We discussed in our previous post (5 Ways Improv Training Will Improve Your Acting Career Part 3: Characters how Improv Training can help you create characters in new ways for your auditions, jobs, and enjoyment.
Here’s an exciting new well to draw from for creating comedy and drama:
Improv Increases Your Imagination
Improv training and improv practice increase your imagination, and this imagination is the actor’s deep well for bringing to life scenes, characters, and truly embracing “the given circumstances” of any story.
I personally feel strongly that ALL PEOPLE should take improv classes and training. This is in part because of the increased creativity, confidence, faster thinking on your feet, and the utter fun of doing it that improv training brings.
But very specifically, improv training and practice help you to increase, discover, and expand your imagination! And this begins to happen immediately upon beginning or continuing improv training.
In fact, every time your use your imagination you are strengthening and improving it.
I love this quote from someone you may have heard of 😉
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of coming attractions.”
-Albert Einstein
I mean, this Einstein guy knew a little something about changing the world, right?! Evan though he was a scientist, he credited much of his success with where his imagination alllowed him to go.
Let’s jump into a Backstage West article called “How Using Your Imagination Leads to Better Auditions” for their take on this.
Craig Wallace writes in this article:
“One of the most fun and liberating tools at an actor’s disposal is their imagination. I find, though, that actors often leave their imaginations out of the audition process. They spend all of their time trying to be “right” instead of interesting, when interesting is everything.”
“One of the most fun and liberating tools at an actor’s disposal is their imagination.”
– Craig Wallace, in Backstage West
I think he nails it right there. He continues:
“Your imagination is a portal through which you can discover the specific feelings and actions that bring the most powerful and compelling version of you to the role.”
Thank you to Craig and Backstage West for this great advice.
Improv literally helps you practice your imagination.
It helps you work all kinds of imagination too:
Visual imagination, tactile imagination, aural imagination… all kinds of sensory imagination.
In addition to story imagination, character imagination, relationship imagination, and just about any kind of imagination you can think of. What else lets you do that?!
If you want to easily develop your imagination, I highly recommend you check out our Improv Online Course “Become an Improv Wizard”. Every single one of the 11 video modules walks you through exercises, tips, and techniques to directly access, activate, and improve your imagination. And you can develop your imagination anytime, anywhere in our Online Improv Course Become an Improv Wizard.
Next article, we’ll finish up this 5 part series with big #5… which happens to be the simplest and most empowering of the bunch:
You can practice improv on your own or with your friends.
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You can read Craig Wallace’s full article in Backstage West here. It’s absolutely worth a read.
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Lincoln Hoppe is an actor, writer, director, and father of 5. He is the the Co-Founder of Improv Wizards training school and Online Courses and Co-Director of the Society Comedy Troupe.