1904-1994
"Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater...
If the environment permits it, anyone can learn whatever he chooses
to learn, and if the individual permits it, the environment will
teach him everything it has to teach.
"Talent" or "lack of talent" have very little to do with it."
"Mike Nichols, Elain May, Alan Arkin, Alan Alda, Ed
Asner, and many others are greatly indebted to Paul Sills who almost
single-handedly evolved improvisation into a performance art form.
The qualifying "almost" allows for the significant role of Sills'
mother, Viola Spolin, who has been for several generations the
godmother of the movement."
- Mel Gussow, N.Y. Times
"Theater Games are a process applicable to any field discipline or subject matter where full participation, communication, transformation can take place."
Our beloved teacher and mentor, Viola Spolin, died at the age of 88 on November 22, 1994. She is deeply missed by those who had the privilege of knowing her and working with her.
Viola left an amazing legacy. Through her Theater Games she conjured
our personal creativity. Her work inspired a new American art form --
improvisational theater.
She was the source from which
every improvisational theater company evolved. Her work was a
blueprint for world theater in this century and it was carried beyond
into education and psychology.
From Chicago's settlement houses
to the Young Actor's Company, the Compass Players, Second City and on
to Saturday Night Live, as well as in thousands of institutions of
education and healing throughout the world Viola Spolin taught us to
play and to discover our creative potential.
Sme of the players who have been
touched by the work of Viola Spolin:
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* Spontaneity * Awareness * * Transformation *
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