Ensemble!
Using the Power of Improv and Play to Forge Connections in a Lonely World
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- USD 11.99
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- USD 11.99
Descripción editorial
Drawing on a combined expertise in improvisational theatre and psychiatry, author team Dan O'Connor and Dr. Jeff Katzman show readers how improv skills are the perfect antidote to loneliness and isolation.
I know what you're thinking: Hold on...improv? Like getting on a stage in front of an audience? What if that's not my thing?
Don't worry: this isn't a book about becoming an improv theater expert, and it's not really a book about performing. It's a book about loneliness--about our feelings of disconnection and isolation, ones that we may have been experiencing since long before the pandemic. More importantly, it's a book about becoming unlonely--by borrowing from the collaborative and creative tools of improv.
Authors of Life Unscripted Jeff Katzman, a professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, and Dan O'Connor, multifaceted actor, writer, and director, have created a process they call Ensembling that helps us build an ensemble of relationships in our lives and more deeply enjoy the groups we already belong to. This is a process of becoming a little vulnerable with each other, and of embracing the moment in which we find ourselves. Drawing on concepts from narrative improvisational theatre and depth psychology, the authors present us with the skills we need to connect with each other more actively and meaningfully. To ensemble or not to ensemble--that is not a question. With the rise of loneliness and isolation in an increasingly virtually connected society, we must find ways to come together. We must ensemble!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this refreshing outing, Katzman, a professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, and actor O'Connor (Life Unscripted) discuss how improv acting techniques can help people forge authentic and meaningful relationships. The keys, they opine, are being vulnerable with others, learning to listen, and embracing the moment at all times. Dubbing their method "ensembling," the authors detail methods and tactics, including striking up conversations with strangers, telling stories with a friend by swapping back-and-forth with each line, and playing "Rashomon with yourself" by thinking of everyone else's point of view during a conversation. Katzman and O'Connor also draw on psychological research, case studies, and personal examples to demonstrate how opening up to vulnerability is the first step to developing deeper connections: "The whole thing requires an ability to be vulnerable, and embracing the probability of making mistakes and failing." Those looking for a prompt to get out of their shell a bit should take a look.