Posts Tagged improv
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January 6, 2016 by Praxis
Communities of Discovery
What Improv taught us about the spiritual life while we were at the Young Adult Retreat “Isn’t improv hard?” My wife asked me at breakfast, after I’d been waxing poetic about the 2015 Young Adult retreat, where my friends Barbara Allen and Bill Sabo led us in exploring the spirituality of improvisation. “Not really,” I […]Archives
November 7, 2015 by Karl Stevens
What does it mean to be wise in today’s world?
The night before, someone had asked me if I thought that life was primarily comedy or primarily tragedy. I said comedy, without really knowing why. Then, as sometimes happens in the most surprising way, I found myself sitting at our Ministerium lunch the very next day, listening as Rabbi Roger Klein supported my sense that […]Archives
April 29, 2015 by Karl Stevens
Give Play a Chance: A Reflection on the Play Conference
There’s an etch-a-sketch mounted on the wall of a Columbus coffee shop, with a carefully etched picture of leaves and flowers, and the words “Give Play a Chance.” I took a picture of it and texted it to Jane Gerdsen, Jed Dearing, and Aaron Wright, my co-collaborators in the Play Conference that took place at […]Archives
March 5, 2015 by Karl Stevens
Fully Alive! A Pilgrimage in Chicago to Learn Improv
A line of people stood looking at a small table. It was empty, but they’d been told that there was a television on it, and asked to describe that television. “Use the phrase, ’it is,’ at the start of your description,” John Poole told them. Hesitantly, people offered their phrases. “It is black. It is […]Archives
December 22, 2014 by Praxis
Fully Alive: An Improv Retreat!
A retreat in Chicago, February 20-22nd. To learn more, go to fullyaliveretreat.tumblr.com In his book, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics, Samuel Wells defines improvisation in the theater as “a practice through which actors seek to develop trust in themselves and one another in order that they may conduct unscripted dramas without fear.” Sounds a lot like […]Archives
July 8, 2014 by Karl Stevens