It’s class time, and students won’t focus. Most instructors would lecture the kids and probably get frustrated. Not Gary Schwartz. The North Bend actor and theater teacher comes up with a game to capture and hold their attention.

“We had an attention problem, and we played a counting game where it takes tremendous concentration to keep track of all of these numbers,” Schwartz said. “The kids just focused automatically.”

Using improvisational games to teach not only acting, but also life skills, is the cornerstone of the classes Schwartz offers kids age 8-13 every Friday afternoon in downtown Snoqualmie.

“There’s always a game to solve a problem the kid is facing,” Schwartz said. “[It’s] a non-authoritarian model where kids were doing it because it was fun rather than because teacher says so.”

Schwartz learned theater games from Viola Spolin, whose work has inspired generations of improvisational actors and troupes. As a recreational director during the Great Depression, Spolin noted the positive effects that game playing had on kids’ social behavior. When she later became a theater teacher, Spolin developed improv games to help her students learn to work together and unleash their creativity.

“Playing together generates a community, generates group spirit, and creates its own sort of morality,” Schwartz said. “Their innate creativity is sparked, and they learn through interaction with each other.”<p

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