Connecting Dialogue and Improv

By Kate Bresnahan

Yesterday, at the beginning of the day, Dr. Caputo read us the following quote: “The way to peace is yes.” Unfortunately, I did not write down the name of the person who from whom this phrase came.

 So many wonderful things can happen when you say “yes.”  However, I believe that yes is only a start. In order to create real change, or real dialogue, you need something more. You need to say, “yes, and…” I learned the concept of “yes, and” when I stepped into my first improv class in September 2013. (I probably learned “yes, and” earlier, but never put it into words until I learned improv.) Since I started doing improv, I have drawn many connections between that art form and other areas of life. We all improvise many parts of our lives. We can never know how someone will react to our words or actions, and we do not know how we will react to someone else’s words or actions.

When I did some of the pre-readings for this course, specifically those related to dialogue, I noticed multiple similarities between improv and dialogue. I found these connections exciting, and I have shared my thoughts on some of these connections with a few classmates.

Here are some examples of connections between improve and dialogue:

• For improv to work and for dialogue to be effective, each player must add something to the conversation. New information is valuable and allows each participant to see how their actions affect others and how their actions make the others feel.

 • Both improv and dialogue can help people build trust and relationships. Relationships are built on trust, and dialogue can help people build trust. In improv, we build relationships with our fellow performers through trusting that they will support us and not throw us under the hypothetical bus. Effective dialogue can help two parties to better understand and identify with each other, allowing them to build connections and relationships.

Through the trust and relationships and trust we build through dialogue, we can then begin to build peace between groups of people. Without effective dialogue and the power of “yes, and,” peace would be extremely difficult to achieve in any rocky situation. Without “yes, and,” we would not have been able to see all of the peace-related sites around Derry or meet with people who are working to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.