Some of our favorite sites:
Past Mouthings-Off:
Soft Focus and the
Go Ahead, Screw Up.
Creativity: What Is It
Art of Telling a Story
It's Good for You!
and Who Has It?
Mouthing Off
Why Improv Is Absolutely Essential
"I hate imagination," the woman growled at me during an innocuous exercise in an Applied Improv
program I was leading. I wasn't expecting that. I'd never heard anyone say that ever,
much less in one of the hundreds of course and workshop sessions I've facilitated.
A bit stunned, the most appropriate response I could come up with was something like, "Well,
that's a choice and you have the right to make it..."
"That's right," the woman interjected.
I continued, "I have chosen to integrate imagination into my life as much as possible and I've found it has
made for a successful and fulfilling career and a happy life outside of work. But that's just
my choice."
If anyone ever tells me he or she hates imagination again though, I'm going to be loaded for
bear.
"So I guess you hate Gandhi and Jesus and Einstein and Martin Luther King, Jr. and anyone who has
tried to make the world a better place," I might retort. My intention isn't going to be to hurt
feelings but to ask why. Why do you hate imagination? What do you
have that's so much better that makes you want to hate?
Of course, I'm not really going to have to say anything because I'm already saying it. Indeed,
I am indebted to the woman who hates imagination because she made me realize just how important
it is.
Imagination, I contend, is nothing less than the heart of civilization, of social evolution.
Certainly imagination as the soul of art is a familiar concept to most people. Painting,
writing, musical composition, choreography--it all revolves around the artist's vision. For many
adults, imagination is artistry and that is this woman's objection to it; she's just not
comfortable being artistic.
But let's look at people like King, Jesus, and Gandhi. What were they all about? Justice,
I say. Justice is fairness. Fairness is doing what's right not only for yourself but for others
as well. And how can you escape the cold boundaries of self-interest? With imagination! You've
got to imagine yourself in the other guy's shoes.
And when you imagine yourself in someone else's situation, you find yourself feeling
compassion. It's the step beyond justice--not just doing what is right by others but also
treating them as you would yourself.
In addition, true communication demands that you imagine your message as others might see it
and imagine
yourself making the messages of others.
Uh-oh, touchy-feely alert! Let's bring this back down to earth a bit. What about businesspeople?
They've heard that imagination is good for them but is it in anything other than a 'soft,'
intangible way?
Well, problem solving is a pretty solid, no-frills skill and it relies on imagination. How? You've
got a situation you don't like. In order to change it, you must conceive of what might make it
better and how you might effect that change. Imagination is at the heart of solving problems.
Innovation is imagining a new and better way to do things and it is the by-product of the
creative process.
Managing and motivating people requires imagination because the manager has to get an idea for
what it's like to be the one managed and what's going to work from that perspective.
Even the scientific process relies on imagination. A hypothesis must be imagined that will be
subsequently proven or disproved. Data is collected but how will that data be organized? Once
again, imagination must be summoned; data will not just arrange themselves.
When you consider that the evolution of homo sapiens has rested upon problem solving,
innovation, and paying close attention each other, I feel one can state that civilization and progress are
the product of applying imagination to the assumption that people can create something greater
than biology alone
dictates (an assumption that in itself requires imagination). Perhaps imagination resides in our genes.
Okay, the dead horse has been beaten. What next?
If you are convinced of the importance of imagination--if you trust that imagination should not
be hated--how do you go about developing and using your imagination? Same way you get to
Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.
Artistic disciplines give participants an opportunity to exercise their creative and imaginative
muscles. Just as with actual physiological muscles, the more these muscles are exercised, the
stronger and more ready for use they become.
Improvisation is an ideal artistic discipline for developing and using imagination for many
reasons, including that it can be done in groups and that
little preparation or technical expertise is required to do it (at least if you're not asking
people to pay to see it).
You get a group of people with nothing but their minds and bodies and
you let them create and magic can happen. It's fun. You get to know each other. Unexpected
things transpire.
Once imagination is welcomed into the process, even if it is simply by doing some improv
exercises, suddenly you have the tool you most need to solve problems, to create and innovate,
to communicate, and to adapt and evolve.
There, I said it: Improv can save the world.
-Greg Hohn, Director
Transactors Improv is returning to the Stone Leaf Theatre Festival in Asheville! The company
performs at BeBe Theatre at 8 p.m., June 1; 8 & 11 p.m., June 2; and 4 & 8 p.m., June 3. Please
visit
Stone Leaf's site for more information.
Steven recently appeared in two short films.
Steve and his wife, Anne-Marie, went on a Disney Cruise over Christmas but didn't take their
daughter! What's WRONG with these people?
Rachel appears in Ghost & Spice Productions' of Agnes of God in
January. She plays the psychiatrist and has been doing intensive research
for the part with her father, a retired psychiatrist. That explains a lot,
doesn't it? The play runs at Common Ground
Theatre in Durham, Jan. 12-29 (Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m.).
After many months of being overworked and dreaming of a vacation, Nancy
now has TWO vacations in the works: a week in Sanibel, Fla., and a long
weekend in Vegas with her "girl cousins" over St. Patrick's Day. She was also recently cast
in Jay Enterkin's short film Golf War Widows, which shoots in February and March.
Mike installs sound systems in churches as part of his job. This work is, incidentally, independent
of the work he does with Transactors Improv.
Jill is enjoying her new haircut.
Jeffrey is a volunteer at Project Compassion, a non-profit that creates community and provides
support for people living with serious illness, care giving, end of life, and grief. Comedy gold...
Rider magazine's February issue features Greg's travelogue and photographs from a
motorcycle tour he took in Montana and Idaho last summer.
In addition to her usual improv classes, Anoushka is offering a new class this semester,
Creativity and Dream Making, which is about making your creative dreams real. She will also be
taking classes in writing and filmmaking to make real her newest creative
dreams, which include visions of highly silly, improvised mockumentaries.
Transactors Improv has T-shirts! They're black with our lightbulb on the front and our logo and motto on the back in white. Available in S, L, and XL sizes, they are 100% cotton and cost $10. Contact us at transactors@transactors.org if you want one or even more.
To subscribe to our e-mailing list, write
transactors@transactors.org.
Winter 2006
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