The Applied Improvisation Mindset: Tools for Transforming Organizations and Communities

How can the practice of improvisation become the lens through which we view the world? The Applied Improvisation Mindset takes readers deep into the maturing field of Applied Improvisation (AI), with stories of 18 practitioners from five countries who embrace an improvisation mindset to create a more collaborative, equitable, sustainable, and joyous world. Myriad organizations have discovered how the mindset and skills applied by great improvisers onstage can reveal emergent, generative ways of interacting with others offstage. With case studies on developing presentation skills, reducing anxiety in teens, or preparing climate risk managers across the globe for the challenges ahead, this second volume serves as a valuable resource for both experienced and new AI facilitators. It is a primer for higher education and K-12 faculty combatting traditional teaching limitations and a practical “how to” for theatre practitioners, artists, educators, or anyone seeking to transform their organizations and communities.

Theresa Robbins Dudeck is a theatre scholar-practitioner with expertise in improvisation and applied improvisation. She works globally, in both professional and academic settings, applying the power of impro to pedagogy, leadership, teamwork, collaborative creation, and social change. She was a recent US Fulbright Scholar in Brazil and is considered one of the foremost teachers of Keith Johnstone's Impro System. Theresa is co-director/executive producer of the YouTube docuseries “On Keith: Artists Speak on Johnstone & Impro” and co-founder of the Global Improvisation Initiative, an international symposium focused on theatrical improvisation. She earned a PhD in Theatre Arts from University of Oregon.

Caitlin McClure has been researching, studying, performing, directing, and teaching improv and applied improv since 1995. Her formative years were spent at BATS Improv in San Francisco and studying with Keith Johnstone. At Caitlin McClure & Company, she works primarily in the corporate sector as a coach, designer, and facilitator, helping leaders around the world to live and work according to the tenets of the improv. Her MA is in Adult Learning and Leadership from Columbia University.