The Paradox of Side-Coaching

Solving my “Shut-Off” “My work is not Psychodrama!! Never use your own tears! Use the character’s tears!” Viola proclaimed this very emphatically when we would try to work out our personal problems in a scene. Some actors in our workshop...
Space is not nothing – it is EVERYTHING!

Space is not nothing – it is EVERYTHING!

Using Space objects is not pantomime. As I wrote about in my previous blog, http://www.improv-odyssey.com/out-of-the-head-and-into-the-space/ Space object and work with contacting the where is one aspect of this work. As Viola puts it in her Handbook for the Theater...

How I Met Viola Spolin

My First Encounter with the Mother of Improvisation  I was living in Hollywood, tending bar, performing comedy and mime in local cafes and trying to break into show business like thousands of other hopefuls from all over the country.  A dear friend of mine called from...
Out of the Head and Into the Space

Out of the Head and Into the Space

Discovering Space as Substance and a New Reality Preface  I started my performing career as a mime.  Mimes in the mid 1970′s and 80′s were synonymous with corny uninspired white faced buskers who went around mimicking passers-by and asking for money.  I became a mime...