Lemons and Other Improv: Acts, Prompts, Tableaux

This book brings together three interconnected approaches to performance: a haunting one-act play, a collection of improvisation prompts, and a wide range of tableaux exercises designed for theatre students and performers. At its center is *Lemons*, the story of an elderly man living alone who suffers a stroke and loses the ability to say anything except a single word. As he struggles to communicate and reach the outside world, the play becomes a meditation on isolation, language, and the fragile nature of human connection.

Surrounding the play are practical tools for performers: imaginative improv prompts that encourage spontaneity and experimentation, and visual tableaux scenes that challenge actors to tell stories through physical composition and presence. Together, these exercises invite readers to explore performance through voice, body, silence, and space.

Blending theatre pedagogy with the sensibilities of contemporary performance art, this book reflects Spencer Sheehan Kalina’s practice as both a writer and a fine arts–based performance artist. The result is a collection that functions as both a teaching resource and an artistic exploration—one that asks performers to step into the uncertain, expressive space between language and embodiment.

For students, educators, and artists alike, this book offers a toolkit for discovering how stories live not only in words, but in the bodies that bring them to life.