Point of Concentration
1940s-1960s (developed by Spolin)
Also known as POC, Focus
Spolin's foundational teaching device: every theater game has a single focal objective that occupies the conscious mind, freeing the unconscious to act spontaneously.
Known for
- The mechanism by which Spolin games eliminate self-consciousness: if the player is concentrating on 'feeling the space with the soles of the feet,' they cannot simultaneously worry about looking stupid.
- Each of the ~220 games in Improvisation for the Theater (1963) has a specified point of concentration.
- Paul Sills and Second City's early training leaned heavily on POC; it has been partially displaced in modern comedy-focused curricula by game-of-the-scene thinking.
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