Narrative Development in Improvisational Theatre

We have investigated the experience of improvisers as they perform to better understand how narrative is constructed by group performance in improvisational theatre. Our study was conducted with improvisers who would perform improv “games” with each iteration video recorded. Each individual participant was shown the video in a retrospective protocol collection, before reviewing it again in a group interview. This process is meant to elicit information about how the cognition involved develops narrative during an improvisation performance. This paper presents our initial findings related to narrative development in improvisational theatre with an ambition to use these and future analyses in creating improvisational intelligent agents. These findings have demonstrated that the construction of narrative is crafted through the making and accepting of scene-advancing offers, which expert improvisers are more readily capable of performing.