Why Did We Feel Compelled to Do Research on Improv and Gender Practice?

Mutual Interviews About Encounters with The Bechdel Test

Abstract

We are improvisers, who practice and research improv (improvisational theater). The purpose of this paper is to clarify why we were compelled to do research on improv and gender practice, focusing on our encounters with the improv format The Bechdel Test. The first author, who was interested in “women and improv,” studied The Bechdel Test in the U.S. and produced the first performance in Japan in 2017. The second author was one of the performers in this performance, but she was not particularly interested in “improv and gender.” However, in 2020, the second author approached to the first author about starting a research project to practice The Bechdel Test continuously in Japan. The basis of this paper is the narratives in our mutual interviews in preparation for the project. We re–read the narratives, described what each person felt through the other's narrative, and described what each person felt when reading the other person's description. As a result, we portrayed the process by which two improvisers sometimes resonated and began the project of “improv and gender.”