Urban Improv's Emmy-award winning interactive theater program presents action oriented, real life exposure techniques that teach decision-making, conflict resolution, problem solving, cooperation, leadership and values clarification skills. Student audiences both watch and participate in these honest, authentic vignettes and come to understand how their choices alter results and consequences.

The dramatic vignettes are performed by Urban Improv actors in front of a teen audience. Each vignette puts a character in a tense situation involving a morally charged issue. Just as the dilemma builds to a climax, the director freezes the action and brings young people from the audience into the scene to act out how they would resolve the situation.

An accompanying Teacher's Resource Guide leads teachers through each vignette, suggests related activities and topics for discussion, and offers additional resources.

This DVD deals with the consequences of arguments that erupt into physical violence, the traumatic results of vengeful actions and dangers of abusive relationships.

Open Captioned, 27 minute DVD, and discussion guide.

Urban Improv's Emmy Award-winning, four-part improvisational theater series on youth violence prevention is so compelling it just about pulls you through the television screen up onto their stage. These actors quite magically transport you to a world that many teens inhabit: a stressful, contradictory and often violent universe.

Real life issues such as ostracism, bullying, drugs, homophobia, sexual harassment and violence and conflict resolution are presented in a no-holds-barred fashion that commands attention and makes you think. Teens are challenged to deal creatively and constructively with decision-making, impulse control and value clarification. They're shown how they can develop skills in problem solving, conflict resolution, cooperation and leadership.

Urban Improv works without scripts and is filmed in front of a live audience of middle and high school students. Twice during a vignette, the director freezes the action. Students in the film audience are invited to physically enter the scene and act out their own resolutions. Or, they can continue to watch the actors resolve the situation. Each skit is followed by a frank and in-depth discussion in which students voice their own issues and concerns.

When using this in your classroom or group, your students have the same options: they can role-play and act out their own resolutions, or wait to see what Urban Improv does, or both.

An accompanying Teacher's Resource Guide leads instructors through each of the 13 vignettes and suggests related activities and topics for discussion. The package also features an interactive web site.

Urban Improv has been offering improvisational workshops and large group assembly presentations for Boston public schools since 1993. The actors interact with 6,000 students annually, in Boston and throughout the region. Now, with the advent of their DVD and video releases, this unique production is accessible to the rest of the country.

Urban Improv's presentation is not a passive experience. It's a highly participatory venture that demands engagement and as such is a powerful educational tool.

- Marilyn von Qualen

Urban Improv Series Titles: Adolescent Sexuality Bystander Issues and Bullying Prejudice Violence and Conflict

Audience: Middle and high school, ages 12-18 Format: Video or DVD with Teacher's Guide Length: Approximately 34 mins. each Publishing Date: 2002 Publisher: Discovery Education Cost: $149.95 per title

Conflict? You Solve It!