Quote:
"The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Often we fear silence in improv. Often this is because the silence is a result of fear - that terrible feeling we get when we start thinking and stop being in the scene, making us not know what to say (by "we" and "us", I mean "I" and "me"). But silence can also heighten the scene. How do you tell when it's a fearful silence that needs to be filled or a heightening silence?

That's not a hypothetical question. I don't know the answer. I'll have to watch for the difference and learn.