From tableaux to impro - a pedagogy for alternative narrative constructions

Abstract

This article explores the outcomes of a recent study at James Cook University in which alternate pathways for improvisation were examined with an emphasis on the form's narrative-building potentialities. The study found correlations between students' process outcomes and a particular Invisiblist theatre aesthetic privileging an otherness of form, character and language, offering up exciting new possibilities for performance making. This article considers some of the key influences in this work, documents key moments in the study and, in outlining the discoveries made, opens up some new possibilities for drama practitioners in schools and community settings in the use of improvisatory techniques in their practice.