Patricia Ryan Madson
Patricia Ryan Madson is the author of Improv Wisdom: Dont Prepare, Just Show Up (Bell Tower, 2005) and a professor Emerita from Stanford University where she taught since 1977. In their drama department she served as the head of the undergraduate acting program and developed the improvisation program. In 1998 she was thewinner of the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Innovation in Undergraduate Education. She founded and coached the Stanford Improvisors and taught beginning and advanced level courses in Improvisation for undergraduate as well as adults in Stanford's Continuing Studies Program. In 1996 she founded the Creativity Initiative at Stanford, an interdisciplinary alliance of faculty who share the belief that creativity can be taught. Patricia has taught Design Improv for the School of Engineering, and is a guest lecturer for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and for the Mayfield Fellows Program.
She teaches regularly for the Esalen Institute, and has given workshops for the California Institute for Integral Studies, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, the National Association of Drama Therapists, the Western Psychological Association, Duke University East Asian Studies Center and the Meaningful Life Therapy Association in Japan. Patricia combines her teaching of improvisation with work as a counselor using an Eastern approach to problem solving known as Constructive LivingTM. Additionally, she has been the American Coordinator of the Oomoto School of Traditional Japanese Arts in Kameoka, Japan. Patricia was one of the founding Board members of Bay Area TheatreSportsTM,and has been a long time student of Keith Johnstone.
Her corporate clients have included: Gap Inc.'s Executive Leadership Team, The Lucille and David Packard Foundation, the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), Hewlett Packard, Digital Impact, IDEO, Sun Microsystems Japan Division, Extempo Systems, Apple Computers, Adobe Systems, the Piedmont School District, and Price Waterhouse.
Web pages:
www.stanford.edu/~patryan
www.improvwisdom.com
