Viola Spolin Quotes

A collection of quotes by Viola Spolin.

Viola Spolin (1906-1994) was an American theater educator, director, and writer, known as the mother of improvisational theater. She developed a unique approach to theater games and exercises that focused on spontaneity, intuition, and ensemble work. Spolin's influential book, "Improvisation for the Theater," outlined her method and provided a guide for actors and teachers. Her teachings revolutionized American theater, laying the foundation for the improvisational techniques used today in comedy and drama. Through her work, Spolin empowered generations of actors to embrace creativity, collaboration, and improvisation as essential tools for theatrical expression.

We learn through experience and experiencing, and no one tea

We learn through experience and experiencing, and no one teaches anyone anything. This is as true for the infant moving from kicking to crawling to walking as it is for the scientist with his equations. If the environment permits it, anyone can learn whatever he chooses to learn; and if the individual permits it, the environment will teach him everything it has to teach.

Experience

Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves. It crea

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 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.

Action(s)

The audience is the most revered member of the theater. With

The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.

Praise

There are few places outside his own play where a child can

There are few places outside his own play where a child can contribute to the world in which he finds himself. His world: dominated by adults who tell him what to do and when to do it --benevolent tyrants who dispense gifts to their good subjects and punishment to their bad ones, who are amused at the cleverness of children and annoyed by their stupidities.

Children