I recently made a detour to Shawinigan to meet 312 excited and happy young improvisers, gathered under the auspices of the Rendez-vous improvincial (RVI), the largest non-competitive improvisation gathering for high school students. I played in front of them and gave them eight hours of training. Believe me, it was invigorating!
For those of you who are less familiar with theatrical improvisation, allow me to sketch, in broad strokes, the portrait of this Quebec artistic practice which has conquered the world.
Of course, improvisation has existed since the very beginning of the performing arts, but in 1977, Robert Gravel and Yvon Leduc, as part of the Experimental Theater of Montreal, created the improvisation match. We mix the codes of hockey and theater. The actors play on an ice rink, they are divided into two teams and they wear hockey jerseys. To score a point, you have to improvise a story and obtain a vote from the public, all under the direction of a referee who ensures compliance with the rules. From this experimental show was born the National Improvisation League (LNI), which still exists and has been presenting this flagship show for 47 years.
In 1982, the LNI was broadcast on television (Radio-Québec), which had the effect of giving young viewers the desire to play too. High schools and CEGEPs responded to their demand, and improvisation became a popular extracurricular activity. Then, amateur leagues emerged throughout the province. While the practice also extends to Europe, international meetings are organized.
Since then, the practice of theatrical improvisation has expanded and diversified, and, although the “match” is still popular, today there are a multitude of concepts and theater companies that capitalize on the power of spontaneity to create works, without notion of competition.
The LNI Theater has also created several theatrical offerings outside of the match format. The LNI tackles the classics, for example, explores the world of great authors and playwrights, such as Shakespeare, Molière, Ionesco, Robert Lepage or Réjean Ducharme, among others. The show takes place in two stages. The first part is devoted to dissecting the author’s works to extract dramaturgical mechanisms which we will illustrate thanks to directed improvisations. Thus, we can explore the comic character of Molière or the poetic language of Ducharme. The second part of the show is more dizzying, because it is a single, long improvisation in the style of this author.
It was therefore with this concept, adapted for the occasion, that I presented myself to the young people. It was about delving into the work of Michel Tremblay. If some of them knew nothing about this genius of Quebec theater, they were all eager to discover him through acting. After a little history of theater and a few notions about the era in which we saw the birth of his works, we launched into his universe, trying to tame it and make it our own a little.
It only took a few minutes for young people aged 12 to 17 to begin creating moving monologues and engaged choruses. They invented dislocated siblings, characters with fallen dreams. They dared to play troubled or rebellious humans. They bit their teeth into our cheek. Tell you the pleasure I had in seeing these sixty teenagers embrace Tremblay’s work and try as best they could to create small pieces of theater in his image.
It takes almost nothing to create. A little space, a few motivated people, and the magic of theater can work. This is why I cultivate an inordinate passion for improvisation. Passion that I share with many enthusiasts. But this is not the only virtue of this art. When we practice improvisation, we develop a host of skills: listening, solidarity, self-confidence, openness to others and humility.
Among these 312 young enthusiasts, only a few will become actors or authors, but all will have had the chance to develop in a space of freedom that is unlike any other. At an age where belonging to a group is so important, they will also have had access to a powerful social bond.
On this subject, here is what Antoine Lacasse, head of the Improvincial network at ACLAM, a hotbed of passions which also oversees Secondaire en spectacle, had to say. “Offering a non-competitive event like ours is also an opportunity for young people to put performance anxiety aside, while giving them a good dose of self-confidence and the chance to meet other enthusiasts like them. On the positive mental health side of young people, the participants’ testimonies clearly tell us that we added our stone to the building this weekend. »
After more than 30 years of various improvised shows, including 900 improvisations at the LNI, imagine my emotion when I see these beautiful young people sharing this indestructible passion. If I still love improv so much, it’s simply because it’s pure creation. We can’t control everything, but we have to believe in it and take responsibility for all our mistakes. A bit like a concentrate of real life.