Here it is, Easter Sunday. A week ago today, I was walking off of a plane from Europe back into Portland, Oregon (where I live). From March 11th through March 19th, the Berlin International Impro Festival created one of the most moving and thought-provoking festivals that I have ever been privileged to be a partContinue reading “Impro, Politics, and the “Egg Test””
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Building a Spontaneous Village
Background The Field Innovation Team deployment is done. The foundation for the first “Spontaneous Village” has been built. The heat of San Antonio has been replaced by the verdure of a Portland summer. Laughter, clapping, snapping, and made up stories in Spanish from the game of ‘Slide Show’ are still echoing in my head. The “SpontaneousContinue reading “Building a Spontaneous Village”
Sweat & Metaphors
The time has gone quickly since Tuesday when the Field Innovation Team had its orientation at St. PJ’s Children’s Home‘s campus. Mary Tyszkiewicz from Heroic Improv and myself have joined forces to create one of four content areas of an innovative curriculum. This curriculum is designed to help ground and focus people of all ages in disasters and crises. WeContinue reading “Sweat & Metaphors”
Connect, Collaborate, Envision: Refugees Creating Spontaneous Villages
The world has become a far more dangerous and dynamic place. Due to violence and natural disasters, people are being displaced, and the global population of refugees is steadily climbing. Today, I’m embarking on an assignment with the Field Innovation Team, a non-profit spin off from FEMA that focuses on novel approaches to managing andContinue reading “Connect, Collaborate, Envision: Refugees Creating Spontaneous Villages”
Disconnection, Doubt, and Hope
Many of us are reflecting on the death of Robin Williams. It’s a fresh wound for any of us who were fans. The man was an inspiration, a hero of free play. The past few days have been filled with friends and family recounting their favorite characters, bits, movies, and jokes that are his legacy.Continue reading “Disconnection, Doubt, and Hope”
Improv and Disaster Relief
http://anc.yahoo.com/video/heroic-improvisation-having-fun-while-040204960.html Sometimes in life, you get to see the rewards of a collaboration unfold. In 2012 at the Applied Improvisation Network conference in San Francisco, I sat next to the wonderful Dr. Mary Tysczkiewicz on our way to a day long symposium on science and improv. We had one of the most engaging conversations thatContinue reading “Improv and Disaster Relief”
Reflecting on the spread of the Improv Meme
Of late, I find myself teaching and coaching high and low throughout Portland. Some days I go from teaching college improv, to coaching middle schoolers, to coaching professional performers, to coaching organizations. As a scholar on the subject and a fanatic, I’ve developed a tendency to help the young and new to the art connectContinue reading “Reflecting on the spread of the Improv Meme”
Cooperation precedes life
The existence of cooperating pairs of molecules in prelife is very plausible. Indeed, replication of a single strand of RNA can be thought of this way: one strand of RNA builds a complimentary strand, and so on. Thus cooperation is older than life itself. Martin A. Nowak in his book Supercooperators.
We Can Be Heroes
In years past, a passage by Vicki Noble, a healer of sorts, really had struck a chord with me. It had to do with her approach to cancer. In the passage, she said that she didn’t focus so much on attacking the offending cells. Instead, her energies were trained on awakening, enlivening and empowering theContinue reading “We Can Be Heroes”
A Culture of Play
A Culture of Play This new book is a collection of my research and writings on improvisation. Some of the chapters are familiar, but there are several new unpublished works in these pages. Please take a look at the link. There is a preview. Happy New Year and Enjoy!!! Now I can sleep for aContinue reading “A Culture of Play”
Brad Fortier 