Show! Don’t Tell!
When you don’t see where you are, all you can do is talk about it. You get a suggestion for a scene: Who — A husband and wife. Where — at Disneyland. What — waiting to get on a ride. Most players will begin the scene with dialogue something like this. Husband: Well, well, dear.. read more →
The Seduction of the Teacher
The Trap “Students who regard an instructor highly will tend to adopt that instructor’s attitudes, orientations, and values. This is a seductive phenomenon because it can lead to the ego-enhancement of instructors who have not reached full psychological maturity. This ‘ego-stroking’ can then motivate instructor behaviors which do not have the personal development of participants.. read more →
Beginner’s Mind
Beginner’s Mind “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few…” Zen master Shunryu Suzuki Beginner’s mind is experiencing a thing for the first time. “Firsts” are always memorable. Improvisation is a constant search for ‘first times’. I once did a wonderful improv scene in Viola’s class using the.. read more →
Does Teaching mean you have to be Mean?
Michael wrote as a comment to me regarding another post: Is it my imagination or did a lot of the famous improv teachers yell at their students? Sounds like Viola did. People said Del Close was often a huge dick to his students. Keith Johnstone was famous for calling a student’s work horrible and telling.. read more →
A Question of Evaluating Students
I recently got a letter from a teacher who uses Spolin Games in the classroom. She asked an interesting question: …Here’s my question: what theatre game would you recommend I use in evaluating the ability level or strength of a 4-6 grader performing improvisation? In other words, which game might let me know which student.. read more →
NO FAIL NO FEAR
“I don’t believe in success and failure.” – Viola Spolin. We all approach new things with some trepidation. I’ve been told by new students that they are there in the workshop because Improv terrifies them and they want to face that fear. Bravo to them for their courage, but ‘sheesh!” I tell them that they.. read more →
Direct Experience and Peak Experiences
“What we are after is a direct experience!” — Viola Spolin I used to think that a direct experience is the same as what Abraham Maslow called the ‘peak experience’. Maslow coined the term to describe what other people have referred to as a ‘religious experience’ as in a born again feeling where the subject.. read more →
Playing Creates Community
In our ever more complex and technological era, true person to person interaction is lost as we interact with each other via technology instead. (witness this blog) The technological revolution has brought us closer in one respect, but the need to interact in a wholesome way within our local community, person to person, is still.. read more →
How to Leave Your Ego at the Door
“Enough about me… What do you think about me?” Making Your Partner Look Good “Make your partner look good!” is a coach used in current improvisational training. The reason this coach is valuable is because it is based on the idea that there is more opportunity for good improv by being more concerned with your.. read more →
What Does it Mean to Improvise?
“Creativity is not the clever rearranging of the known.” – Viola Spolin Creativity is a state that allows us to touch the unknown and to bring it into the phenomenal world: To make the invisible visible. The unknown is a territory that holds all possibilities, until it is revealed. The act of revealing – that is.. read more →