For an improvisational artist, what is the value in having a form?

Generally speaking, the value of having a form for the improvisational artist is challenge.

When I layer on a form, I offer an obstacle which the improvisers must take on. If I tell you to enter an improvised scene and exclusively endow the other players, that becomes your form. It is a challenge for you to improvise with that obstacle.

The alternative to form is formlessness: Simply approaching improvisation as "anything goes." That may sound nice in theory, but in practice, it is opening the door to the permission of "serious shit going down" onstage. I think of anarchical-type behavior. I think of hitting people, pushing people's buttons, violating people's personal boundaries, etc.

You may say that that's ridiculous, that that wouldn't happen onstage, but when I ask "Why?," you answer with form. You reveal your form. "Because nobody wants to do anything illegal onstage." "Because we don't want to upset our audience." "Because I love my group and I wouldn't do anything to hurt them." Etc. These are expressions of the form you follow. You avoid illegal activity onstage, or you observe the tastes of the audience, or you support the well-being of your groupmates.

This is just like saying you endow the other players in your scenes, you yes-and all of their offers, and you do three scenes, a group scene, revisit the three scenes, another group scene, then weave everything together. These are parts of the form of popular styles of improvisation. So might be your private interests expressed above.

Ultimately, form is a choice. You choose to comply with and operate within a form. You challenge yourself. The reward is linguistic: You get to say you can operate within that form. You are able to do that form. You are (truly) a doer of that form.

But the better reward is often the fruit that comes from doing a form. Forms are like seeds: You can water one with your ideas, and it comes out in a specific plant, and water another one with your ideas, and a whole different plant emerges. Both might be improvisation, only they yield different species of improvisation.

The point I wanted to make originally in typing this post is a different one on form. It is: With respect to creativity, what is the value of having a form? For another time.