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More information coming soon!


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THE SPOLIN INFLUENCE

During the past 3 years AWI has slowly started incorporating principals based on the works by Viola Spolin who wrote “Improviation for the Theater”. She writes, "Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become stageworthy. We learn through experience and experiencing, and no one teaches anyone anything. . . . ‘Talent’ or ‘lack of talent’ has little to do with it.” Each game has a purpose.

“My vision is a world with accessible intuition”- Viola Spolin

Weather you have yet to explore your creative side or you have invested yourself wholly into the theater profession, we are all equal in human-ness. Please, come to the table, take a risk and let’s trust the work of our teachers and innovators! These scientists of the intuitive, who loved playing and saw it transform people have given us a framework to work within. Let’s not think of engaging in competitive improv, let’s not be the funniest or the most clever, let’s instead remember our place as neighbors in this together. We are players, we are storytellers, we are people who want nothing more than to share are authentic unique view of the world….in a fun and relatable way. - Jen Jurek

The time for reactivating the intuitive might be...now. To understand the benefits of Viola’s work it might help to know how it all began. Viola began her student life  at Hull House with Jane Adams and other educators in the 1920’s, an immigrant. Through a joint effort of  social workers, namely Neva Boyd: An interested observer of children’s play.   Viola adopted games which Ms. Boyd documented and and created a system by which to play them in communities. She’d play with anyone who’d play!

The games themselves with aid by a ‘side coach’ (Viola’s name for the teacher of her classes) gives the student opportunities of self correction without being called out or criticized. In other words, if a person decides on a personal agenda within a game, the rules of said game (as well as the fellow players in the game) will work to right the ship: All to stay in the boundaries laid out in the initial game description. So, a person can save face as they learn avoiding damaging criticisms from outside sources.    If you are interested in learning more about Spolin’s work or philosophy please feel free to read more about her:


If you are interested in learning more about Spolin’s work or philosophy please feel free to read more about her: HERE



Past Classes:

10 Week Online Spolin Class: March 2021

Weather you have yet to explore your creative side or you have invested yourself wholly into the theater profession, we are all equal in human-ness. Please, come to the table, take a risk and let’s trust the work of our predecessors, Viola Spolin, Paul Sills, Neva Boyd and everyone in between that added to this work. These scientists of the intuitive, who loved playing and saw it’s virtue have given us a framework to work within. Let’s not think of engaging in competitive improv, let’s not be the funniest or the most clever, let’s instead remember our place as neighbors in this together. We are players, we are storytellers, we are people who want nothing more than to share are authentic unique view of the world….in a fun and relatable way. - Jen Jurek


8 Week Online Spolin Class: September 2021

*This class is for you as you are, where you are, and who you are - today

Viola Spolin's games serve to activate the intuition and the self. "Theater games do not inspire "proper" moral behavior (good/bad), but rather seek to free each person to feel his or her own true nature, out of which a felt, experienced, actual love of neighbor will appear." - Viola Spolin

This class is based on Viola Spolin’s theater games and will be taking place this fall online. Jen Jurek has been lovingly combing through this work with help of fellow Spolin educators, Aretha Sills, and of course using the direct work and words of Viola Spolin. Engaging with your physical environment and those in it (while transcending what we perceive as limitations of being online) will refresh and focus your creative inclinations. Trust yourself and the process and join us. In this we PLAY.