Viola Spolin

Viola Spolin (1906-1994) is the originator of theater games. Her improvisational techniques changed the very nature and practice of modern theater. Spolin 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 son, Paul Sills, was the founding director of The Second City, where Spolin trained the company and served as Director of Workshops until 1965. The first two editions of "Improvisation for the Theater" sold more than 100,000 copies and inspired actors, directors, teachers, and writers in theater, television, film. These techniques have also influenced the fields of education, mental health, social work, and psychology. A longer biography can be found on her official website, ViolaSpolin.org.