Chicago is the home of improvisational theater. Sure, it’s mostly used for comedy, but at its core, improv is really just a framework for creativity. Can the ideas and “rules” of improv be applied to prose writing? Let’s hope so, because in this session by writer and improviser Eric Rampson, he's going to try to show you how to do just that. We'll play a few simple improv theater games and then discuss, as we go, how those same games show up in our writing. From the basic idea of "Yes, &..." to complicated improv forms like the Herald, the grounding principles of improv theater will hopefully give you many new tools for your writer's toolbox.
ERIC RAMPSON spent almost 20 years studying, performing, and teaching improv comedy before getting his MFA in Fiction from The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His short fiction has been published in Change Seven Magazine, The Matador Review, Typishly, Metonym, The Gateway Review, and Broad River Review.
