Artist Afternoon: Viola Spolin's Theater Games with Jen Jurek

Everyone can act.  Everyone can improvise.  Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become 'stageworthy'.- Viola Spolin

 

Please join us for a wonderful 2 hour workshop to explore the benefits of  the "group agreement"  through the theater games of Viola Spolin.  A woman ahead of her time, she spent her life working with these games at Hull House in Illinois, her son, Paul Sills, building on that, created Story Theater and Second City.  Viola is the mother of improvisation in ALL of North America and her vision was inclusive and awesome.  There is a reason for each game, and the games, themselves, are the teachers (we'll talk about that).

 

Depart from the current fad of competitive improv and join us in realigning yourself with the intuitive.  The games are sensory oriented and physical in nature (to the extent that you can be safely physical) and not psychological (we'll get into that). Viola calls her games "problem-solving," and through experiencing them (not being lectured about them) one can experience direct communication with fellow players as well as audiences, which Viola calls "the moment of 'mutual perceiving'." Come ready to play!! 

 

Jen Jurek is a professional performer, singer and the founder of Hallet's Cove Theater based out of Astoria Queens.  Jen is also the founder of Astoria Women's Improv, a community building initiative that has become its own tour de force where attendees tend to return again and again for more.