Let’s set the scene: You’ve grown confident in your improv skills, and you’re really kicking goals. Now you’ve been handed a script. You’ve been cast in a sketch, or even a full-length play. Congratulations! You’re very talented.

Here, we unpack the experience of casting improvisers in scripted work.

The Awesome Parts

• Having an improviser in a scripted role can be a real hoot. They can think on their feet when the unexpected happens, and can be trusted to steer a scene back to its intended course if it goes awry.

• Improvisers are likely to bring engaging and mindful stage presence, given how tuned in they must be to the actions and offers of their fellow performers when performing unscripted work.

• Usually, the plan is not to improvise. That’s the general idea behind a script, anyway. However, improv has a way of equipping actors with a level of commitment to character that remains present even when veering away from dialogue as written. They’ve absorbed a character, not a script (though surely the same can be said of all skilled actors).

• It’s also worth noting that improv can offer a considerable amount of stage time and performance opportunities over the long term. That level of exposure to audiences undoubtedly exercises your stagecraft muscles - and this comes in handy when you want to be assured that those seated in the back row can hear you clearly.

• Where appropriate (and this is discussed below), allowing performers to improvise within a broad plot arc can result in far more authentic and believable performances. There’s something very refreshing about dialogue that seems honest and in-the-moment.

• Check out “How Improv Can Enhance Scripted Acting” (LINK) and give yourself a pat on the back for choosing to do improv - the correct pastime.

The Risky Business

• Improvisers are at risk of being too lax in their approach to line-learning and blocking, thanks to that greater degree of comfort on stage. Don’t be like that! Think of this as an opportunity to really lean in to the scriptedness - the certainty of what will happen on stage, and the ability to workshop exact dialogue so that its delivery hits hard.

• Consider how much thought is put in to the creation of a script. Dialogue is typed, deleted, retyped, rephrased, cut, re-inserted, until its author feels that it is al dente. Assume that you are expected to deliver that dialogue as written until you’re given licence to loosen your tether to the script.

• Having this very simple conversation with the author or director means that you know exactly whether they have an appetite for you to explore dialogue through improv, or if that approach would leave them simmering with frustration.

• An interesting Backstage article covers this very topic - read “Going Off Script: When (and How) to Improvise as an Actor” (LINK).

Final Thoughts

Improvisers make great actors in scripted work because of the skills they’re bringing to the table. Whether they should actively pepper the scripted work with improv - or simply leave it at the door - should be discussed as early in the process as possible. It’s better to seek clarity than regret not having the conversation while you’re sitting alone in a jail cell after being caught improvising without permission.

[Informational tid-bit: It seems the term retroscripting is the best fit for work that incorporates improvised dialogue.]