Improv can effectively address the real-world problems—and create solutions, writes Zoe Weil.
with Antioch University, training and courses for educators and changemakers, and free resources to help people build a future in which all life can thrive. She is the 2023 recipient of the NCSS Spirit of America award and is the author ofI live in rural Maine where I co-founded an organization working with teachers around the globe to advance humane education, a field that prepares people to create a more just and peaceful future.
The more I practiced, the more I witnessed improv’s power to cultivate a solutions-focused mindset and diminish the polarization that stymies positive change. The key lay in four core rules: building relationships, embracing “yes, and”, bringing the love, and helping others shine.
It’s understandable that we often choose to avoid “them”—whoever we define “them” to be. Having dedicated my life to advancing women’s rights, animal protection, environmental sustainability, and social justice, it takes ongoing commitment to the value of building relationships across divides for me to seek out friendships with people who fight against a woman’s right to have an abortion, kill animals recreationally, oppose sensible environmental regulations, or say things I consider bigoted.
In improv comedy, the actors have an advantage: they’re actively endeavoring to bring the love. In real life, we’re frequently faced with others doing anything but, which makes bringing the love that much harder. Yet when we successfully meet hostility with love—to the degree that this is possible and makes sense—it’s not uncommon to watch that love melt another’s anger. When this happens, even solving our most intractable problems seems possible.
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