Improvisation for the Theater: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques, Including a New Appendix by the Author: the Lone Actor (Drama and Performance Studies) - Hardcover

Spolin, Viola

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810140098 ISBN 13: 9780810140097

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 1999

Synopsis

This work has inspired the work of countless actors, directors, and writers in theatre, television and film. Spolin's improvisational techniques have changed the very nature and practice of modern theatre. This third edition updates the more than 200 now-classic exercises and adds 30 new ones. It adds 30 traditional theatre games that are frequently used as warm-ups. It includes Spolin's explanations of key concepts crucial to her programme, and collects "The Sayings of Viola Spolin" and adds a glossary of phrases for teachers and directors, with Spolin's definitions of their meaning and value. Most significantly, though, this edition makes available "The Lone Actor". In this section, Spolin offers games for individuals to play when they are alone. It is an important piece that should expand Spolin's teachings and influence to an entirely new audience.

About this title

Review

"She has genius and shares it." --Valerie Harper "It's like basic research ... she [has] changed the theater for generations." --Alan Alda "Her book is the bible." --Rob Reiner

About the Author

Viola Spolin, the originator of theater games, was introduced to the use of games, storytelling, folk dance, and dramatics as tools for stimulating creative expression in the 1920s while a student of Neva Boyd at Chicago's Hull House. During her years as a teacher and supervisor of creative dramatics there, she began to develop her nonverbal, nonpsychological approach. Her books have been translated into Swedish, German, and Portuguese. She died in 1994. Paul Sills is Viola Spolin's son and the founding director of Chicago's Second City and of Story Theater. He is the coeditor of the third edition of "Improvisation for the Theater."

Edition details

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810140098
• ISBN 13: 9780810140097
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Sills Paul