Improvised Dialogues: Emergence and Creativity in Conversation : Emergence and Creativity in Conversation

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. 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