Ep. 280 - Improvisation in Performing Arts with Trina Banerjee

Sep 13 2023 • 1 hr 3 mins

Satyajit Ray once said, “There is always room for improvisation”. I think this needs a lot more investigation.

Referring to Ray’s comment on the room of improvisation, today we have the honour to have Dr Trina Banerjee with us on Audiogyan. We’ll talk about improvisation in the context of Theatre, Plays, Playwriting, and performing arts at large.

Trina is an Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Her research interests include Gender, Performance, Political Theatre, Theories of the Body, Postcolonial Theatre and South Asian History. She has also been a theatre and film actress, as well as a journalist and fiction writer.

Questions

What according to you is improvisation? In how many ways do you see it manifesting? Where do we see it mostly happening? On streets? In life? or just creative endeavours?
When do people improvise? What’s the motivation? Is it expressing themselves in different ways? Is it to communicate better with the other (State, society, individual)? Why do they do? Can you give any examples?
What does it mean to improvise in the context of performing arts (Theatre, Dance, and more)?
Are there categories or genres of improvisation which can be studied systematically? Did different forms of Theatre like the Theatre of Absurd or Pantomime and more emerge due to improvisation?
When and why do people improvise on stage? When do we fail or when do we do something over and over again? Is it the boredom? Is it uncovering deeper layers as they keep performing or revisiting the text?
When and how do improvisations become part of the main setup? As in, no longer be called improvisations? Has it happened that the playwright made changes to the original text as the years passed by?

Reference reading