Viola Spolin (1906–1994), the originator of theater games, was introduced to the use of games, storytelling, folk dance, and dramatics as tools for stimulating creative expression in the 1920s while a student of Neva Boyd at Chicago's Hull House. During her years as a teacher and supervisor of creative dramatics there, she began to develop her nonverbal, non-psychological approach. Her books have been translated into Swedish, German, and Portuguese. Paul Sills is Viola Spolin's son and the founding director of Chicago's Second City and of Story Theater. He is the coeditor of the third edition of Spolin's Improvisation for the Theater, also published by Northwestern University Press.

"It's like basic research . . . she [has] changed the theater for generations." —Alan Alda"Her book is the bible." —Rob Reiner

Viola Spolin (1906–1994), the originator of theater games, was introduced to the use of games, storytelling, folk dance, and dramatics as tools for stimulating creative expression in the 1920s while a student of Neva Boyd at Chicago's Hull House. During her years as a teacher and supervisor of creative dramatics there, she began to develop her nonverbal, non-psychological approach. Her books have been translated into Swedish, German, and Portuguese. Paul Sills is Viola Spolin's son and the founding director of Chicago's Second City and of Story Theater. He is the coeditor of the third edition of Spolin's Improvisation for the Theater, also published by Northwestern University Press.

"It's like basic research . . . she [has] changed the theater for generations." —Alan Alda"Her book is the bible." —Rob Reiner