Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin
Viola Spolinwas a theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life. These acting exercises she later called Theater Games and formed the first body of work that enabled other directors and actors to create improvisational theater. Her book Improvisation for the Theater, which published these techniques, includes...
technique theater communicate
The techniques of the theater are the techniques of communicating.
meaningful player acting
The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience, there is no theater. Everything done is ultimately for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, fellow players, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.
cages turns
One must be chary of words because they turn into cages.
followers initiate
Don’t initiate! Follow the initiator! Follow the follower.