Insights and Awakenings

Improvisation —

Acting It Out Instead of Acting Up!

By Lindsay Brill, MBA English and Special Education

TMH Associate Director of School Programs

Improvisation, or acting without preparation, is fun and engaging for children and adults in every stage of life. Improv encourages spontaneity and cooperation which leads to the enhancement of social and emotional skills. Below are 9-Ways in which improv can specifically improve SEL skills.

1) Pride and Self-Esteem

The act of performing in front of an audience, no matter how big or small, can help participants learn to be more confident and comfortable in their own skin. Similarly, participating in improv activities can lead to a sense of accomplishment and pride in one's abilities. Further, improv can foster a sense of belonging and community within a group, which can contribute to increased pride and self esteem.

2) Problem Solving

Improv asks participants to think on their feet and come up with creative solutions to challenges or obstacles that arise. Improvisers have to devise new ideas on the spot, under time pressure. This problem solving is generally done as a group, which is great practice for learning to work effectively with others to find solutions to problems.

3) Empathy

Improv requires participants to pay attention and understand perspectives and emotions of others. By actively listening and responding to one another, improvisers learn to see things from others' viewpoints and develop empathy.

For instance, if someone is playing a character who is feeling sad, the other players have to be able to understand and respond to this emotion in order for the scene to work. By doing this, the improvisers learn to be more empathetic and considerate of others' emotions.

Additionally, improv can be a great way to practice perspective-taking, as improvisers are often asked to play characters who have different backgrounds or experiences than their own. By doing this, they can learn to see things from other's perspectives and develop a more empathetic understanding of the world.

4) Flexibility

As there is no script in improv, participants must think on their feet, be open to new ideas and adapt to new situations. One of the core principles of improv is known as "Yes, and...", which means that the improviser must accept what another improviser has stated and then expand upon it.

Therefore, someone might be expected to play a character or be in a situation with which they are unfamiliar, or uninterested in. In order for the scene to work, players have to be able to be open to change, or the unknown.

5) Resiliency

Improv scenes present obstacles to overcome and failure at some point is unavoidable, which makes practicing improv a great way to work on bouncing back from challenges or setbacks. Additionally, as things almost never go as planned in improv, it is a great way to practice being more buoyant in the face of the unexpected.

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