For two and one half hours each week, I gather with a group of strangers and laugh
almost continuously. I have a smile on my face and my spirit lightens. I am
keenly aware of the instructions, my physicality, my voice, my timing, my
fellow players, and how I respond. It is a space for the here and now where I
can lose inhibition and expectations, which is a rare gift. I am doing improv
and I highly recommend it.
Improvisational theater is a spontaneous performance art. It is unscripted, unplanned and unrehearsed. Agreeing to support one another, players work together to create something new quickly. In this framework, participants develop abilities to listen carefully, focus, accept others’ ideas, and support each other. The shared experience is
created collaboratively and has been found to positively affect social
connection, engagement, and empathy, relationship quality and communication
(Keisari, p. 2) in health research. Participation in improv was found to
increase players’ sense of acceptance by their social group and helps to build
a sense of community. As well, improv had positive effects on emotional well
being with optimal engagement, improved playfulness and spontaneity for older
adults.
Improv skills such as active listening and observing, collaborating, giving up
control, making a partner look good, leaning into uncertainty and the
unexpected, accepting failure and pivoting are transferable to daily
interpersonal exchanges, especially those of dementia care partner dyads. In
order to support meaningful engagement with a person living with dementia, a
care partner needs to know the person, to be inquisitive and to observe what
the person is saying and doing. Given the nature of the disease, one has to
expect the unexpected. The care partner needs to meet the person where they
are, especially orientation to time and space. This enables people to connect
inclusively, empathetically, with dignity and respect. It is more important to
be kind than right. To meet people where they are, a partner needs to be
present in the moment and adaptable to the circumstances at hand. The partner
is okay with uncertainty from beginning to conclusion of any encounter, in real
life and on the improv stage.
Care partners who participated in a six-week improv program showed a decrease in
their depressive symptoms and sense of burden. Even though the care recipients’
neuropsychological symptoms increased during the duration of the program, the
associated care partner distress did not. (Brunet et al, 2021)
Improv can also be used as a ecopsychosocial intervention to help reduce people living
with dementia’s physical expressions of unmet needs, otherwise know has
behavioral symptoms of dementia. Zeisel et al (2019) tested the Engagement
Replacement Model (ERM) by using a Scripted-IMPROV technique. The model
purports that people living with dementia who take part in engaging activities
that allow them to succeed exhibit fewer behavioral disturbances because the
engagement displaces the behaviors in the person’s attention. They cannot
exhibit apathy, aggression, agitation, anxiety or wandering if they are
creating a scene. There are "faciltactors and participactors", facilitators and
people living with dementia working together to create a storyline together.
Positive engagement and affect increased, negative engagement and affect
decreased with participants in a variety of locations.
Improvisation is sanctioned adult play. It is creative mood booster and social connector. It provides cognitive exercise for sustained attention and processing speed, both
abilities important underpinnings for sustained health and well- being. Learning
how to respond with a “Yes, and” helps everyone move forward and collaborate
effectively.
Sources:
Brunet, H. and Banks, S. et al. (2021) Training in improvisation techniques helps reduce caregiver burden and depression: innovative practice, Dementia,20(1), 364-372. DOI: 10.1177/1471301219869122.
Howell,B., Dahl, E., Piech, A., Farris, A. (2022) A community education curriculum using improvisational theatretechniques for informal dementia caregivers, Journal of Arts and Humanities, 11(9), DOI: https://doi.org/10.18533/jah.v11i09.2293.
Keisari,S.Krueger,K, Ben-David,B, Hainselin, M. (2024) New horizon in improving ageing with improvisational theatre, Age and Ageing, 53, afae087https://doi.org/10.1093/aging/agae087
Kemp,C.et al (2024) “Just join them”: improve and dementia care, Journal of Applied Gerontology,43(3), doi: 10.1177/0733464823I203195
Krueger,K. et al. (2025) Improv as cognitive activity, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience,17:1520698.doi:10.3389/fnagi.2025.1520698.
Zeisel,J. et al (2019) Scripted-IMPROV; interactive improvisational drama with persons with dementia-effects onengagement, affect, depression and quality of life, American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias,33(4) 232-241.