Since moving to the Seattle area, we’ve had an annual tradition of going to see ’Twas the Night, a locally-written and produced Christmas musical. It’s a silly and entertaining show featuring an all-ages cast. This year, one of our daughters’ classmates and his mom were in the show so it was extra fun to see them playing the roles that we’ve come to know so well. After the performance, which was one of the best we’ve seen, J surprised us by expressing an interest in auditioning for the show next year! We told her that if she was truly interested, she should take some classes from the theater that puts on the show in order to prepare. As we looked through the choices for her age, an improvisation class immediately caught her interest and she told us that she wanted to take that class!

I was delighted because improvisation has always fascinated me, perhaps because it was never part of my own education. My home and school cultures were always focused on preparation, polishing, and perfection. I was taught in Academia that when presenting a paper, one must be ready for any possible question and have references and data to back up every assertion. To say, “I don’t know” in a class or symposium was the worst thing you could do. I was taught in Conservatory that every performance must be technically polished and every interpretive nuance must be planned out in advance. It was unthinkable that someone could experiment with a piece of music during a live performance.

As I wrote in my post yesterday, I got a taste of improvisation, however, when I was Dungeon Master for my daughters’ birthday D&D game. I had to be “forced into it” in a sense, because normally I would run from doing anything without proper preparation. However, my love for my daughters and my love for the game stopped me from quitting just because I didn’t feel prepared. In this case, having no escape hatch and being “forced” to improvise resulted in a beautiful gift: my new-found confidence in my ability to improvise and new appreciation for the power of my imagination.

What I discovered was that no matter how much fun the creative process is when I am sitting by myself with a paper and pen, that pales in comparison to the experience of creating imaginative solutions in the heat-of-the moment when I’m up against an unforeseen situation and there’s no time for strategies and schemes. It becomes a kind of magic where I create something that I think will do what I want, but I can never be quite sure. I need to keep my attention focused constantly on what is happening so I’m ready for when it’s time to improvise something new.

Like other skills, improvisation and imagination can be developed and strengthened through regular practice and use. As J discovered, there are even classes for it! It’s time for me to turn to that old judgmental voice which tells me that preparation and practice are more important than improvisation and tell it, “No.” This is another case where it is not “either/or;” it’s “both/and.” One is not better than the other, rather, they are partners. Preparation and practice can support improvisation and imagination, but they are no substitute. The magic, fun, and play happen when preparation, practice, improvisation and imagination all come together.