Scene 2: Performing Higher Education: Improv Is/As Radical Co-creating
摘要
Performance, as proffered by Holzman (2000, 2006, 2017, 2018, 2021; Lobman & Perone, 2018) and discussed in the preceding scene (Perone, Scene 1, this volume), is a playful, radical, inclusive, co-created, and transformational activity of collective learning and development. In this scene, we explore four interrelated topics to develop Holzman’s performance approach. First, we consider the performance of improvisation, and specifically, improvisational theater (improv), presenting a select history and overview. Second, we focus on the practice of improv that supports and is supported by emergent, non-knowing, co-created activity: “Yes, and …” (Halpern et al., 1994; Leonard & Yorton, 2015; Semelsberger, 2021). We define the practice of “Yes, and …” within the context of improv and extend its definition in four interrelated ways: relational curiosity, love through vulnerability, completion, and the dialectic of being/becoming. Third, we discuss current and possible practices of improv “in” the context of higher education. Fourth, we introduce you to the co-creators of this book and share how we are performing improv for new possibilities with, in, and beyond higher education.