THE QUEST:
IMPROVISATION FOR TRANSFORMATION.
Discover the improvisational mindset and storytelling as means of exploring, experiencing, and making sense of the world.
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Does any of this sound familiar?
- You feel distracted, disconnected, and overwhelmed?
- You feel like "something" is missing but you aren't sure what it is, how to find out, or where to even look for it in the first place?
- You feel like you don't have enough time to appreciate the ordinary things in life, much less the extraordinary.
- You know that life is full of meaning but you are not sure what all that meaning actually means to you.
- Hope can feel elusive.
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are in the right place. You just might need to go on a Quest. Here you can find out more about the Quest, find out how to join one, and more!
Imagine if you could...
- Align your time, attention, and intention.
- Find the "something" that you are missing.
- Take time to appreciate the ordinary and experience the extraordinary.
- Discover a new sense of possibility and purpose.
SAY HELLO TO...
The Quest: Improvisation for Transformation
The Quest: Improv for Transformation™️ is your pathway to rediscovering presence, possibility, and the magic that surrounds us. The Quest is an experiential exercise that blends improvisation, storytelling, and exploration. It is a powerful tool to reconnect to the world, be present, pay attention, and see what insights are discovered in the process.
Created to help you reconnect to the magic of the ordinary, the extraordinary and everything in-between, this live, virtual, interactive, playful, and profound workshop will help you focus your attention, live with intention, and make the most of the present moment.
The Experience
We draw on applied improvisation, storytelling, mindfulness practices, and other creative interventions to create an immersive and transformational experience. This interactive and experiential workshop takes place in three parts
Discover:
The Mindset Workshop
Awaken your improvisational instincts! Discover the building blocks of the improvisational mindset in a safe, comfortable, non-performative setting. Through engaging and interactive activities, you'll connect to the core improv skills required to approach the world with wonder, presence, and possibility.
Explore: The Quest
Embark on an insight-filled adventure. What will you discover as you sustain this mindset throughout your day? What will you discover? Where will curiosity lead? Where will your day take you?
Create & Integrate: The Storytelling
We frame our experience in terms of stories. Those stories, in turn, shape our experience. At the end of the Quest, we share stories to gain clarity, capture insights, and learn from each other.
The Benefits
One of the most continually surprising things about The Quest is the incredible array of experiences that people have while participating. Thus, including a standard set of benefits can be difficult. And yet, we also recognize that having sense of how you might benefit is valuable.
✨ Being more mindful, curious, and attentive
✨ Enhancing listening skills
✨ Letting go
✨ Being more open to new experiences
✨ Enhancing self-awareness
✨ Cultivating an improvisational mindset
✨ Accessing your capacity for insight
✨ Understanding storytelling as a means to making sense of your own experiences, and the experiences of others
✨ Discovering a deeper appreciation of place and how it influences our experiences and shapes who we are
What's Included?
We endeavor to cultivate a place and space of belonging. We work together to create a kind, warm, welcoming, and supportive experience, where you feel inclined to explore, experiment, play, and discover.
INTRODUCTORY MODULE
Welcome Message and Checklist.
Before you embark on your Quest, it is important to be prepared. The short welcome message and video will provide a short introduction to the workshop and provide a checklist of things you might want to bring.
THE QUEST ITSELF
The Quest: Improvisation for Transformation
The Quest is an interactive and participatory experience that takes place in three parts: the workshop, the Quest itself and the storysharing at the end.
THE "WORKBOOK" aka...
The Imagine Book Journey Guide
Workbooks are great, but we think Imagine Book is a better way to describe everything that is in the Quest Journey Guide. It includes instructions to help you on your Quest, activities, helpful resources, and more. Downloadable so you can repeat the practices whenever you need some more ordinary or extraordinary.
IMPLEMENTATION SESSIONS
Implementation Sessions
Following the workshop there will be an interactive integration/implementation session. These are live sessions where you an ask questions, share insights, and get support. You can either attend live or submit your questions in advance.
Join and get the following bonus:
BONUS:
The Decider: Your Tangible Tool for Making Tough Decisions
And by tangible, we mean something that you can hold in your hands. We love a good, crafty project so get ready to print and fold! Our digital download is designed to delight, help you decide, and satisfy that desire to "make something".
Questimonials
In describing what experience you might have when embarking on a Quest, we like to leave a little bit of mystery. We do this so that everyone can create their own experience and discover what is relevant to them. Thus we want to share others experience but not share so much that it influences yours. We prioritize privacy so we anonymize the names of the participants providing testimonials, or as we like to call them "Questimonials".
The Quest: Oxford Edition
"The Quest is everywhere. I can choose to live an adventurous life every day by paying attention and embracing the things that come up 'randomly'."
The Quest:
Virtual Edition
"Jeanne is a wonderful facilitator and creates highly interactive and engaging sessions..I came away with some personal and transformative results. It was not a class, it was an experience that will have a lasting impact."
The Quest: Oxford Edition
"I used to feel quite insecure before the quest, and I think that this experience..has changed something in my mind, and I feel myself much more relaxed and willing to embrace the unknown."
We have welcomed improvisers, coaches, trainers, facilitators, educators, entrepreneurs, executives, retirees, creatives, students, scientists, actors, retirees, writers, clowns, tour guides, architects, and more!
Join the QuestThe Quest is for you if...
- You want to feel more present and connected
- You want to not take your life for granted and to make time matter
- You are comfortable with a little bit of uncertainty and want some space in your life for discovery
HOW TO JOIN
The Quest: Improvisation for Transformation
Whether you’re new to improvisation and storytelling, seeking to deepen your skills, or just want to try something new, The Quest meets you where you are. Embrace the journey ahead with confidence, openness, and curiosity.
There are many ways to join. We offer in-person, virtual, and customized Quest Workshops.
In-person
Since being re-discovered in 2014, dozens of Quest workshops have been held in cities across the globe, spanning three continents, fifteen countries, and twenty-one cities. We offer the Quest through the Human Imagination Project and also with partner organizations. The following workshops are offered with our partner organizations.
FALL/WINTER IN-PERSON QUEST DATES AND LOCATIONS COMING SOON!
Virtual
In 2020 the Quest went on-line, making it accessible to people from across the globe. In 2022 we debuted an audio version of the Quest, available by private podcast. Our unique virtual events include an opening ceremony. The workshop itself is in an audio format (private podcast that you can download or stream and take with you wherever your day takes you. Then we join together again online for the story sharing and closing ceremony.
REGISTRATION COMING SOON!
Worldwide Quest Weekend!
Coming Soon
Join us for our largest virtual event of the year.
This is a virtual version of the Quest, created so you can join from wherever in the world you are. You can do your Quest anytime on the weekend of September 6-9th, 2024.
Space is limited.
Create a Customized Quest
Want to embark on a solo adventure on a Quest for you and you alone?
In need of team building, targeted training, experiential learning, or a one-of-a kind exploration of a specific place? Whether your organization is a group of three, three thousand, or more, we offer custom Quests to suit your needs. We love creating customized Quest experiences.
Let's have a chat about creating a customized Quest for you, your group, or organization.
Reach Out!
MEET YOUR GUIDE!
Hi, I'm Jeanne
COACH. FACILITATOR. FORMER ARCHAEOLOGIST. TIME RE-IMAGINER ON A MISSION TO HELP PEOPLE RECLAIM THEIR ATTENTION FROM THE TRASH-HEAP OF DISTRACTION.
I am an orchestrator of attention and a cultivator of imagination. I use applied improvisation, storytelling, and other creative interventions to shape immersive experiences that captivate and empower. Guided by the values of kindness, curiosity, and generosity, I create welcoming spaces where participants feel safe to experiment and explore.
I help people make time matter so that they can live with presence, possibility, and purpose.
I hold a B.S. in Anthropology from Loyola University of Chicago and an M.S. in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I am a Certified Designing Your Life Coach.
I have performed, presented workshops, and led trainings in North America, Europe, and Asia.
People have described my courses as "amazing", "powerful", and "great fun".
Say hello!
"The kind of attention we pay actually alters the world. We are literally, partners in creation."
---Ian McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary
Learn More
Have hankering to learn more about the Quest: Improvisation for Transformation? We've got you covered!
The History of the Quest
The Quest is based on an improv structure created by Del Close, a legendary figure in North American modern improvisational theater. Close's work has influenced countless improvisers and his innovative exercises continue to inspire. Rediscovered in 2014, The Quest has evolved to become a powerful tool for transformation, accessible to people from all walks of life.
Where We've Been
Since being re-discovered in 2014, dozens of Quest workshops have been held in cities across the globe. In 2015, Quest workshops were held in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Chicago, Dumaguete, Philippines and in Montreal at the Applied Improvisation Network Annual Conference, where the exercise was introduced to over forty practitioners of applied improvisation from around the world. In 2016, Quest workshops were held in Hong Kong, London, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Trondheim, Norway, Berlin, and Oxford, England as part of the AIN Annual Conference, and in Austin, Texas as part of SXSW Eco Other cities include Munich, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Avila, Spain, and Vancouver, Canada.
Where We Are Going
We are exploring piloting an online community and planning Worldwide Quest Day 2024 which will bring together Quest participants across the globe.
We are also increasingly interested in the role that the Quest can play in placemaking, urban planning, and heritage conservation. By helping people deeply engage with and attune to the spaces around them, the Quest offers a powerful lens for understanding the genius loci - the unique "spirit" - of a place. We are always interested in working with new partners and exploring how the Quest can transform our relationships to the built environment and our communities.
Whether bringing people together globally through digital connections, or fostering a profound sense of place locally, the Quest continues to evolve. We aim to keep uncovering new ways this immersive experience can spark insights, connections, and personal metamorphoses. As we move forward, we welcome collaborators who share our passion for unleashing the improvisational mindset as a catalyst for more vibrant, conscious, and intentional ways of inhabiting our world.
Have an idea of how we might collaborate?
Contact Us"I know something interesting is sure to happen."
---Alice in Wonderland
Still Have Questions? We have answers!
Check out our FAQ!
I'm still not sure what the Quest is or what I will do during it...
I'm not an improviser, is that okay?
I'm an improviser, is that okay?
Can I bring a friend?
What will the level of activity be?
Is there an age limit?
Are my results guaranteed?
Do you offer scholarships?
Do you have any incentives if I refer a friend?
What other courses do you offer?
How can I be reimbursed by my organization?
Do you offer custom Quests?
Do I have to participate?
What else should I bring? How should I dress?
I've never done improv or storytelling...
I am a bit shy or introverted, the word interactive makes me nervous!
English isn't my first langage...
What's the Story with the Squirrels and Rabbits?
The rabbits are an homage to the White Rabbit In Alice in Wonderland. The White Rabbit invites us to contemplate time, responsibility, curiosity, and the pursuit of the unknown. Because embarking on a Quest can be like its own adventure down the rabbit hole, rabbits seemed an appropriate avatar.
Squirrels are often credited with being apt at attracting our attention. Part of the power of the Quest is its ability to help us attend to our attention, thus the squirrel also seemed an appropriate proxy for our attention. The illustrations were created in collaboration with Mid-Journey AI.
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"The magic of the street is the mingling of the errand and the epiphany.”
― Wanderlust: A History of Walking