Viola Spolin - Later Years

Later Years

In 1970 and 1971 Spolin served as special consultant for productions of Sills' Story Theater in Los Angeles, New York and on television. On the West Coast, she conducted workshops for the casts of the television shows, Rhoda and Friends and Lovers, and appeared on film as an actress in Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland (1970). In November 1975 "The Theater Game File" was published. She designed it to make her unique approaches to teaching and learning more readily available to classroom teachers. In 1976, she established the Spolin Theater Game Center in Hollywood, to train professional Theater Games Coaches and served as its artistic director. In 1979 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Eastern Michigan University, and until the 1990s she continued to teach at the Theater Game Center. In 1985 her new book, Theater Games for Rehearsal: A Director's Handbook, was published.