Improvisation for Writers: Writing from the Source, Online, Sept 5 - Oct 10, 2023, 6:30 - 9:00pm CDT (Mornings in Asia)
Improvisation for Writers: Writing from the Source, Online, Sept 5 - Oct 10, 2023, 6:30 - 9:00pm CDT (Mornings in Asia)
“If you haven’t surprised yourself, you haven’t written.” -Eudora Welty
“My vision is a world of accessible intuition.” -Viola Spolin
Open to: Beginners as well as experienced players and writers, and writers of all genres. The course is endlessly repeatable because the exercises change frequently.
This live online 6-week workshop features writing exercises based on Viola Spolin's theater games to help writers generate new work in a playful and supportive environment and to write in a state of intuitive flow.
We’ll play theater games and do writing exercises to help us easily generate, release blocks, quiet our inner critic, and allow for discovery and surprise in our written work. The problem-solving exercises also offer fun and spontaneous ways to handle issues of craft such as character, dialogue, point of view, stakes, meaning, and creating settings rich with significant detail.
Spolin’s theater games help players enter the present time through their senses, free of old judgments and attitudes. We will follow where this leads in our writing process, including learning to apply her non-authoritarian evaluation methods to our creative work to liberate us to play and explore in our writing.
Writers will come away with techniques to help relax the nervous system, focus, and effortlessly create new work from the source—the intuition. Bring a notebook, and a willingness to play!
QUOTES ABOUT IMPROVISATION FOR WRITERS:
“Improvisation for Writers is by far one of the best writing and improv classes I have ever taken. It was a fantastic eye-opener for digging deeper into the creativity and mechanics of writing while using our intuition. I truly gained so much from it!” –Karen Bell-Brege, author the bestselling children’s series Mick Morris Myth Solver and Ghost Board Posse; public speaker; improviser
“I have experienced some truly great instruction — a class with Kenneth Koch, tutorials with Daniel Judah Sklar for playwriting, and Lynda Barry's workshops (fluid, funny, and mind-expanding). But I also experienced horrible teachers and influences which resulted in my battling writer's block or just plain living with it for years. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that yours is one of the best writer's workshops I have ever taken. I can't thank you enough for the Improv for Writers course. When the last class was over, I found myself writing!” –Laurie Spigel, writer/educator/homeschooling expert and author of Education Uncensored
ABOUT THE SIDE-COACH:
Aretha Sills received her MFA in creative writing from UC Riverside, where she was a Gluck Fellow, the Graduate MFA Fellow, and the Dean’s Distinguished Fellow. She has been a lecturer in creative writing at UCR. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Maybelle, The Utne Reader, Calyx, South Bank Poetry Review, and Qua. She has been adapting theater games for writers and teaching the method since 2016. You can read more about her side-coaching below.
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION INFO:
Live online classes will meet: Six Tuesdays, Sept 5 - October 10, 2023, from 6:30- 9:00 pm Central Daylight Time. Start times in other US timezones: 4:30pm Pacific, 5:30pm Mountain, 7:30pm Eastern. Mornings in Asia. Convert to your timezone here, using Green Bay, Wisconsin as a reference place.
Prerequisites: None.
Classes will be held on Zoom. Broadband internet and Zoom are required. Players who can only access Zoom through a mobile phone can enroll but the experience may be limited. If you have any questions, please email workshops@violaspolin.org before registering.
Tuition: There are two tuition tiers, available on a first come, first served basis. Please select the one most appropriate to your situation: $325 or $265. If you purchase a higher tuition tier, it helps make the workshop accessible to others. Tuition is not refundable. Your space can be transferred to another player before the class starts with prior approval of the instructor. Or contact workshops@violaspolin.org in case someone on the wait list can purchase your space.
Waitlist: In the event a tuition tier that you need is sold out, please select that tuition option and enter your email in the box to be notified if a space opens up. Or email workshops@violaspolin.org.
Workshop email notifications: You’ll get a confirmation email and subsequent correspondence from workshops@violaspolin.org and aretha.sills@violaspolin.org. Please clear these addresses, and if you don’t hear back, check your spam folder for missing correspondence.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS:
Viola Spolin’s Theater Games launched the American improvisational theater movement and changed the way acting is taught. Her work has influenced generations of actors and educators. Theater Games release the intuition through focus, spontaneity, and play, opening up new avenues of expression and communication in your creative work and in your daily life.
In the workshops with sidecoach Aretha Sills, we’ll explore the groundbreaking exercises and theatrical concepts found in Spolin’s seminal book Improvisation for the Theater, with an emphasis on the philosophies of legendary improvisation innovators Spolin and Paul Sills, and on applying Spolin’s meditative methods to your work in any artistic discipline. See our Registration page for a complete list of upcoming workshops around the country.
ABOUT SIDECOACH ARETHA SILLS:
All workshops will be sidecoached by Aretha Sills. The granddaughter of Viola Spolin, Aretha studied for many years with her father, director Paul Sills (creator/director of The Second City and Story Theater), and has conducted workshops for Paul Sills’ Wisconsin Theater Game Center, Bard College, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Stockholm International School, Sarah Lawrence College, and Northwestern University. She has worked with Tony- and Emmy-Award winning actors and has trained faculty from Northwestern, DePaul, Columbia College, The Second City, The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, LAUSD, CETA, and many other institutions and schools. She is the Associate Director of Sills/Spolin Theater Works and she directs The Predicament Players.
Aretha received her MFA from UC Riverside, where she was a Gluck Fellow, the Graduate MFA Fellow, and the Dean’s Distinguished Fellow. She has been a lecturer in creative writing at UCR. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Maybelle, The Utne Reader, Calyx, South Bank Poetry Review, and Qua. Her piece, Muddy Waters and Mozart: Remembering Townes Van Zandt, was featured in LARB’s first print edition.
To be notified about upcoming workshops, or to inquire about private coaching or workshops for your school or group, please email.
QUOTES ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS:
"We have been improvising and working with Spolin games for over forty years. But whenever Aretha is teaching a workshop, we jump at the chance to take it. She is so steeped in the games that (of course!) she was able to translate them to the Zoom format — and it was if the play became even more focusedwith her sure and gentle guidance. Conronvirus be damned! Theater games still powerfully connect and create extraordinary theatre." – Deb Lacusta & Dan Castellaneta, The Simpsons, actor & writers
“I have never felt more focused. I thought you were absolutely wonderful and truly supportive. It made my summer. Your ability to teach on Zoom in spite of the dread of Covid-19 hanging over us was phenomenal.” – Bill Steinkellner, Four-time Emmy award winning show runner; Creator/Director of Instaplay
“Thank you for a wonderful class -- for directing us back to the practical and ingenious philosophy and games of Viola Spolin. It has expanded my sense of what is possible in terms of teaching online. Accepting where we are and the reality around us, and also the possibilities has been a health-giving experience. I had fun, and felt invigorated and refreshed after your class, and hope to give some kind of similar experience to my students. Their responses to Spolin’s exercises are full of surprise and excitement. The students allow themselves to be present and at ease.” – Stephanie Hunt, Actor/Director/Theater Lecturer, Stanford University and University of San Francisco
"Phenomenal translation to Zoom. I took at least two of your classes in person and while we all bemoan and miss live, embodied practice, this experience was just as powerful. In a different way. I’d do this kind of work with you every day if I could." – Marcy Willis, Leadership Coach & Consultant, Actress, Facilitator
“Aretha is dedicated to preserving the pureness of this technique, which from my point of view assists the actor to find the courage to find themself and then to fly. I believe she has, innately and amazingly, all the elements of the technique of both Viola Spolin and Viola’s son, the extraordinary director, Paul Sills. I have studied with Aretha, and believe me, the thrill lives on.” – Paul Sand, Tony award winner, Paul Sills’ Story Theater; Original Second City cast member
“Aretha Sills, carrying on the work of Spolin and Sills, is an amazing, insightful side-coach and teacher. We were fortunate enough to take a workshop in L.A. with her and it helped us reconnect with theater game work on a deeper level. She knows her stuff. Can’t wait to work with her again!” – Deb Lacusta & Dan Castellaneta, The Simpsons, actor & writers
“As an educator and instructor of acting and directing, I was eager to learn about the American theater improvisation developed by Viola Spolin and expounded by Paul Sills. Aretha Sills provides an insight into the authentic roots of the system that has been utilized for years by theatre training programs. The workshop will provide you with an excellent opportunity to explore various games and exercises to enrich your view of performance and acting.” -Norma Saldivar, professor and chair, UNLV Department of Theatre, and executive director of the Nevada Conservatory Theatre
"I have no desire to be an entertainer and still get nervous when I speak to groups. I fear appearing silly. But I knew there was a little door inside of me that needed to be opened. That the shy, quiet, serious child wanted to be free. So nerves and all, I jumped feet first into Aretha Sills’ intensive Spolin workshop. I felt safe. The word “silly” became “playful.” At the end, I was tired and a little relieved -- but oh so proud of myself. Viola Spolin said, 'Get out of your head, into the space and await the invisible stranger.' Thanks to Aretha, I found that stranger and she is me." -Barbara Meltzer, Barbara Meltzer & Associates Public Relations and Marketing
“Aretha is one of the century’s best improvisation teachers. Like her grandmother before her, she understands people, theater, and improvisation in an intuitive and deep way. As someone who has studied with some of the top teachers in the country and has performed for over 15 years, I can honestly say Aretha’s work opened my eyes. I understood improv on a deeper level. I was refreshed and returned to beginner’s mind.” -David Alger, founder Pan Theater
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