# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/viola-spolin
# Generated: 2026-08-12T20:04:10.549Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/viola-spolin"
name: "Viola Spolin"
slug: "viola-spolin"
description: "Viola Spolin was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life. These acting exercises she later called Theater Games and formed the first body of work that enabled other directors and actors to create improvisational theater. Her book Improvisation for the Theater, which published these techniques, includes her philosophy and her teaching and coaching methods, and is considered the \"bible of improvisational theater\". Spolin's contributions were seminal to the improvisational theater movement in the U.S. She is considered to be the mother of Improvisational theater. Her work has influenced American theater, television and film by providing new tools and techniques that are now used by actors, directors and writers."
tagline: "American academic and acting theorist (1906–1994)"
image: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/ViolaSpolin.jpg"
gender: "female"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Actors"
  slug: "actors"
profileType:
  name: "Actor"
  slug: "actor"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q33999"
birthDate: "1906-11-07"
deathDate: "1994-11-22"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           48.04
  momentum:             1.056338028169014
  historical:           8.605369333333334
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     59.99999999999999
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0819348/"
    handle:    "nm0819348"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/2218615"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7_%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%86"
    title: "فيولا سبولين"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin"
    title: "Viola Spolin"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin"
    title: "Viola Spolin"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin"
    title: "Viola Spolin"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin"
    title: "Viola Spolin"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin"
    title: "Viola Spolin"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin"
    title: "Viola Spolin"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Viola_Spolin"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4808528"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1185838"
    title: "Viola Spolin"
    type:  "DATABASE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump