only to find out you’re mass interviewed with ten other people simultaneously. (And yes, I had that happen to me once.) 

Our task as theatre educators goes far beyond the stage. We must take it seriously as we help to mold the next generation of well-rounded people (not just well-rounded theatre professionals).

I will be the first to say that improv is not everyone’s cup of tea, and it is definitely something that not everyone will like. However, just because we don’t like something as performers doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trained in it. No, maybe the kids we teach won’t choose a career as a comedian or a traveling troupe. However, they will gain the invaluable skills needed to expand their ability to approach situations that might arise from new angles.