Impro for People Skills This Interterm

During Interterm, a group of 14 students from various disciplines took “Impro for People Skills” with Dr. Theresa R. Dudeck, instructor of acting.  In this course, students applied improvisational theatre theories and techniques to improve their soft skills (e.g., authentically engaging with others, collaborating, taking risks, motivating others, spontaneously and effectively delivering a story or idea, using humor, etc.).  For final projects, the students, in groups of 3 or 4, partnered with 4 local businesses — Easter Seals of Southern California, the Heritage Museum, the Bite Market, and Sunspark Yoga — and developed marketing campaigns that focused on how to better connect each business, whether a non-profit or for-profit, with the Chapman community.  The final Marketing Pitches/Presentations took place on Wednesday, January 29, in Moulton Hall. In attendance were the students, representatives from each business, and other invited guests, faculty and staff including Dr. Niklas Myhr, assistant professor of marketing, who offered valuable feedback at the end.  The four Marketing Pitches/Presentations were partly structured, partly improvised, and very entertaining.  Each group came up with unique ideas to promote their business.  But just as important, the groups applied their newly learned impro and people skills to their processes and to their presentations.  Not only was the feedback from the business partners overwhelmingly positive, some of the marketing ideas will be adopted and/or are already in progress.