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“There are people who prefer to say ‘Yes’, and there are people who prefer to say ‘No’.  Those who say ‘Yes’ are rewarded by the adventures they have, and those who say ‘No’ are rewarded by the safety they attain.”
-Keith Johnstone, Impro
 
            Improvisation is usually viewed as the mad-cap theater games played on the television show “Whose line is it anyway?”  It is hard to imagine how this seemingly random, high-energy practice could have a place in a productive classroom.  Some of us may even spend a fair amount of energy trying to quell this sort of behavior in order to keep ‘on-track’, and get something accomplished during class time.  Others may try to capitalize on the same sort of energy and enhance it towards their educational purpose, or enhance their purpose and approach to the learner by partnering with the interest and dialogue that is emerging in order to connect personally with the material.  This latter action is the core of improvisation.  To acknowledge and utilize what emerges between participants is one of the primary motivating ideas behind the ethos of improvisation (Nachmanovich 1990).  It is usually stated simply as ‘agreement’ (Nachmanovich 1990, Close & Halpern 1994, Sweet 1978).
This may strike fear in some.  It may raise concerns over whether or not one is giving up control or focus to their class, and that the lesson will be lost for the day or the hour.  Yet, it has been my experience that following the energy and interest of the learner is less work and bears as much fruit as following the ‘plan’.  It is possible to connect to a point even if the conversation seems very disparate, and the most enjoyable engaging conversations seem to emerge out of spontaneous connections in general discussion.  Why resist that process in the classroom?
By using and building upon ideas that arise during a class period, one is utilizing one of the other major motivators in improvisation; that is ‘heightening’.  Heightening is the process wherein a new idea that has been acknowledged is made greater purposely by investing personal importance, detail, and spin on the offered idea (Napier 2004, Johnstone 1981).  This often grabs the offerer’s attention and suddenly ropes them in on the lesson being shaped on-hand.  It also adds the element of surprise to the learning environment which can further heighten attention.
There is another element that arises in the course of learning improvisation.  It is an element that is one of the keys to this sort of practice.  It is the element of surrender (Nachmanovich 1990).  This should not be found after trying in vain to deliver a lesson for 20 minutes.  This should emerge after the first exchange.  It is the element of surrender that will allow one to find courage and faith in the process of letting things go a little in order to generate the energy and interest that can jumpstart a lesson.  Surrender is a form of vulnerability.  I think that in a productive learning environment, where you’re asking people to open up to the vulnerability of taking risks through questioning, hypothesizing, and reporting for review, one should display a measure of vulnerability while facilitating.  It is a wink to comradery, and stimulates dialogue. 
I usually see lessons as a sort of thematic choose-your-own-adventure because the chemistry of differing discussion sessions or student groups requires a unique set of interactions in order for learners to...

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I am very suprised how rich and useful the content is on TeachStreet in such a short period of time! It is the brain-child of a very successful former product development director at one of the nation's largest on-line retailers. Teach Street is rapidly gaining community recognition...

It seems that there are two professional communities who are focused on organizational, cultural, and policy development that are unaware or uninformed about one another.  Applied Anthropologists have been in the realm of development formally for over 50 years utilizing ethnographic techniques to learn about peoples’ lives and communities in order to create and administer reasonable policies for these communities and organizations.  Applied Improvisation, the introduction and use of improvisational theater techniques and ideas to develop organizations, has been around for over a decade using theater techniques to elicit and explore peoples’ stories, as well as give them tools for building sustainable organizations and relationships.  Both of these fields share very similar goals, but they differ in methodologies and slightly in theory.  However, these two fields can come together in helping one another achieve their ends through a cooperative systemic exploration utilizing each others’ methods and theories.  The field of Applied Anthropology could definitely be bolstered, if not streamlined, by the incorporation of Applied Improvisation.
            Improvised theater shares a common trait with Applied Anthropology, and that is the element of having to prove itself as a viable form next to a more ‘formal’ and ‘pure’ form of scripted theater, or the split “between those who know and those who act” in anthropology (Kozaitis, 1999, Conquergood, 2002).  Like Applied Anthropology, it is beholden to a textual frame when it is a practice that operates within a living contextual frame.  They are both focused on active development through working with participants.  They both find insights and direction from eliciting and working with collective and individual narratives.  In the realm of performance studies, there has been a call for such engagement in narratives at the ground level.  “… [Ethnographic] knowledge is located, not transcendent…it must be engaged, not abstracted; and…it is forged from solidarity with, not separation from the people” (Conquergood, 2002).  This is the very essence of what motivates Applied Improvisation.  This active engagement with peoples’ spoken stories serves one of the main goals of the theory of praxis in that it seeks an engagement in the social reality and is embedded in the process of social life.
            Melanie Harmon is currently the marketing director for a large firm that handles collegiate ‘travel abroad’ programs, AHA International.  She has an M.A. in Theater with a focus on improvisation.  Over the last decade, she has been involved with a couple of different applied improvisation settings.  She worked with Kaiser Permanente in Denver for the theater outreach wing.  Shortly after she signed on, she managed to bring in Augusto Boal to run a workshop on the techniques of the “Theater of the Oppressed”.  This form of theater is used as a means for bolstering social action through repeated simulation of difficult social situations where participants are encouraged to take the place of certain characters in the scenario in order to find alternate solutions to the situation.  This workshop was the catalyst to the formation of an internal office for the theater outreach program.  From here, Melanie utilized improvised theater games and exercises to help communicate particular theoretical understandings that are taught to people who perform improvised theater (personal communication, 2006).
 
Theory in Improvisation: a Digression
            From the outside, it may seem peculiar that performers who are ‘cutting up’ on an improv stage or on the show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” are not operating on any sort of theory.  Many beginning improvisers enter into classes thinking ‘I just need to be fast and funny’.  They are then introduced to the ‘rules’ in improvisational theater, which are really more of a core set of values and notions than a hard and fast set of rules.
At the heart of this ethos of improvisation is the notion of ‘agreement’.  It stands at the heart of this art because it is impossible to build anything cohesive and comprehensible without establishing certain shared realities or ideas.  To disagree is to return to the first step of having to establish something (1.“Hi Mom” 2.”I’m not your mother”).  To keep disagreeing is to keep taking the first step again and again (1. “Oh, Aunt Trudy.  I mistook you for my Mom.” 2. “I’m not your Aunt Trudy, either”).  This is also known as ‘blocking’ or ‘denying’.  In agreeing, we are making steps forward towards something (1.“Hi Mom” 2.“Hello, dear.  Have a cookie”).  In anthropology, this may take the form of preliminary research that helps the...

Louise is a  British Horse Society registered Assistant Instructor, (BHSAI), who moved to the United States in 1992, and now lives with her husband and 2 sons on their 25 acres horse farm in Douglassville, PA. 
While living in  Scotland Louise went through the British Horse Societies  training and examination system to become a well round instructor, being able to teach riding, theory and horse care. She also competed in show jumping and dressage successfully.
She brought all  this knowledge and experience to the US and starting teaching and helping out at her local pony club, Berks Pony Club.  She  was the secretary, wrote and published the monthly newsletter, was the show jumping and dressage coach with much success, and eventually the District Commissioner.  She was also...

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If you've just set a date for your wedding, this can be an exciting time for the two of you! Don't let the marriage license laws of Georgia put a dent in your wedding plans.
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“Leadership is many things,” offers Shannon Smith, District Marketing Manager for Farmers Insurance in Seattle, WA.  “In addition to showing us the direction of the organization, leadership is good communication skills, empathic listening, knowing what motivates individuals, making others feel important, being available 24/7 to help people, acknowledging each question without making the individual feel like an idiot for bringing it up, rewarding achievers, inspiring others to perform, and all this while providing a compassionate ear and shoulder when necessary.”  Smith states that she works with two Farmers Insurance District Managers, Gregg Reynolds and Steve Jansen, who characterize all these traits thus earning the trust, respect, and the attention of the people in the organization.  “These two guys are involved in the community, self-confident, and unpretentious.”However, Smith observes that their styles are very...

Today, organizations seeking to improve the communication, teamwork, client management, and other soft skills of their employees are finding that to improve is to improvise.Improvisation, the art of communicating and reacting in an unscripted environment, is a performance technique whose teachings have proven valuable in the workplace. And the average participant need not be an aspiring actor to enjoy a romp in the world of improv.  By creating a comfortable environment and engaging in fun, informative activities, improv training can help your team build trust, confidence, and expand their skills in communication, decision-making, and supporting the success of the team - all key improvisation concepts that can be used daily in the workplace.Say ‘Yes’ to Impress“As two people begin a scene, each is going to have a different idea of what is going on. This is the challenge, and part of the fun, of improvisation.” explains Andrew McMasters, Artistic Director of...