Viola Spolin: A Woman Who Changed the Way Theater is Taught

Viola Spolin:

• Served as drama supervisor @ place in Chicago similar to Parks. & Rec.
• Needed a way to cross over cultural/ethnic background
• Created these simple games to play which helped w/ creativity, diff. parts of a play, a way to get someone to express themselves
• “When I had a problem [directing], I made up a game. When another problem came up, I just made up a new game.” -Viola Spolin  (Interview,Los Angeles Times, May 26 , 1974)
• Went on to do workshops about these games, improv
• Published numerous books about her games/improv/ways to get people involved
• Games happened in theater context but meant to calm actors down
• Increased self-awareness
• Bring group together
• Each game has its own problem/focus for group to work on
• Used games solve problems
• Allowed people to express themselves in a way that wasn’t too ‘outgoing’
• Don’t have to have ‘talent’ to act/do the games
• Space replaces costumes/props/music (basically everything but the actors)
• “A system of actor training that uses games she devised to organically teach the formal rules of the theater”
• Key phrases for the games:
• Physicalization: showing not telling
• Spontaneity
• Intuition: basically trusting your gut/instinct
• Audience
• Transformation
• Participation
• Sources:
• http://spolin.com/?page_id=212

http://www.violaspolin.org/bio/