Influential Figures: Viola Spolin
Who Was Viola Spolin? This is a question that opens the door to exploring one of the most transformative figures in the history of theater. Viola Spolin's influence on the domain of theater education and improvisation is nothing short of revolutionary. Her pioneering work irrevocably changed the landscape of acting and theater pedagogy, introducing techniques that emphasized the power of spontaneous, authentic expression over rigid, scripted performances. Her groundbreaking book, "Improvisation for the Theater," is not just a text but a cornerstone in the field, redefining the art of acting and influencing generations of performers and educators. Furthermore, her role in the creation of The Second City in Chicago cemented her impact, establishing an incubator for some of the most innovative minds in improvisational theater and comedy. In fact, Spolin’s son Paul Sills was the original director of The Second City. Spolin's legacy extends beyond enhancing the craft of acting; she fundamentally altered the way theater is taught, championing the role of play and creativity as vital components in both personal and artistic development. Her work didn’t just evolve the practice of theater - it spearheaded a cultural shift in how performance is conceived and delivered.
Born on November 7, 1906, in Chicago to a Russian Jewish family, Viola Spolin's childhood brimmed with the freedom to engage in prolonged, uninterrupted play with other children in her extended family in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. They would often indulge in singing, dancing, and acting in nearby lots. Her father, who was frequently on opera detail with the Chicago Police, fostered her love for theater by taking the family to theatrical shows as she grew older.
Spolin's journey into the world of theater was significantly influenced after high school by her experiences at Neva Boyd's Group Work School in Chicago. At this center of learning, she studied recreational training in 1924 alongside her sister Pauline. Boyd's teachings, emphasizing the importance of play and games in learning, were an amalgamation of insights gathered from her global travels. These ideas deeply resonated with Spolin and laid the groundwork for her future contributions to the field. Reflecting on Boyd's impact, Spolin once remarked, “The effects of her inspiration never left me for a single day.” These three years of study, along with her early experiences, were crucial in shaping Spolin's understanding of the educational process. She came to recognize the transformative power of play and games as tools for learning and creative expression. It's also noteworthy for the interested reader that Neva Boyd, a Hull House sociologist, authored 15 books primarily focusing on recreational games. Many of these works continue to be regarded as significant guiding resources in the field.
In the late 1920s, Viola had married and had her first son Paul in 1927, and second son William in 1929. Although she wasn’t working on-site after giving birth to Paul, Spolin mentioned on early resumes that she’d host weekly weekend gatherings for improv at her home, where Paul would watch as a baby. During the early and mid 1930s, Spolin had acted in numerous productions across Chicago theaters and by 1935 majored in drama at Depaul’s night school. During her final year of study, Spolin left for New York, temporarily leaving her children behind, to study acting at The Group Theatre. However, she soon returned, driven by a deep longing for her children. In her brief time at The Group Theatre Spolin collaborated with superstars like Lewis Leverett and had the opportunity to meet Stella Adler, John Garfield, Morris Carnovsky, and other cast members. They would come back to visit Spolin after she opened The Educational Playroom in Chicago next to Oscar Mayer’s house the following year. In the late 1930s Spolin was working at the Hull House as a folk dance and drama teacher under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and making notable progress with her students. Check out our previous article on Improv Theatre History to read more about how the New Deal helped to bring new life to the arts in the United States. By 1939 Viola was a drama supervisor in the WPA following a formal recommendation from Neva Boyd herself.
In 1939 and into the 1940s, Spolin began developing her own improvisational techniques and exercises, aimed at helping actors to connect more authentically with their emotions, fellow actors, and the audience. Her approach was radically different from the conventional theater practices of the time, which were often rigid and script-centric. Spolin's methods were designed to unleash the actor's spontaneity and intuition, believing that this approach could lead to more genuine and dynamic performances. Viola focused on creating games that would help overcome language barriers for low income immigrant families, leading to an organic cohesion that progressed everyone’s theatrical communication skills and sense of belonging. Spolin went on to rent out a space at Hull House just like Neva Boyd had, but focused on games on a stage, where she eventually introduced theater specific games. Since Paul Sills was a student here, it was no surprise to see him being directly involved in Spolin’s theatrical exercises. The Chicago Daily News had even covered a Spolin directed revue, Halsted Street, that was performed at Hull House in 1939 with over 150 cast members of all races, ethnicities, and sexes. It was in 1940 that Viola married a theater carpenter named Ed Spolin, who was stationed near the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Viola ended up moving to San Francisco and held workshops in shipyards until the war ended, when Ed and herself moved to Los Angeles.
In 1948, Viola Spolin established the Young Actors Company in Hollywood, where children aged six and older were taught acting through the evolving system of Theater Games. Some of her students like Alan Arkin and Paul Sand would go on to be big players at Second City. This training culminated in performances, and the company operated until 1955. That year, Spolin moved back to Chicago, where she directed at the Playwright's Theater Club and led workshops for the Compass Players, America's first professional improvisational acting troupe. The Compass Players, which started in a bar near the University of Chicago in the summer of 1955, where Paul Sills attended, are credited with pioneering improvisational theater in the U.S., introducing a unique style of comedy. Paul had started Playwrights in the winter of 1952 since the university didn’t have a drama department of their own at the time. The Playwrights initially included Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Ed Asner, Barbara Harris, Joyce Piven, Eugene Troobnick, and Sheldon Patinkin. Starting with workshops, the company eventually opened a theater in Hyde Park in 1953 where they had many successful productions directed by Sills. This endeavor by the Playwrights is often credited with being the first of the Chicago Off-Loop theater movement. As the name implies, Off-Loop theaters are located outside of Chicago's central Loop area. These venues are typically smaller, more intimate settings, often in unconventional spaces like converted warehouses, storefronts, or even basements. The Playwright’s venue was actually a converted Chinese restaurant.
The Playwrights eventually begat the Compass Theater through the passion and drive of Paul Sills and David Shephard. Spolin’s influence reached far and wide through the Compass’ repertoire, since she was running workshops at the theater and whose works were considered a cornerstone of their acts. In 1959, Paul and Howard Alk opened The Second City, a landmark institution in the world of comedy and improvisational theater. Between 1960 and 1965, still based in Chicago, Spolin collaborated with her son, Paul, at The Second City, where she served as a workshop director and continued refining her Theater Games system. Spolin also hired Josephine Forsberg as her assistant and protégé. Forsberg helped with workshops at the Second City and the children's theater shows held there on weekends. Eventually, Spolin passed on the responsibility of the children's shows and improv classes to Forsberg. Forsberg's work at the Second City, beginning in the mid-1960s, led to her founding the Players Workshop in 1971 and influenced the establishment of the Improv Olympiad with her son Eric Forsberg and David Shepard. Charna Halpern also joined the initiative, and in the late 1980s her and Del Close turned the Improv Olympiad into the now renowned iO theater by leveraging Del’s new improv format called The Harold. The Second City Training Center was also formed in the 1980s, all rooted in Spolin's methodologies. During this period, she wrote "Improvisation for the Theater," a seminal work containing about 220 games and exercises, widely used by acting teachers and educators in various fields. The impact of Spolin's work is evident in the success of The Second City, which became a training ground for many successful actors and comedians. "Improvisation for the Theater", first published by Northwestern University Press in 1963, is widely considered the bible of improvisational practice. Her exercises were not just about honing an actor's craft; they were also about personal growth, encouraging individuals to break free from inhibiting social and internal constraints. From Spolin’s writings,
"Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become stageworthy. We learn through experience and experiencing, and no one teaches anyone anything. . . . ‘Talent’ or ‘lack of talent’ has little to do with it.”
Improvisation for the Theater has gone on to be updated and re-released with all of the new strategies Spolin learned after initial publication. A wave of improv troupes sprouted across the country as actors and performers welcomed Spolin’s work with open arms.
In 1965, Spolin, along with Sills and others, co-founded the Game Theater in Chicago. Around the same time, she helped start a cooperative kindergarten and elementary school (initially named Playroom School, later Parents School) in the Old Town/Lincoln Park area with several families. The theater and school aimed to dissolve the traditional barrier between actors and audience by involving everyone in Theater Games. While the theater saw limited success and closed after a few months, the school continued using Spolin's techniques in conjunction with standard elementary education well into the 1970s.
Viola Spolin's Theater Games are a method of teaching acting skills and techniques through game-like exercises. Each game is designed with a specific focus or technical challenge, akin to keeping an eye on the ball in sports. These games use straightforward rules to impart complex theatrical skills. Players learn by staying engaged in the game's objectives, which prevents them from becoming self-conscious or overly intellectual in their approach. The goal is to keep actors focused on the present, similar to how a mantra works in meditation. This approach fosters an environment where players can experience spontaneous, intuitive, and inspired moments of creativity. The games are structured to encourage spontaneous action, keeping the player's mind engaged in the creative process rather than preoccupied with planning, comparing, or judging their improvisational choices. As one critic noted, these exercises are "structures designed to almost fool spontaneity into being."
As we’ve made quite clear, Spolin believed in the universal potential for acting and creative expression. Her view was that learning is an experiential process, not something that is strictly taught. She argued that if the environment is conducive, a person can learn anything they choose, and similarly, if an individual is open to it, the environment can impart a wealth of knowledge. According to Spolin, the concept of 'talent' plays a minimal role in this learning process. As history has shown us, Spolin's contribution to theater education extended beyond the exercises. She was instrumental in further developing concepts such as the "invisible theater," where the line between actors and audience blurs, creating a more immersive and interactive experience. This concept not only revolutionized theatrical performances but also paved the way for future explorations in immersive theater.
Viola Spolin passed away in 1994, but her legacy continues to thrive in theaters and classrooms around the world. The theaters, schools, and groups she founded and influenced persist, embodying her philosophy as their fundamental principles. Her innovative techniques have not only survived but flourished, evolving with each new generation of actors and educators. Spolin's work remains a testament to the power of play and improvisation in unlocking human creativity and expression in the theater. We’ll conclude with a motivating excerpt from Spolin, sharing her perspectives on creativity,
“Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves. It creates an explosion that for the moment frees us from handed down frames of reference, memory choked with old facts and information and undigested theories and techniques of other people's findings. Spontaneity is the moment of personal freedom when we are faced with a reality and see it, explore it and act accordingly. In this reality the bits and pieces of ourselves function as an organic whole. It is the time of discovery, of experiencing, of creative expression.”
https://www.violaspolin.org/bio
https://spolingamesonline.org/a-brief-history-of-improvisation-spolin-and-sills-laid-down-the-rules/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_games