The Krapp story

The story Krapp

Read about the Krapp theatre experience.

Workshops

Sign up for the Summer Weekend Retreat

August 20 - 22

Join us for a weekend of fun in the country in August at the Full Circle Retreat Center near Viroqua, Wis.

Get the details on workshops and the Retreat on

The Workshop Page

You can learn to find the funny

You can learn to be spontaneous just as you would learn a golf swing, or dance step.

You can join the Monday Meet Your Playful Self Workshop sessions that happen on Monday evenings in La Crosse.


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Improv Everywhere

Have you seen or heard about the work of Improv Everywhere? They do spontaneous scenes of chaos and joy in public places. What could be more "Playful" than that?

Click the link below to find out more.

Improv Everywhere,

The Playful Book

The Playful book is coming!

You can learn to find the funny

.

You can learn to be spontaneous just as you would learn a golf swing, or dance step.

The book Meet Your Playful Self traces the 30 year development of paths you can follow into your intutive/playful self and includes 47 detailed, specific exercises for teachers, managers, actors, improvisers, or ...Anyone!

Take a peek at the book!

OR

Read excerpts from the book and blog articles -RSS

Contact Info

My Playful Self
P.O Box 64
Gays Mills, WI 54631
Email:cord@ myplayfulself.com


Everyone can learn to play at life through Meet Your Playful Self - improvisation!

You can be a more PLAYFUL person. You can acquire playful new skills just as certainly as you can learn to play on a court, a course, or a gym.

You do not need to spend a lot - raise your income - or change your career.

Improvisation is for everyone! The word improvise is often equated with some far-and-away skill employed by the creative sorts to communicate with their muse. Not true. Improvisation is a playfulness within you just wanting to be released.

Yes...you have this nature. Everyone does.

Dennis Kern

Is the Author of Meet Your Playful Self and leads workshops in self improvement through improvisation.

Walk or run or skip the path to - Your intuitive - playful self!


He has worked and taught in the performing arts for over 30 years. He introduced Chris Farley to improvisation, see Playful Past link)- and taught Joan Cusack, Ron Bieganski (Artistic Director Of Free Street Theatre -Chicago),Todd Hanson (an originator of The Onion newspaper and "The Onion Movie"), and Brian Stack (writer for the "The TonightShow" with Conan O'Brien".

Dennis graduated from UW La Crosse in Wisconsin and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. He worked in the conservatory at Chicago's Second City and completed workshop training for "Play Back Theatre" in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Dennis co-founded the (read 2001 article) ARK Improvisational Theatre in Madison, which produced, improvised and perfromed scripted works for twelve years.

He is a contributor to the biography of Chis Farley "The Chris Farely Show"


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Independence High School Meet Your Playful Self - Video Workshop

The students pictured below created a video at Trempealeau County Community Television in Whitehall, Wisconsin. It will be aired on TCTV soon. Check back for the viewing schedule

Left to right: Molly Backman, Jared Rebarchek, Hillary Bautch, Sean Warner, Valeria Perez, Stephen Hansen

We had fun doing some of the excersises from the Meet Your Playful Self workshop. The video will give you a give you a closer look at how you can awaken your playful self.

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The beginnings of the Meet Your Playful Self workshops

Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become "stage worthy".
-Viola Spolin

Viola Spolin

Excerpt from The Meet Your Playful Self book

Viola Spolin was one of the great teachers who was dedicated to guiding people to discover their playful nature . She demonstrated the value, power, and transformative potential of improvisation as she created hundreds of theater games through which she brought real and ordinary people to new awareness in workshop settings. Sheworked with people who were interested in performing in the theatre before an audience, but she recognized thatthe skills for doing so were not exclusive to those who wanted to perform. The very first sentence of her book Improvisation for the Theater is - Everyone can act. Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become "stage worthy". Viola Spolin

Viola Spolin understood that improvisation was for everyone. She began to snatch the word "improvisation" from the hands of the gods to place it in the grasp of everyone. Her work has been instrumental to me in thirty years of discovery following the path she first cut through the forest of creative play.Here is a link to the Spolin Center for more about her work.

Playfulness is not out of the context of relating to the people, places, and things of everyday life.

When I began 'the work', I was content to refer to it as improvisation. Over the years, I began to realize how "the work" was more all-encompassing than what the word "improvisation" suggests.

Meet Your Playful Self engages people in a playful practice for living every day life.

Meet Your Playful Self engages people in a playful practice for living every day life. The approach is similar to The Artist's Way, which was published when the cover of Time magazine read: The Economy - Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?- and found a needful audience. When we face difficult times we seek the very simplest practical solutions to relieve stress and enjoy our most personal lives. We can learn to awaken the joyful playfulness which is already within us just begging to get out. What better time than now?

The book premise is simple and finds the joy of being in a most obvious place. We can communicate playfully by practicing the skills artists, actors and improvisers have crafted since the 15th Century. In fact, the skills offer a spiritual connection to our creative source and can be practiced just as we might learn to play on a court, a course, or a river bank. Just allow your senses become your ball, your perception become your club, and your playfulness become your fly rod.

The practices for play are presented through 8 personal experiments and 47 powerful group exercises. We can overcome unconscious blocks to realizing our goals; resistance to listening, reacting defensively, and evading and questioning. With awareness and practice, we can find our funny to rise above nagging negativity and become light, intuitive and just more fun with our co-workers, family, and friends.

I did not set out to conceptualize an idea that would sell books. This work arrives from 40 years of leading workshops, creating web tutorials, and being blessed with the coincidences of my creative life that brought the late Chris Farley, Joan Cusack, Bonnie Hunt, and writers for The Tonight Show, The Onion and hundreds of adventurous souls into a circle of experience I lovingly call the collective we. A book is a better choice than a 48,000 word epitaph.

Have Fun!<<<<<>>>>> Happy Hunting!

Below is a short video of some of the moments of Theatre and Improvisation fun over the past 30 or so years.