Neva Sills, Aretha Sills, Rachel Sills, David Sills, Polly Sills, Jennifer Sills, Jonathan Sills (grandchildren)
Viola Spolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American 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.[1] 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 her philosophy and her teaching and coaching methods, and is considered the "bible of improvisational theater". Spolin's contributions were seminal to the improvisational theater movement in the U.S. She is considered to be the mother of Improvisational theater. Her work has influenced American theater, television and film by providing new tools and techniques that are now used by actors, directors and writers.
Spolin influenced the first generation of improvisational actors at the Second City in Chicago in the mid- to late 1950s, through her son, Paul Sills. He was the founding director of the Compass Players which led to the formation of the Second City. He used her techniques in the training and direction of the company, which enabled them to create satirical improvisational theater about current social & political issues. Spolin also taught workshops for Second City actors, as well as for the general public. Paul Sills and the success of the Second City were largely responsible for the popularization of improvisational theater, which became best known as a comedy form called "improv." Many actors, writers and directors grew out of that school of theater and had formative experiences performing and being trained at the Second City. Many notable theater, television and film professionals were influenced by Spolin and Sills.
Spolin developed acting exercises or "games" that unleashed creativity, adapting focused "play" to unlock the individual's capacity for creative self-expression. Viola Spolin's use of recreational games in theater came from her background with the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression where she studied with Neva Boyd starting in 1924.[2] Spolin also taught classes at Jane Addams' Hull House[3] in Chicago.
She authored a number of texts on improvisation. Her first and most famous was Improvisation for the Theater, published by Northwestern University Press. This book has become a classic resource for improvisational actors, directors and teachers. It has been published in three editions in 1963, 1983 and 1999.[4]
^D.E. Moffit. "Viola Spolin Biography". Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
^Viola Spolin (1986). Theater Games for the Classroom. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-4004-2.
^Richard Sisson; Christian K. Zacher; Andrew Robert Lee Cayton (2006-11-08). The American Midwest. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253003490. Retrieved 2014-06-20.
^Viola Spolin (1999). Improvisation for the Theater Third Edition. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 0-8101-4008-X.
ViolaSpolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator...
training. By the mid-1960s, ViolaSpolin's classes were handed over to her protégé, Jo Forsberg, who further developed Spolin's methods into a one-year course...
Second City. Sills, Aretha; Sills, Carol. "ViolaSpolin: Biography". ViolaSpolin Official Website. The ViolaSpolin Estate. Retrieved May 31, 2023. "Planet...
inventiveness that can just come to mind, body and spirit as an inspiration. ViolaSpolin created theater games as a method of training improvisational acting...
developed in the 20th century by practitioners such as Joan Littlewood, ViolaSpolin, Paul Sills, Clive Barker, Keith Johnstone, Jerzy Grotowski and Augusto...
formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by ViolaSpolin, whose improv techniques were taught by Del Close and other members of...
Joan Littlewood and Keith Johnstone in the UK and ViolaSpolin in the US; see Johnstone 2007 and Spolin 1999. The first "Edwardian musical comedy" is usually...
one of Morrison's daughters. Noted teacher of improvisational theater ViolaSpolin plays Morrison's mother. The film also features cameo appearances by...
Beach, California after her parents divorced. Schaal studied acting with ViolaSpolin in Chicago when she was nine years old, later moving to Wisconsin and...
studied the theatre with method acting pioneer Lee Strasberg and with ViolaSpolin, the American Grandmother of Improvisation. She appeared in a number...
member of the Second City, training with improvisational theater teachers ViolaSpolin and Paul Sills, and in 1963 moved to San Francisco to co-found the improv...
unique, dual-track curriculum combining Stanislavski-based technique with ViolaSpolin Theater Games. The workshop stopped accepting students in 2010. Sills...
was teacher and writer ViolaSpolin, who authored the first book on improvisation techniques, Improvisation for the Theater. Spolin in turn was the student...
with Joyce and Byrne having been mentored by Theater Game Theorist ViolaSpolin, and continuing the practice in their individual work as well as through...
Directing Award. A longtime teacher of the improvisation techniques of ViolaSpolin, Gegenhuber became Education Coordinator for The Open Fist Theatre Company...
1970s, she studied and practiced the improvisational games created by ViolaSpolin. From college, Kaye went to Europe, where she performed in avant-garde...
United States, it was promoted by ViolaSpolin, after working with Neva Boyd at a Hull House in Chicago, Illinois (Spolin was Boyd's student from 1924 to...
America's improvisational theatre scene has its roots in Hull House, as ViolaSpolin, noted improvisational techniques instructor, taught classes and developed...
the acting teacher, Nola Chilton, and the innovator of theater games, ViolaSpolin. Along with her colleagues at The Open Theater, Terry began working on...
acting at the National Academy of Performing Arts. Mainly inspired by ViolaSpolin's "great focus on improvisation and improvisational techniques", Khan...
communication with the help of drama coaches (they use the acting techniques of ViolaSpolin). Matthew Nisbet described the use of opinion leaders as intermediaries...
Howard Jerome. David Shepherd used the Theater Games, created earlier by ViolaSpolin, as a way for teams to compete. The first ImprovOlympic classes and shows...
developing work through an improvisational process drawn from Chilton and ViolaSpolin, created well-known exercises, such as "sound and movement" and "transformations"...
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