Interpretation and assumption keep the player from direct communication. This is why we say “show, don’t tell”. Telling is verbally or in some other indirect way indicating what one is doing. This then puts the work upon the audience or the fellow actor, and the student learns nothing. Showing means direct contact and direct communication. It does not mean passively pointing to something. – from Tips and Pointers, Improvisation for the Theater 3^rd Edition, Viola Spolin Northwestern University Press.

When you don’t see where you are, all you can do is talk about it.

You get a suggestion for a scene:
Who – A husband and wife.   Where – at Disneyland.   What – waiting to get on a ride.

Most players will begin the scene with dialogue something like this.

Husband:  Well, well, dear isn’t this nice. Look! There’s the Matterhorn. Hi Mickey!

Wife:  Sweetie, Let’s go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride after this.

Husband: Do we have to? I’m tired honey, can we sit down?

What’s wrong with that, you ask? Nothing really. Except they told in dialogue what they should have been seeing (and didn’t) and they also told their relationship by calling each other honey and dear. After all, that’s what indicates to the audience that there is a husband and wife relationship, right? Where do you go from here? It is likely you’ll use Yes, And… and add more information. Maybe there’s an earthquake or Mickey starts hitting on the wife – and you’d have a pretty funny scene.

But what if you showed where you were and showed you were married rather than telling the audience what they just told you?

Viola wrote a collection of thoughts and musings on teaching that were developed for the text of her book, “Improvisation for the Theater”, but were to be left out of the final edit. She kept these ideas in a shoe box for insertion and elucidation at a later date. Rather than keep them on the cutting room floor, she considered them valuable enough to include in the book simply as ‘tips and pointers’.

I repeat them here with of my own commentary in the hope that teachers may get more fully involved in the teaching and coaching of Spolin’s games.

1. Do not rush student-actors. Some students particularly need to feel unhurried. When necessary, quietly coach. “Take your time.” “We all have lots of time.” “We are with you.”

This deals with the common problem of urgency. Many students panic in an improvised scene because they get overwhelmed; they feel the need to move the scene forward; they feel nervous and judged (in their own mind or for real, as many directors make opinions on a player’s ability and that is picked up by the student).

The Trap

Imagine twenty or thirty students all preoccupied with success or failure in a subject, bent on getting all the right answers in order to pass the subject, all wanting to please the teacher who knows all the right answers, who sits kindly or severely in judgment of all who face him/her. This could be you. It used to be me.