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List of contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Theresa Robbins Dudeck and Caitlin McClure
PART ONE: Developing the Leaders We Need
1.Improv is the Gym: Presentation Skills and Beyond at H4B’s Catapult College -Kat Koppett (arts practitioner, USA)
2.The Business School Collaboration Lab: Turning Leader Development Into a Rigorous Experiment in Creative Collaboration - Pamela Burke (Stevens Institute of Technology and Columbia University Teachers College, USA)
3.Developing Strategic, Action Oriented, and Mindful Leaders - Petro Janse van Vuuren (University of the Witwatersrand School of Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa)
PART TWO: Developing the Youth We Need
4.The Improv Project’s Detroit Yes, And - Peter Felsman (Stony Brook University, USA) and Tiger Veenstra (arts practitioner, USA)
5.Spontaneity in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Valuing the “In-between” and “After” of Applied Improvisation -
Moriah Flagler (The Ohio State University, USA)
6.Of Course We Improvise! What the Best Teachers Do (and how they do it) - Nick Sorensen (founder of The Improvising School, UK)
PART THREE: Developing the Communities We Need
7.Trips to No-Mistakes-Land: Improvisation as a Meta-Skill for Doctoral Students - Gunter Lösel (Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland)
8.Transforming the Culture of Communication in Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School - Raquell Holmes (arts practitioner, USA) and Mia Anderson (arts practitioner, USA)
9.Playing Around with Changing the World - Carrie Lobman (Rutgers University, USA) and Marian Rich (arts practitioner, USA)
10.The Joy of Dementia - Mary Fridley (East Side Institute, NYC, USA) and Susan Massad (East Side Institute, USA)
11.A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Disaster: Reimagining Learning for the Humanitarian Sector
Barbara Tint (Portland State University, USA) and Bettina Koelle (arts practitioner, South Africa)
Appendices
A. Key Improvisation Tenets and Terms
B. About the Workbook and List of Exercises
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Theresa Robbins Dudeck is a theatre scholar-practitioner with expertise in improvisation and applied improvisation. She works globally, in both professional and academic settings, applying the power of impro to pedagogy, leadership, teamwork, collaborative creation, and social change. She was a recent US Fulbright Scholar in Brazil and is considered one of the foremost teachers of Keith Johnstone’s Impro System. Theresa is co-director/executive producer of the YouTube docuseries “On Keith: Artists Speak on Johnstone & Impro” and co-founder of the Global Improvisation Initiative, an international symposium focused on theatrical improvisation. She earned a PhD in Theatre Arts from University of Oregon.Caitlin McClure has been researching, studying, performing, directing, and teaching improv and applied improv since 1995. Her formative years were spent at BATS Improv in San Francisco and studying with Keith Johnstone. At Caitlin McClure & Company, she works primarily in the corporate sector as a coach, designer, and facilitator, helping leaders around the world to live and work according to the tenets of the improv. Her MA is in Adult Learning and Leadership from Columbia University.
Summary
How can the practice of improvisation become the lens through which we view the world? The Applied Improvisation Mindset takes readers deep into the maturing field of Applied Improvisation (AI), with stories of 18 practitioners from five countries who embrace an improvisation mindset to create a more collaborative, equitable, sustainable, and joyous world. Myriad organizations have discovered how the mindset and skills applied by great improvisers onstage can reveal emergent, generative ways of interacting with others offstage.
With case studies on developing presentation skills, reducing anxiety in teens, or preparing climate risk managers across the globe for the challenges ahead, this second volume serves as a valuable resource for both experienced and new AI facilitators. It is a primer for higher education and K-12 faculty combatting traditional teaching limitations and a practical “how to” for theatre practitioners, artists, educators, or anyone seeking to transform their organizations and communities.
Additional text
Dudeck and McClure serve (again!) as indispensable guides and translators of how the wisdom and magic of improv can apply to (and transform) everyday group work and life.
