I'm an anthropologist who teaches at a Christian liberal arts college near Chicago. I started doing improv in January, 2022 mostly as a relatively-less-socially-and-personally destructive option for my midlife crisis. It has become a vocation in its own right as I find in improv many of the life lessons I have been trying to impart to my students for decades, and a source of personal transformation I've been seeking in myself. I've written a bit about how improv works in the world and intersects with teaching and other important life stuff, but hadn't thought through ways that improv might illuminate these sorts of concepts themselves. Thanks for writing this up, and, more importantly, being willing to work with Theater People. As I come to consider myself one of those kinds of people, I notice both how valuable our contributions can be, but how rarely they're well utilized.
Fantastic, John! I would have liked to join you three to enjoy the Cajun/Creole evening. Ability to take ourselves in a less than serious way seems to be missing from a lot of present day discourse.
I'm an anthropologist who teaches at a Christian liberal arts college near Chicago. I started doing improv in January, 2022 mostly as a relatively-less-socially-and-personally destructive option for my midlife crisis. It has become a vocation in its own right as I find in improv many of the life lessons I have been trying to impart to my students for decades, and a source of personal transformation I've been seeking in myself. I've written a bit about how improv works in the world and intersects with teaching and other important life stuff, but hadn't thought through ways that improv might illuminate these sorts of concepts themselves. Thanks for writing this up, and, more importantly, being willing to work with Theater People. As I come to consider myself one of those kinds of people, I notice both how valuable our contributions can be, but how rarely they're well utilized.
This is awesome--thanks for writing!
Love the improv bits! What a fun way to do a talk!
Fantastic, John! I would have liked to join you three to enjoy the Cajun/Creole evening. Ability to take ourselves in a less than serious way seems to be missing from a lot of present day discourse.
Thank you for pointing this out.