Last night, I attended an audition workshop hosted by the artistic director of the largest theatre around here. In the course of her discussions on monologue techniques and acting, and her work with actors who were involved in "cold read" situations, she mentioned the benefits of improvisational training at least twice. It's an important thing for actors to take advantage of the benefits of training in improvisation. In improv, we're constantly dealing with objects and people who aren't there. We're focused on listening to our scene partners and reacting to that. We work constantly on inhabiting our characters, changing and adapting to the information. All of this is great stuff and invaluable to the actor in audition and performance settings. It was nice to hear a major player in Atlanta's theatrical scene discuss the value of improv in front of a room full of Atlanta actors.