This course introduces students to improvisation across a range of theatrical contexts. In a sequence of short units, the course will explore improv comedy, improvisation-based devising work, and the improvisation structures commonly used in the context of applied theatre work (including forum theatre and playback theatre). Simultaneously, students will read scholarly literature that addresses the ethical dilemmas, cultural collisions, and practical conundrums raised by these forms. Students will reflect on their own experiences as improvisers through the vocabulary that has been developed in this literature.