Theater game, intuition, and simbolic function

An educational construction

Abstract

The aim of this study is to relate the methodological aspects of theatrical games developed by Viola Spolin (Chicago 1906-1994) with the reflections on the symbolic game (jeu symbolique) and intuitive knowledge, as presented by Jean Piaget (1896-1980). Spolin, theater director and American author, constituted an improvisational methodology based on games as a structuring of the practice of teaching and performing theater to children, youth and adults. Piaget, a well-known Swiss epistemologist, specialized in understanding the child's cognitive development process. From this Spolin – Piaget relationship, the research analyzes the symbolic function, the symbolic games ([1945]) relating Jean Piaget's thought and the practice of Viola Spolin’s improvisational games ([1963]) in the development of intuitive thinking.