MEET YOUR PLAYFUL SELF

Auditions

Workshops

Retreats

 >



HOME





GET

the BOOK!

47 complete workshop exercises

Meet Your Playful Self to play with and enjoy.




blog

Link to Wordpress blog

Join the Meet Your Playful Self discussion






WORK SHOPS

News and information about workshops.

The schedule for workshops and projects is ever evolving and developing. The happenings of the on-going workshops are posted here.







VIDEO

News of Wisconsin Missions

and Video Projects




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.

FullCircle Retreat Center

Weekend Workshop

Meet Your Playful Self - Improvisation Workshops

What happens at a MYPS Workshop?

Workshop Description

Would you like to feel more playful in your life, to find yourself laughing and smiling more often?

You do not need to change your career or buy anything to be a more playful person. You already have a playful nature, everyone does.

Aspiring performer-or-not, you too are invited to Meet your Playful Self.No previous theater experience is necessary, only the desire to discover the playful nature within yourself.In the process of meeting our playful selves, we learn to improvise by actively doing things with the intention of moving to a more intuitive and playful place.

When you learn to move out to meet the unexpected, you may find yourself becoming more present and accepting of the people, places and the events of your day-to-day life. As you begin to feel more playful in your life and to take yourself less seriously, you may find it easier to laugh, smile and enjoy "what is" your life.

---Join us for this informative, active, freeing experience

Activities

We do simple things. We do interactive play in a group, like passing a clap around a circle of people, moving, breathing, noticing; or counting randomly as a group without interrupting anyone; or telling a story, one word at a time, as a group.

Goals and Objectives (outcome)
Even as you begin the first series of exercises you will begin to experience a new lightness and playfulness, but most important comes the awareness that you have done it yourself and can reproduce it in your life long after the workshop is completed.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Read a few of the comments below from real people who have found a new playfulness withing themselves through participating in workshops over the past 20 years.

Below is an excerpt from "Meet Your Playful Self"

To help you get a feeling for the workshop you can read from the "Your Playful Self" section of the book. You can also view the video to get a peek at how the group exercises appear in action.

Weekend Workshop

Friday thru Sunday

August 20 - 22

.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´

Full Circle Retreat is in the heart of south-western Wisconsin’s driftless region known for its hills,

valleysand trout streams. Its unique, off the beaten pathlocation, is quiet and regenerative. It is approximately10 miles southwest of Viroqua, Wisconsin, 30 milessoutheast of La Crosse, 90 miles northwest of Madison,180 miles from Milwaukee, 200 miles southeast of theTwin Cities, and 270 miles from Chicago.

.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´

Join Us - Have Fun!

During this FUN, interactive workshop, Dennis will introduce us to some simplegroup exercises that have allowed hundreds of actors and improvisers to performon stage. Aspiring performer-or-not, you too are invited to Meet your Playful Self.No previous theater experience is necessary, only the desire to discover the playful nature within yourself.

*Sign up early, this workshop is limited to 12 participants.Workshop begins Friday evening at 6pm, continues Saturday 9am-4pm, and Sunday 9am-1pm

$175 for registrations postmarked by July 30, $225 thereafter. Two-nights lodging $75 available on a first-come first registered basis.

The focus of this session is to practice the paths to your intuitive - playful self and to teach you how to teach others to practice these paths.

To sign up go to The Full Circle Retreat Center Site

To ask questions write in the box below or email at the "cord" address. Your address will not be shared!

cord@myplayfulself.com



`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸`·.¸¸.·´¯`·


Dennis will get the email message when you fill out the form below. Your personal information will not be shared with any other source.



First Name:

Last Name:

E-Mail:



The book "Meet Your Playful Self" is near completion and will soon be online for immediate download.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction.


-Meet Your Playful Self

I spent one year teaching in the conservatory at Second City in Chicago where I revisited and reread the work and teachings of Viola Spolin in her book "Improvisation for the Theatre". Viola Spolin was one of the first great teachers to snatch the word "improvisation" from the hands of the gods to place it in the grasp of everyone. 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.

The very first words I read at the top of the very first page sent a sudden flash of energy through me:

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

Yes. Improvisation is for everyone! Yet, even today, as you read the word improvise in the quote from Viola Spolin above, your reaction is probably similar to that of most people: improvisation is something that jazz musicians, actors, or artists do. The word improvise is often equated with some far-and-away skill employed by the creative sorts to communicate with their muse. It is a word believed to describe some dynamic that is out of the context of everyday life, or out of reach in our daily personal interaction and communication. As I revisited her work after ten years of swirling in the creative juices and wandering in the collective we of improvisers and performers some bigger questions arose. Why was the intuitive experience limited to people who were interested in performing before an audience? The transformations we noticed in our lives had little to do with having an audience but resulted from the work itself. Why not go with the observation of Viola Spolin and include everyone since everyone can improvise. Everyone would like to feel more playful in their lives.

Reacting Fast

The video demonstrates one of the first exercises in the "Workshop" section of the book.

Every action of the workshop is directed to finding paths into the intuitive or our playful self, including the early conversations when people arrive; "talking around" to establish a different connection than we have outside the group

Finally, the leader will say "ok" and move into the next actions or exercises. The opening focus, for the move into an intuitive or playful place, is on talking and reacting quickly or talking fast. Why does talking fast lead us to a more playful place?

Most of our waking time is filled with evaluation of our reactions. From the time we get up in the morning until we finally fall asleep we are receiving messages and stimulation from our environment, making a judgment, and then reacting. These judgments are based on getting the tasks of our life accomplished in the world; what to make for breakfast, how to get the kids off to school, to call someone about the leaky faucet…..and on and on… So, in the workshop we want to move into a place where we are receiving and then reacting, leaving no time to think which leaves judgment out of it. We are moving into a playful place by taking the conceptualization of choice out of the equation. We are reacting without thinking. So the leader asks the group to form a circle and we set up exercises or games that allow us to react without thinking. Improvisation sites on the net are filled with these exercises and games. There is no ultimate or best structure to accomplish talking fast. What is important is not the exercise but the effect.

You can read more excerpts from the book

Just click on the books...Have Fun!



Robert

This is a comment from Robert Ribbins of INTOIT

Dennis has been helping me notice my conflicts through Improv (short for improvisational theatre) games. We do simple things (not easy). We do interactive play in a group, like passing a clap around a circle of people, moving, breathing, noticing; or counting randomly as a group without interrupting anyone; or telling a story, one word at a time, as a group, randomly. They challenge me to move faster than I can process, to shoot the editor of my presentation, and express myself directly. In our small, safe group it still feels dangerous to let out my direct expressions and when we get too comfortable we get an audience to crank up the danger in being honest. There is great satisfaction in noticing how I really feel. And great humor in noticing the difference in how my personality stumbles around my feelings. So the group I work with is committed to performance; partly to challenge the performers and partly to entertain an audience. What is more interesting than watching people (try to) be real and spontaneous? It is (sort of) safe to watch others act out our concerns and help us process the consequences. I recommend it!



Jim

This is a comment from Jim Krupski of ARKTOO

When I first started with Dennis during the ArkToo years I saw a lot of people who, when faced with the truth of themselves, became angry and frustrated because they didn't like what they discovered. Since nothing is "sacred" when learning true improv and connecting with the intuitive it can be rather startling when one shines a light in the dark recesses of one's own psyche. Getting past those feelings and thoughts frees us from the lies that we have accepted so we can approach life from a position of peace and even...dare to think it...fun.

Dennis has been a great mentor and friend for me over the years and I look forward each time I am afforded the opportunity to work with him and the other members of InToIt.



Risha

This is a comment from Risha of INTOIT

...my thanks to Dennis and all of you for sharing the trust of improv with me - what a journey it is, to touch the inner self for about 90 minutes each week..to be in the safest place for me with others, some complete strangers except for those precious 90 minutes each week. This has changed my life, to be free of the expected responses of my gender and role as a mother-wife-sister-daughter-niece-friend-woman! i sleep better at night--i laugh more at myself--i laugh more in general! anyone who is suffering from any emotional ailment i say to them--dare to do Improv--dare to move beyond the stodgy expectations of your role in life. It is the hardest thing i have ever done!! Improv--Improve Your Life Through Improvisation.