Tree Friend

Posted: 30th May 2009 by cord in The Driftless Trails
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I love the city. I do not think I could ever call a city home again. It is 6 a.m. as I listen to the bird song and open the door to allow the voice of the robin that will build its third year’s nest in the leaves of the red maple I can almost touch.

Do you believe one can make a friend of a tree? I have a tree friend. My willow friend is there each time I walk out my door no matter the time of year, month or day. I have taken gifts of its fonds to weave gifts of crowns for my sweet friends. One on warm July 4 night one of my deary friends danced beneath the tree. The tree is “our” friend now.

I have photographed my friend tree in all weather and seasons; naked and dressed – happy and sad – erotic and impotent. I want to share some of the tree with you, here as it changes from season to season. So there it is – the evolution and revelation of my dear old wise friend the willow……

_¸,.»=椺²° Meet Your Playful Self – http://www.myplayfulself.com

Bridge to….

Posted: 4th June 2009 by cord in Muse Lane
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What bridge is there


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_¸,.»=椺²° Meet Your Playful Self – http://www.myplayfulself.com


The final video of the Meet Your Playful Self Workshop series with the students of Independence High School demonstrates the almighty commandment, the precept, the basic rule of improvisation – Yes…And….

The narrative about Yes…And…is lifted from the book; Meet Your Playful Self

The noun of self becomes a verb. This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play merge.
- Steven Nachmanovitch

(The quote is from his book Free Play which you can learn more about @@@@ here)

Yes…And…

The concept of yes…and… is the spring board for improvisers because the technique creates a spontaneous and engaging dialogue which, in turn, engages and amuses the audience. People working in improvisation have confronted yes…and… so many times in their work that it begins to take on the Biblical proportions of all Ten Commandments and the burning bush all rolled into one.

It is often the first concept encountered by improvisers and one that appears so simple and easy to accomplish as a concept or direction, but turns out to be wickedly allusive and difficult in practice.

The direction IS simple. Here is what is asked in a workshop setting:

Direction Yes…and…


Two people sit opposite each other. The first person makes an observation statement – real or imagined – about their partner:

Player a) You appear worried.

The other person responds with Yes…and… tells why the observation is true.

Player b) Yes…I just got the bill for my surgery.

Now, what could be simpler than that …you may ask?

Well…try it and you will see.

The Function of – Yes….and…

As we look at practicing the yes…and…statement as a means to become a more playful person, it is a good time to look at why it is so necessary and basic in coloring our perceptions and vital to a conversation.

It is a first and primary step simply because it holds the dialogue and action of a conversation in a spontaneous and intuitive place. In other words, Yes…and… helps keep the action in the now. Playing in the spontaneous now is what improvisation is all about. Even though the observer has no idea that the yes…and…statement is being used, the spontaneous now is electric, fascinating, and often funny.

When improvised performance moves out of the spontaneous now, the interest of the observer spirals downward and falls as flat as stomped gum. The …yes…and… statement is the perfect place to find the transition point between predictable and spontaneous. If the conceptual path and the intuitive path were playing on a teeter toter, yes…and… is the fulcrum on which the balance rests.

Obviously, in improvisation there is no script, no costumes, or props which is why many actors who will audition for roles for a scripted play would be hard pressed to try improvisation …no way! This reaction is as common as it is understandable. In an improvisation, the script, costumes, and props are stripped away leaving….what?

Leaving …What?

Here are answers to leaving what? from two great teachers of acting and improvisation. Sanford Meisner was a renowned acting teacher at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. (See post -Repetiton) In his book On Acting, Meisner used improvisation as the basic starting point in his actor training classes in a form called repetition. Here is a quote where he is specifically referring to the reason for using improvisation in training actors:

Look, I’ll tell you why the repetition exercise, in essence, is not boring: it plays on the source of all organic creativity, which is the inner impulses. I wish I could make that clear!

I spoke of the work of Viola Spolin in the Roots section of this book. Here is her answer to what is left from her book Improvisation for the Theatre:

The intuitive can only respond in immediacy – right now. It comes bearing gifts in the moment of spontaneity, the moment when we are freed to relate and act, involving ourselves in the moving, changing world around us. (Read her book on line @@@@Here

Meisner’s Inner impulse and Spolin’s responding in immediacy define what is left when script, costumes, props and set are taken away. No great wonder why some actors find it scary. When all else is stripped away, and you are doing yes…and… what is left but, your inner impulse – your response in immediacy – YOU.

YOU Are What is Left

Yes..and… is a first step exercise for you to discover your inner impulse and response in immediacy, and it becomes a strong emotional experience that many improvisers will remember – like where they were on 9/11 or when Kennedy was shot.

Yes…and… begins a shift in perception from self conscious into playful; a first glimpse into a new way of seeing things. So, for many improvisers, yes…and… lives as a turning point in who they are. For many, the words yes…and…can become a shared emotional icon for a common experience.

Now you are anointed; you know the commandment yes…and…

Ann’s Transformation

Posted: 3rd September 2010 by cord in Book Berry Road
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This post was lifted directly from the book, “Meet Your Playful Self”. The transformation described was repeated many times over the years and months and weeks.

The picture of Ann is a complete fantasy created on the software at my web face.

You want to be more playful and spontaneous in your daily communication and conversations. Yet, most of the resistances and barriers that prevent you from doing so are not conscious. You are not aware of them. They just crop up and move you without any conscious decision on your part. You must be ready to acknowledge that you are often directed by impulses and behaviors you are not aware of on conscious level. Once you accept that, you are ready to play yes…and…. When you do, you will discover a whole new fun and free part of yourself.

This dynamic transformation of perception is not unavailable; in fact, it is just waiting to be released. It is begging to be let out of the cage that has contained it for so long.

Ann’s Transformation





The release has transformed many people I have known. I will relate an instance of just such a transformation at the Ark.

We held auditions for the Ark regularly and one day a student came in to audition. We will call her Ann. She was quite plain looking and the way she was dressed, with some old button down sweater and baggy jeans, suggested she wanted to be hidden and unnoticed.

We usually did the same exercise for auditions – You are in a room that is familiar to you, the phone rings, and the person on the other end tells you something that is very important to you. You listen and converse about the information.

Ann was very nervous and we told her not to take this seriously, that she was just playing. She sat down at in the chair rubbing her knees and immediately picked up the phone and began to talk. It was painful to watch. She was so self-conscious and nervous that we just wanted to say, “Thank-you.” and relieve her of her pain.

Ann continued to come to the workshops and eventually began performing in the company. For a time her performances were not strong since it seemed she could not let go of watching herself and controlling her actions.

Then one night something happened. During an improvisation her body suddenly relaxed, her voice shifted, and she was moving about the stage with the grace of a dancer. The audience laughed and was entranced. I have never witnessed such a powerful single moment of transformation. I went to congratulate her afterward and she ran up to me in tears and threw her arms around me saying, “I let go! I did it! I let go!”

Over the next few weeks each time a saw Ann, I would have never even recognized her as the person who had come to that audition a few weeks before. She moved with grace and ease, she wore colorful clothes, and could always be heard laughing above the voices of everyone else.

Meet Your Playful Self

Forty-seven Paths to Play

Posted: 2nd September 2010 by cord in Book Berry Road
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The 47 Society is an international interest-group that follows the occurence and recurrence of the quintessential random number: 47. Many suspect that the coincidental nature of 47 carries some mystical, metaphysical and/or scientific significance.

I had no knowledge of this fact before I posted this…



In thirty years of observing hundreds of people working as improvisers I held one question in mind – How do we bridge the gap from the conceptual to the intuitive? (The second “sticky” post on this blog explores this question.The Bridge) You know it when do it or when you see it. Anxiety melts like so much heated butter as your shoulders unhitch, colors sharpen, and what you are doing or saying is right with the world.

The exploration of Meet Your Playful Self – Improvisation is not about a truth that I know and can state in a book, on a blog, or in a workshop. This work is about a life long journey to locate what was happening just before that intuitive lightening stuck. Can the moment be reproduced? Is there a path, exercise, or tool that can point to or bring down the intuitive lightening like a metal arrow?

The answer is, yes. Many people who have attended workshops or read and practiced the 47 exercises in Meet Your Playful Self have come away with new insights, perceptions and a playfulness that have changed their whole approach to living the moments of life.

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 available in workshops and the book: Meet Your Playful Self.

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

Words are far less important in communication than you may think.
When you believe you are listening – you are probably not listening.
When you are trying to be funny – you are not funny.

The Collective We

I hail and honor the presence and contribution of all those I have worked with and think of them as part of a playful organism spanning time and place or as a collective we. The voices of the late Chris Farley, Joan Cusack, and hundreds of other entertainment professionals join in this collective we.

For the past two years I have wanted to post an on-line series of videos showing people in a workshop as they do the exercises for the first time. The opportunity came last Spring when I toured a play and performed in the town where I was born and raised, and offered to lead a workshop at Independence High School. (See The Little Tour post) I asked the students if they would be willing to help do a video at the local studio Trempealeau County Community TV, and they agreed. It was aired on the local cable channel and I got a copy of the show and edited it into the segments that became the realization of a wish as I posted an on-line view of some of the paths to meeting your playful self. It is called The Virtual Workshop.

Enjoy Yourself!

In the fourth video shot in the hills of Trempealeau County Wisconsin the students of Independence High School demonstrate the third exercise of the day: “BEING”; an exercise I like to call meditation on your feet because it bridges the gap from finding being or presence and sharing it outward into the world.


The photos were lifted from the video in the moment of “BEING” in the video and then planted in the landscape of hills where the City of Independence rests in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, U.S.A., North America, Earth…



MEET YOUR PLAYFUL SELF

My Soical Security # is…

Posted: 29th August 2010 by cord in Muse Lane
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You want to steal my identity?
It’s Yours gift wrapped
No returns, no refunds
So, will you agree?


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I won’t take it back
When the bills come due
And the lower back pain?
Excedrin – take two.


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Lie awake at night
Turning a tossing
The children, the mortgage
and not enough flossing.


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I won’t be around
Since you will be me
Just send your regrets
To your iden-tit-ee.


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Ever wonder about commuincation? What happens when people are not listening - one to the other?

Something like the South Park video below...


Listening is the subject of the third video in the series Meet Your Playful Self Workshop and how to acquire a yardstick for "listening".

Eckhart Tolle has been a powerful voice for many people who seek to practice the quieting of the mind and to experience the peaceful presence of their deep, and eternal self. The excerpts on the video where delivered at the Findhorn Retereat in Scotland in the Spring of 2004 and the full DVD is available from New World Library
HERE<----- or from the Eckart Tolle web site
HERE<-----.

His voice and message reached me at a difficult transition in my own life to remind me of the true essence of improvising and, then, lead me to share the exercises of Meet Your Playful Self.

I would like to give credit to the humming birds but I do not know their names…I guess you could offer suggestions?



Enjoy the video, the words of Eckhart Tolle, the magnificent presence of humming birds, and the words of some playful people all pointing to the fun, and spontaneous joy found in improvisation!

Meet Your Playful Self

Watch the second video of the Meet Your Playful Self workshop video series produced at the Temepealeau County TV studio working with students from Independence High School.

The first video of the series: The Introduction to Meet Your Playful Self can be found HERE @@@<-----


(Your comments are encouraged, appreciated, and longed for:)

One of the best living examples of a master of talking fast is Robin Williams. His words flow from a realm where the editor has been assassinated.


Here is an excerpt about "Talking Fast" exercises from the book.


Meet Your Playful Self

()==( )==()

Talking Fast

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 constant evaluation of our actions and 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…

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.

()==( )==()

A massive list of warm-up exercises for breaking down our thinking minds in a group can be found... @@@ HERE @@@ <------

The playful…..play!

Posted: 19th August 2010 by cord in Book Berry Road
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Improvisation, it is a mystery. You can write a book about it, but by the end on one still knows what it is. When I improvise and I’m in good form, I’m like somebody half sleeping. I even forget there are people in front of me.

Great improvisers are like priests; they are thinking only of their god.

STEPHANE GRAPPELLI

_¸,.»¬=椺²°`¯¯`°²º¤æ-




_comment from U Tube feedback_ “What always amazed me about Stephane Grapelli,outside of his uniquely beautiful artistic interpretation of the music,was just his physical ability to play the really hard and fast bars of a score as easily, tirelessly and deftly as the slower bars – this phenomenal ability stayed with Stephane into his late 80′s!!!”

Meet Your Playful Self -In Action

Posted: 16th August 2010 by cord in Book Berry Road

Meet Your Playful Self – In Action Introduction


This is the introduction to the video series Meet Your Playful Self – In Action which was shot with students from Independence High School in Wisconsin at the Trempealeau County TV studio in Whitehall, Wisconsin.

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


We had fun doing the exercises from the Meet Your Playful Self workshop. The video series offers a closer look at how you can awaken your playful self.



The series will go on to show three of the forty-seven exercises, described in the book Meet Your Playful Self, that allow ANYONE to practice the paths to become a more mindful and playful person

You can subscribe to the series on the feed at the left under the heading:Playful Video Feeds rss. It is available as mp4 download playable on itunes or ipod.