Patricia Ryan Madson - Improv Wisdom

Join us for a delightful talk with a woman who has brought improv to so many people.She is the author of the award-winning book,IMPROV WISDOM: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up (Bell Tower, 2005). She shares how she discovered improv through her passion for Tai Chi, which led her to studying with Keith Johnstone. She is a professor Emerita from Stanford University where she began teaching in 1977. In the Drama Department she served as the head of the undergraduate acting division and developed the improvisation program. She founded and coached the Stanford Improvisors and taught beginning and advanced level courses in improvisation for undergraduate as well as adults in Stanford's Continuing Studies Program. In 1998 she won the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Innovation in Undergraduate Education. In 1996 she founded the Creativity Initiative at Stanford, an interdisciplinary alliance of faculty who share the belief that creativity can be taught. She taught the Design Improv for the School of Engineering and has been a guest lecturer for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and for the Mayfield Fellows Program. She is truly a pioneer in the applied improvisational field.