NBC News Channel Improv Class Helps Cancer Patients Heal Skip to main content Close Select your preferred language English عربى 简体中文 繁體中文 فارسي עִברִית 日本語 한국어 Русский Español Tagalog Menu Close Call 1-800-CEDARS-1 toggle search form Close Los Angeles, 25 April 2019 09:57 AM America/Los_Angeles NBC News Channel Improv Class Helps Cancer Patients Heal Shelly Gossman, far left, beams as her Cedars-Sinai Cancer students act out an improvised skit. Photo by Cedars-Sinai. NBC News Channel recently interviewed Arash Asher, MD, director of Cancer Rehabilitation and Survivorship at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, about a new acting class that steers far away from Hollywood drama. Instead, it's a course aimed at helping cancer survivors, not actors. And the healing method at center stage is improvisation. Improvisation -- or improv for short -- is the art of acting out a skit without preparation or a script. Actors are given a brief description of what the scene they should improvise and each actor makes it up as they go along. And from what doctors have observed, the improv class is having a measurable, positive effect. "Improv has made a big impact on depression, on anxiety, on well-being," Asher told NBC News Channel. Asher recently was awarded a grant to continue studying the improv class' effect on patients. Asher has spearheaded several similar programs at Cedars-Sinai, including an exercise recovery program, gentle yoga for wellness, a young adult and teen lifestyle survivorship program and a six-week educational program that helps patients cope with the effects of "chemo brain." This newest course offered by Cedars-Sinai is led by comedian Shelly Gossman, a seasoned improv vet who was a leading member of Second City in Chicago, one of the nation's premier improv comedy troupes. Gossman also has writing credits at Saturday Night Live and A.P. Bio, among others. She told NBC News Channel that she initiated the course after facing cancer herself – twice. "You don't lose your sense of humanity, and wonder and laughter when you are sick," Gossman told NBC News Channel. "But when people constantly come at you with, 'oh no,' it can feel like laughter is gone." So far, Gossman's mission seems to be resonating with survivors. "I didn't want to be in a support group where we talked about our cancer," said Cedars-Sinai patient and improv participant Janet Fox. "I wanted to be somewhere where we laughed and reduced our stress." Fox added that improv, much like cancer – doesn't follow a script. "You have no idea where the scene is going, and you start speaking and all of a sudden you are alone – but you're not! The other person supports you," Fox said. Click here to watch the complete NBC News Channel story. Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Cancer Picked the Wrong Dude Related Stories RSS feed - Related Stories (opens in new window) View all headlines - Related Stories Cancer Patient Sails Again September 19, 2022 06:00 AM America/Los_Angeles Jeannea Jordan, who turns 80 in October, is a local sailing pioneer who began racing and cruising her 30-foot sailboat 25 years ago when few women were part of the sport. When a tumor on her spine ran her aground last year and her oncologist at … Read more Study Active Surveillance an Effective Option for Thyroid Cancer September 15, 2022 08:01 AM America/Los_Angeles A novel clinical trial from Cedars-Sinai Cancer shows that active surveillance is an effective treatment for many low-risk thyroid cancer patients. The study, published in JAMA Oncology, also showed for the first time that patients who opted for … Read more Study Patients Prefer Stool Test to Colonoscopy September 12, 2022 10:00 AM America/Los_Angeles Three-quarters of people prefer to do a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) rather than a colonoscopy for their regular colorectal cancer screening, according to a new Cedars-Sinai study.Unlike colonoscopies, FIT doesn’t require lengthy preparation, … Read more Show previous items Show next items Contact the Media Team Email: [email protected] Contact Share this release NBC News Channel Improv Class Helps Cancer Patients Heal Share on: Twitter Share on: Facebook Share on: LinkedIn Search Our Newsroom Social media Visit our Facebook page (opens in new window) Follow us on Twitter (opens in new window) Visit our Youtube profile (opens in new window) (opens in new window) Latest news 07 Oct 2022 - HealthDay: Black Women Less Likely to Get Laparoscopic Fibroid Surgeries 07 Oct 2022 - Faculty Publications: Sept. 29-Oct. 6 07 Oct 2022 - Fine-Tuning Organ-Chip Technology 06 Oct 2022 - KCRW: Want New Omicron Booster? Wait at Least 2 Months After Last Shot 05 Oct 2022 - Cedars-Sinai Schedules Free Flu Vaccine Clinics 04 Oct 2022 - Cedars-Sinai Showcases Hispanic and Latinx Art Newsroom Home