Improvisation For The Theater A Handbook Of Teaching And Directing Techniques

by Viola Spolin

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Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Art, Reference, Film, Communication, Comedy

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

odd comments about her classes through the eyes of improv

Second City

Larry Hankin (actor, former member of Second City and the Committee): I first met Del Close at Second City in a class. I joined Second City in 1960. The first thing we did was take classes with Viola Spolin. I didn’t like Viola because she was intelligent, smart, and wanted to teach me stuff. Del hated her too. We’d sit in the back of the class. Oh, man, fuckin’ bullshit.

Avery Schreiber (comedian, former member of Second City and the Committee): For years Del would knock Spolin. About five years ago he called to tell me he had reread Spolin and everything he had developed in his intensive workshops was in her book.

Larry Hankin: Me and him did one improv that stayed with me the rest of my life. It was called “Something Just Happened.” What you had to do is stand onstage and something major has happened. And the two of you agree to what has happened. And all you do is stand onstage. No talking. Just stand there and think about what happened. And what the class has to do is guess what happened by your body language. What Del did was just stand there. It was his thing that had happened. And I was a friend of his. He stood and stared, and I just stood and stared, and that was it. And what happened–and this is true–his father invited him into the kitchen to watch something. Del sat at the kitchen table and watched his dad while his father stood at the kitchen sink and drank a glass full of battery acid and committed suicide in front of him. The improv was he had just come over and told me about it. He said he was like six or seven when that happened.

Avery Schreiber: Del played a game called Gotcha at Second City. Someone pretended to shoot you and wherever you were you had to die the most dramatic death. Once we were at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia when someone shot him. Del staggered to the ground and as he fell he shouted, “You stinking commies!” The most amazing death he ever did was backstage at the Establishment in London. There was a huge spiral staircase backstage that led to the offices upstairs, and someone shot Del at the top of the stairs. He fell down the stairs–he tumbled and rolled, tumbled and rolled, tumbled and rolled to the bottom of the stairs.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viola Spolin revolutionized the acting profession - her work gave rise to the Second City school of improvisation that is the foundation of so many of today's comedic actors. But, her first love, and the reason you will want to read this book, is her love for children and their education. I had the pleasure of meeting Spolin on a couple occasions. Her training class for teachers in the LASD was phenomenal - but, alas, she was unable to completely renew a profession that has sunk into the mud. If you run retreats or workshops, you will want to study this great work.

[Robyn Sayles · Rating 5 out of 5]

My improv training has helped me more in my life and my career than most of my formal training. Spolin is the master.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "bible" of improv and learning the ways of the greats.

[BR Hischier · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can judge the book by the vest the author is wearing on the cover.

[Maddsurgeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing resource, essential for any teacher of theatre or director of amateur theatre. Spolin has a system, perfected from years of experience, for taking actors of any age and polishing the rough qualities from performance. The idea is to present problems that directly challenge the actor to come up with organic solutions, therefore teaching by experience rather than through lecture or rote repetition of dogmatic ideas. The focus is on improvisational theatre, but these improvisational activities are great for actors in scripted plays as well.

If you've ever had the feeling that your class just doesn't get it no matter what you say, pick up this book. It was a huge paradigm shift for me and I'm excited to try some of these exercises.

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

For an Activity Course I will be teaching next year.

After it was stolen, I never got it back, however I got enough information out of it to know that this is for a very intense and serious improvisation class. Not exactly what I needed it for. Some of the ideas were great and translated to other games that I knew, but most of these are too focus-driven for my purposes. Read only if you are looking to teach serious actors serious Improv.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my reference books, which I keep on hand when I feel I need a refresher. Definitely is a great companion to the Second City training program.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book. As a teacher and director its a must have on your bookshelf.

[Mary Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viola really knows her stuff. Her 96-page list of Reminders and Pointers should be memorized by heart, or better, copied and distributed to everyone, art directors and bosses of every stripe.

[Alex Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a must read on the subject. So many exercises in here. Wow! just thinking about it makes me want to start up an improv group to try them all!!! :)

[Marie Umerkajeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful basic as well as complicated book totally necessary for me as a drama teacher and also for me as a human being.

[Dianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like this is controversial not to like this but SOZ about it. I found this incredibly difficult to read. I think it may serve me better over time as a reference book. But I always read my reference books cover to cover first to that I know what's in there to have an idea of what to look for later on. But reading this, Spolin is contrantly refering to excersies you haven't read yet because they're on future pages. Immensly annoying to read.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Classic

[Amanda Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

inspiring, useful. good for all theatre makers.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful set of acting exercises, games, and activities. Get this and Keith Johnstone's book and you are good to go. The only question is can you live long enough to try them all?

[Daniela Telefan]

DNF
Eu juro que tentei ler isto várias vezes mas sinto que talvez não seja o momento, ou talvez seja mesmo falta de neurónios.

[Carolyn Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me homesick for the theater. This is a fantastic resource, geared toward the director but useful for students as well.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this is like reading some of the books in the old testament. This guy begat him who begat that fella who begat a group of dudes. It's more of a reference book, and it's very '60s touchie feelie but still has some great stuff.

[WhizKid · Rating 5 out of 5]

For CTAR 323 Improvising and Role Play class reading

Viola Spolin dedicated this book to her drama teacher, Neva Boyd (Handbook of Recreational Games)
I appreciate the appendixes on definition of key terms, side-coaching phrases, new exercises and traditional games. It's very useful for ESL class.

[Bruce Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this to devise my own theater class back in the early 80's. I still use it today when I do workshops for the music camp and Pied Piper summer camps. The first edition was useful; I haven't seen the 1999 version.

[Bo · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's Brilliant

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dissertation.

[Will Craighead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable resource for my teaching.

[Emerson]

Very good