MEET YOUR PLAYFUL SELF

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47 complete workshop exercises

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Playful Past

Chris Farley & Roots of the work.

You can find a short bio of Dennis and more about the people and places where the paths and tools of Meeting Your Playful Self evolved.






Here is a peek at the opening of the book

Meet Your Playful Self

You are holding a book in your hands and reading this first sentence and wondering what you will discover and enjoy here. For thirty years I have observed hundreds of people for thousands of hours in apartments, basements, fields, and theatres as they played; they improvised. I watched and guided these people with one question in mind - How can the conceptual be brought to the intuitive? What is in your hands is a step-by-step instruction book of tools and paths used by actors and improvisers to capture the creative playful moment. No matter your age, sex, occupation, race, or if you want to perform or not, you can become a more playful person. The paths are in this book - the book is in your hands.

In order to find your playful self I am out to convince you that:

What you think is entertaining – is not.

Words are far less important in communication than you think.

When you believe you are listening – you are not listening.

When you are trying to be funny - you are not funny.

The name Meet Your Playful Self arose as the name for a web site about how you can become more playful in your life. The system of tools and paths to the intuitive or your playful self is in your hands.

Happy hunting!

A Collective We

I have enjoyed working with so many people who have opened themselves to discoveries of the playful and hold each one as a true blood, sweat and tears contributor to what you are reading. It wasn’t a drive to make money that bought them together or even a promise of success, but a driving curiosity to learn how to laugh and play. I hail and honor their presence and contribution and think of them as an organism spanning time and place or a collective we. This collective we embodies hundreds of people who worked for hours, weeks, months, and years to break through resistances to become the best actor, improviser or performer they could. I am the fisherman into whose net came all of their contributions. It is through the catch of their collective work that the Meet Your Playful Self evolved.

You know the names and have seen the work of a few of the collective we. The late Chris Farley is a we member from twenty-five years ago at his very first improvisation in front of an audience in Madison, Wisconsin. Joan Cusack is here as she was before SNL and a student at the University of Wisconsin. Today, Brian Stack is a writer for the The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien show, and Ron Beganski is at the Free Street Theatre in Chicago, but some of their blood, sweat and tears are all included in this collective we.

Many other members of this collective did not become well known actors, writers, or teachers. They moved out into the world with their passion for playfulness to become husbands, wives, mothers and fathers in a world a little lighter by their presence.







All of the voices of the collective we speak with strength and purpose of searching for something beyond themselves they could not even understand. Each voice, each person, every moment shared by hundreds of people all blend and mingle in this conversation to lead you to the discoveries you can make to become a more playful person - to meet your playful self.





Below is an excerpt - Where has the playful gone?


Take the Ball

Another way of looking at the difference between the dictionary description of improvisation and "Meet Your Playful Self" is to follow a discussion from a workshop. When I begin a workshop or class I often ask the students to recall an awareness that points to their playful self. I ask them to remember being a young girl or boy about age 6 or 7, and what happened when another girl or boy, they had never met, showed up with a ball or a jump rope. What happened? Do you remember?

They can easily imagine running off without a thought to kick, catch, or hit the ball and jump the rope. They would be off and running, even if they transgressed the rules of leaving the yard or crossing the road. They would go off to play without regard to the name, appearance, or motive of the girl or boy who showed up with the ball or rope. The girl or boy might be fat or skinny, black or white, tall or short, well dressed or in rags but it made no difference. There was little judgment or consideration past the opportunity to kick the ball or jump rope: play, play, play!

Then I ask what was going on in that moment? What was the spell cast by the ball, or rope and the opportunity to play? Why was the need so strong? What words would you use to describe how you felt in that moment?

They will inevitably speak adjectives such as: excited, happy, surprised, free, giggly, silly And then I ask - when is the last time you felt that way? What is the last situation you were in when could use these adjectives to describe how you felt?

Usually this question is followed by a pause. It is often difficult for we adults to recall such a moment in the recent past or, if we do have a recollection, the memory is often one we do not feel comfortable sharing since the instance that comes to mind might very well involve sex, drugs or alcohol and or a situation we consider private.

The final question is: What happened to us since we were age 6 and now ? What has changed? Not that some things should not have changed, that is fine, but what is it that HAS changed? Why do we rarely experience moments in our adult life that we can describe with words like: excited, happy, surprised, free, giggly, silly…..?

It is at this point, when the what has changed question is asked, students become vociferous again. Now we have entered the adult world of conceptualization. The more grown-up world of judgment, definition, and analysis has given rise to words that flow and flow with opinions, attitudes, impressions, and notions. I am sure you have already formed some opinion as you've read this.

After this discussion has gone on for a while, and the group has begun to defend and even argue over these definitions and concepts, I ask the students: What words would you use to describe how you are feeling now? This list of adjectives will include: tense, upset, angry, defensive…









So, then we go back to the question; What happened? How does the playful reaction of children described as; excited, happy, and surprised at the sight of someone with a ball become the latter reaction of we adults described as: tense, upset, and defensive at the presence of someone with an idea?