Improvisation and Kids

Today I finished the ARTS camp at Easley First Baptist Church. I had two classes to which I taught improv for four days. The first class consisted of eleven 1-3 graders, the second of six 4-6 graders.

I learned something very valuable. Kids don't need improv.

Keith Johnstone said it right (as usual) ((by the way, the following quote is paraphrased because I'm too lazy to go grab my copy of "Impro" even though it's mere feet away. So go buy the book yourself and read it in context. You won't regret it.)):

"Kids are not under-developed adults. Adults are atrophied children."

It takes a certain amount of life to paralyze the creative impulse, or at least bury it deep enough to require excavation. Typically, improv is that excavation.

But kids are already kids. They don't need excavation. They need discipline and structure.

Improv then becomes a different monster... one of training on a very basic level, not error correction. I think that traditional theatre training is a preferable method for developing a child's artistic temperament, with improv used primarily as a tool in the theatrical creation process, instead of my usual ideal of using theatrical devices as tools in an improvisational creation process.

I think that I now understand why Peter Brook used an eclectic mix of fully trained, experienced actors from different backgrounds in his troupes. He used improv to "untrain" these actors, who could then use the reverse-engineered techniques of their previous crafts to re-assemble themselves into a super-creative entity. But they had to have something to untrain.

Improv seeks to return "adults" into a child-like state of freedom, creativity and security, but with the confidence, awareness and capability that only time can instill.

Kids need something different.

Hopefully more experience in this arena will show me different techniques to deal with the needs of such budding little geniuses, but as of now... if you're a teacher of elementary students, stick to theatre.

Improv will fix anything you screw up... but later on.