As an actress, I strongly believe that one of my strongest talents is my ability to improvise. When I am running a scene with a fellow actor, there’s nothing that gives me more pleasure than to completely save the day if they go up on one of their lines and get us right back on track with my super power of improvisation. When you think about it, we are all seasoned veterans of improv. How many years have you been alive? (Don’t answer that out loud, we all know it’s not the same as on your imdb…) Well, that’s how many years you’ve been improvising! You don’t have a written-out script of what you’re going to say next, it just comes to you naturally.
“Naturally,” is the key word here. It’s important when you are improvising to be natural. Similarly to acting with a script, if you aren’t natural it’s never great and also doesn’t really fulfill you as an artist. That’s where the improvisation classes come in handy. They teach you the useful tech and tools to make your improvisation skills believable and flawless. When your improv is practiced to a tee and flawless, nothing can stop you. And that’s pretty much literal because they show can’t go on if one of the actors has forgotten a line and no one can pick it back up.
Improv is an extremely important skill not only as an actor but also jut as a person who gets tongue-tied, or awkward in social situations. Taking improv classes help with not only acting but also in life situations in general. All in all, I highly suggest it. Not only are they fun, helpful, and a great addition to any regular acting class, but improv classes are also a great way to meet people and open the door to some amazing possible networking opportunities.
If you have never taken an improvisation class before, or are nervous to do it, or just cannot possibly see how it could ever help you in your craft as an actor, then I implore you to try it out! Some amazing changes can be seen by simply taking an improv class and there is nothing that more education can do to your career but help!