Theater Games for the Lone Actor

Viola Spolin's Theater Games for the Lone Actor offers theater games and side coaching for the solo player. Available for the first time, this handbook presents more than forty exercises that allow actors to side coach themselves at home, in rehearsal, or in performance.

Spolin's improvisational techniques changed the nature and practice of modern theater. Her work has inspired actors, directors, teachers, and writers in theater, television, and film. Her techniques have also influenced the fields of education, mental health, social work, and psychology.


Author: Viola Spolin
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Published: 09/12/2001
Pages: 189
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 7.00h x 4.40w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9780810140103
ISBN10: 0810140101
BISAC Categories:
- Performing Arts | Acting & Auditioning
- Performing Arts | Theater | General

About the Author
Viola Spolin, the originator of theater games, was introduced to the use of games, storytelling, folk dance, and dramatics as tools for stimulating creative expression in the 1920s while a student of Neva Boyd at Chicago's Hull House. During her years as a teacher and supervisor of creative dramatics there, she began to develop her nonverbal, nonpsychological approach. Her books have been translated into Swedish, German, and Portuguese. She died in 1994.

Paul Sills is Viola Spolin's son and the founding director of Chicago's Second City and of Story Theater. He is the coeditor of the third edition of Spolin's Improvisation for the Theater, also published by Northwestern University Press.