This week we take a look at spontaneity, creativity and imagination through the eyes of Keith Johnstone a British and Canadian pioneer of improvisational theatre, best known for inventing the Impro System, part of which are the Theatresports. He is also an educator, playwright, actor and theatre director.  The following is an extract from his seminal work on Improvisation in theatre “Impro” from 1979.  It starts with a lengthy quote from ‘The Gift Horse’ by Hildegarde Knef.

‘I was given the part of poor Armgard, so I stood in front of the class and as I began with “Here he cannot escape me, he must hear me”, I suddenly noticed a warm friendly feeling in the region of my stomach, like a soft hotwater bottle in a cold bed, and when I got to “Mercy, Lord Governor! Oh, pardon”, I was already on my knees, tears streaming from my eyes and nose, and sobbing to such an extent that I could only finish the passage “My wretched orphans cry for bread” with supreme difficulty.  The fishhead was in favour of a more restrained performance and her cutting voice dro0ve me to the back of the class with words of “Un-German hysterical conduct”.  It was a nightmare.  I almost died of shame and prayed for an earthquake or an air raid to deliver me from the derision and shock …. apart from the nagging voice all went still, the others stared at me as though they had unwittingly harboured a serpent in their midst.  The rest of my days with Weise were torture.  I was afraid of the others and myself for I could never be certain that I wouldn’t again throw myself down in tears because of the orphans…..’

It’s possible to turn unimaginative people into imaginative people at a moment’s notice.  I remember an experiment referred to in the British journal of Psychology – probably in the summer of 1969 or 1970 – in which some businessmen who had showed up as very dull on work-association tests were asked to imagine themselves as happy-go-lucky hippy types, in which persona they were re-tested, and showed up as far more imaginative.  In creativity tests you may be asked to suggest different ways of using a brick; if you say thins like ‘Build a house’, or ‘Build a wall’, then you’re classified as unimaginative – if you say ‘Grind it up and use it for Diarrhoea mixture’, or ‘Rub off warts with it’, then you’re imaginative.  I’m oversimplifying, but you get the general idea.

Some tests involve picture completion.  You get given a lot of little squares with signs in them, and you have to add something to the sign.  ‘Uncreative’ people just add another squiggle, or join up a ‘C’ shape to make a circle.  ‘Creative’ people have a great time, parallel lines become the trunk of a tree, a ‘V’ on its side becomes the beam of a lighthouse, and so on.  It may be a mistake to think of such tests as showing people to be creative, or uncreative.  It may be that the tests are recording different activities.  The person who adds a timid squiggle may be trying to reveal as little as possible of himself.  If we can persuade him to have fun, and not to worry about being judged, then maybe he can approach the test with the same attitude as a ‘creative’ person, just like the tired businessmen when they were pretending to be hippies.

Tomorrow in Part 2 Keith shows how we belt the creativity out of school kids.