MBA Students Take Center Stage in Improv Class

MBA students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have the opportunity to participate in a unique improv course taught by acclaimed Broadway actor, Marc Kudisch, a three-time Tony Award nominee and 2007 Helen Hayes Award winner. (Kudisch was nominated for his roles in Sycamore Trees and Golden Age for the 2011 Helen Hayes Awards.)

Students – dressed casually in work-out clothes and socks – form a circle around Kudisch who takes them through a series of theatrical exercises, including improvisation and view pointing (a technique of composition that provides a vocabulary for thinking about and acting upon movement and gesture).

The session helps enhance participants’ self-confidence, listening skills, adaptability in a variety of environments, and increases their ability to think quickly and respond on their feet. Kudisch says that improvisation, “is not lying, and is not a performance; it is being present and instinctively reactive to the community conversation – adding to the conversation.”

Self-awareness is critical for success and we’ve been working on that with students in the Smith MBA program, says Dr. Jeff Kudisch, Marc’s brother and executive director of the school’s Office of Career Services. These kinds of workshops help students understand who they are so they can add impact to society – you have to know where you’re starting to know where you’re going, he said.

“The biggest take away from the workshop for me was developing a presence, learning how to listen to cues around you and reacting to those cues,” says Kiati Plooksawasdi, a recent Smith executive MBA grad. “As a presenter, you prepare by practicing the material with a goal to deliver a specific message. But what happens when the tone of the audience change or questions move the conversation to a different direction? This workshop begins to prepare you on how to adapt and move with the audience. In a word...AWESOME!” See photos from the event at Plooksawasdi’s website.

Full-time Smith MBA student Stephen Huie says, “Even though this was billed as a workshop on public speaking, it was much more about developing the philosophy and practice of being attentive, self aware, and expressive. Marc [Kudisch] definitely communicated the application of this ‘soft focus’ to maintaining poise and presence when we’re pitching an idea or presenting an analysis.”

Read more about the session in Huie’s MBA blog.

Alissa Arford, Office of Marketing Communications