“Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise.
Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater...”

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.
" Talent" or "lack of talent" have very little to do with it.”
– Viola Spolin, "Improvisation for the Theater"

“Mike Nichols, Elain May, Alan Arkin, Alan Alda, Ed Asner, and many others are greatly indebted to Paul Sills who almost single-handedly evolved improvisation into a performance art form. The qualifying “almost” allows for the significant role of Sills' mother, Viola Spolin, who has been for several generations the godmother of the movement.”
– Mel Gussow, N.Y. Times

“Theater Games develop trust among people and Viola Spolin's book is the bible.”
– Rob Reiner, Film Director

“Theater Games are a process applicable to any field discipline or subject matter where full participation, communication, transformation can take place.”
– Viola Spolin

Our beloved teacher and mentor, Viola Spolin, died at the age of 88 on November 22, 1994. She is deeply missed by those who had the privilege of knowing her and working with her.

Viola left an amazing legacy. Through her Theater Games she conjured our personal creativity. Her work inspired a new American art form – improvisational theater.

She was the source from which every improvisational theater company evolved. Her work was a blueprint for world theater in this century and it was carried beyond into education and psychology.

From Chicago's settlement houses to the Young Actor's Company, the Compass Players, Second City and on to Saturday Night Live, as well as in thousands of institutions of education and healing throughout the world Viola Spolin taught us to play and to discover our creative potential.

Some of the players who have been touched by the work of Viola Spolin:

Alan Alda Jane Alexander Alan Arkin Shelley Berman Roger Bowen Jack Burns Del Close Severn Darden Andrew Duncan Barbara Harris Henry Jaglom Elaine May Paul Mazursky Anne Meara

Mike Nichols J.J. Barry Jim Belushi John Belushi Peter Boyle Jack Burns Hamid hamilton Camp John Candy David Shepherd Dan Aykroyd Jerry Stiller Severn Darden   Andrew Duncan Valerie Harper

Fred Kaz Mina Kolb Zohra Lampert Linda Lavin Eugene Levy Richard Libertini Shelley Long Paul Magursky Tom O'organ Sheldon Patinkin Gilda Radner Harold Ramis David Rasche Joan Rivers

Ann Ryerson Bernard Sahlins Paul Sand Richard Schaal Avery Schreiber Omar Shapli Martin Short David Steinberg Eugene Troobnic Sandy Holt Anthony Holland Eugenie Ross-Leming George Morrison Barbara Harris