Frequently Asked Questions about Improv Encylopedia
Where are we?
Description
Frequently Asked Questions about Improv Encylopedia
What is this site all about?
This is a collection of games/exercises/handles/techniques for improvisation theatre. It's basically organized in Categories , and each Game is classified in a number of these categories. We also provide a number of Keywords and Encyclopedia entries to people, sites and books where you can find similar information.
This site does not aspire to
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list as many Improv troupes or people as possible. Check out New Improv Page or Improvland for that
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list as many improv events as possible. See New Improv Page , Improvland , Improvreview for events.
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build an Improv community or start discussions about improv. Go to Improvland , YesAnd.com or Improvisation.ws for discussion boards
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Publish reviews of Improv shows. Click on Improvreview instead.
Why? There are other lists and sites, no?
Yes, there are other lists, but their structure and/or organization is a bit more limited than this one (for other lists see the reference page). Basically, for doing workshops, we needed something that we could reference per topic, and we found that most games/handles belong in plenty of topic categories. We guess this site is, among other things, workshop oriented...
Where did you get this information?
Most of this stuff we picked up taking Improv workshops, or we invented for workshops we've taught ourselves. In addition, there are a couple of good books and websites. You'll find some on the reference page.
So who are you anyway?
Doesn't matter. We made and maintain this for fun (and as a reference for ourselves). We don't do this for glory or fame. So keep wondering ;-) (if you drop us an email we'll probably answer you using our normal email address so if you're really *that* curious try that way)
How did you make this site?
This site originally started about 3 years ago as an Access (yeah, yuk) database for our own personal use. We redid it completely, on a Dell Inspiron 8000, running RedHat Linux 7.0/7.1. It consists a bunch of text files, and a little c program that translates the ASCII text into HTML. The base HTML model, that is used to generate all pages, was done in StarOffice 5.2. If you're interested, check out the Download page.
The pdf version is made by a second, similar c program, that formats the text slightly differently, and that leaves everything in one big file. This is fed through the html2ps utility to produce PostScript, which is fed through ps2pdf to produce the pdf result. You will find both html2ps and ps2pdf in just about any good Linux distribution.
This is always a work in progress, so every couple of weeks or so, we regenerate the whole thing. See the News page for an overview of the history. If you want to be kept up to date of new versions drop us an email.
Can I use the stuff I find here?
Yes you can. It's free - just don't claim you made the site or wrote the pdf version ;-). You can download the whole site in html, if you want. You can also download a printable version in Adobe pdf format. You can even download the programs used to build this site. Check out the Download page.
You do need to be careful if you want to play some of the formats described here. Some formats are copyrighted. Known copyrights are listed in the Origin sections, where known/applicable.
How random is the random link ?
Actually it's not all that random. The site is generated off a database, and every time it's regenerated, each page gets a new random link. So the random link on a particular page always links to the same page, until the site gets regenerated.