Program

 

Ple­nary Sessions

Ways of Per­form­ing Community

Inter­na­tional Panel

Music to Make a Rev­o­lu­tion By

An evening of polit­i­cal song pre­sented by the Castillo Theatre

This live cabaret fea­tures the songs of Castillo’s retired artis­tic direc­tor, Fred New­man, inter­wo­ven with polit­i­cal songs from around the world and through­out history—from Kurt Weil to Nina Simone to Bob Dylan to the lat­est rap from the streets of Brook­lyn. Music to Make a Rev­o­lu­tion By brings com­mu­nity, the avant-garde and song together for a night of pas­sion­ate, ener­giz­ing and chal­leng­ing polit­i­cal entertainment.

All Stars Come Out

Lenora Fulani, Pamela A. Lewis, and All Stars Youth

What Is Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Activ­ity and Do You Think You’re Doing It?

Dan Fried­man, Lois Holz­man, Fred Newman

Opera da Cidada­nia (The People’s Opera)

Poli­cia Mil­i­tar da Bahia The­atre Group

From the state of Bahia in Brazil comes Opera da Cidada­nia, a musi­cal per­for­mance that high­lights the open­ness and joy with which Bahi­ans relate to cul­ture. It invites the audi­ence to par­tic­i­pate and enjoy this snip­pet of the local pop­u­lar fes­tiv­i­ties that enchant Bahia annu­ally.  Opera da Cidada­nia presents issues related to cul­ture, social respon­si­bil­ity and pub­lic secu­rity, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of inter­de­pen­dence with the goal of cre­at­ing a city in which com­mu­nity mem­bers are com­mit­ted to devel­op­ing mean­ing­ful shared liv­ing spaces where diver­sity is hon­ored and respected. The cast is com­prised of 29 police offi­cers who have devel­oped their skills as musi­cians, per­cus­sion­ists, singers, dancers, capo­eris­tas and actors.

Con­cur­rent Sessions

Cre­ative Aging

Helen Abel and Nina Utigaard

USA

We live in a cul­ture that views aging neg­a­tively, our elders often feel­ing invis­i­ble. How can we age in a way that inspires us to con­tinue to grow and develop? How can we sup­port older adults to be active par­tic­i­pants in their com­mu­nity?  This expe­ri­en­tial work­shop, using impro­vi­sa­tion, art, music, move­ment, and poetry, will intro­duce you to new ways of respond­ing to some of the com­mon issues faced by older adults. Join us in play­ing with what it means to grow older as active choice mak­ers, what­ever life may bring.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Chal­lenges and Advan­tages of Peer Edu­ca­tion and Coun­sel­ing in STIs and HIV Pre­ven­tion Edu­ca­tion with PLWHA and High-Risk Youth in Pakistan

Rana Gulzar Ahmad

Pak­istan

As poverty con­tin­ues to grip Pak­istan, the num­ber of urban street chil­dren grows and has now reached alarm­ing pro­por­tions, demand­ing far greater action than presently offered. Urban­iza­tion, nat­ural cat­a­stro­phes, dis­ease, war and inter­nal con­flict, eco­nomic break­down caus­ing unem­ploy­ment, and home­less­ness have forced fam­i­lies and chil­dren to search for a “bet­ter life,” often mak­ing chil­dren vul­ner­a­ble to abuse and exploita­tion. This pre­sen­ta­tion will show­case a rights-based life skills project oper­at­ing in eight com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions through­out Quetta City, Pak­istan. Par­tic­i­pants will be invited to take part in a Balochi Folk Dance.

Cre­at­ing a Giv­ing Com­mu­nity: An Inti­mate Look at the Per­for­mance of Fund Raising

Jeff Aron, Joyce Dat­tner and Martha Jane Avstreih

USA

In an era when bud­get cuts and gov­ern­ment cut­backs have made all the head­lines,  how did the All Stars Project go from solic­it­ing $1 con­tri­bu­tions on street cor­ners to a $12 mil­lion per­form­ing arts com­plex on 42nd Street? Join a con­ver­sa­tion with some of the peo­ple who have raised and given more than $35 mil­lion over the past 9 years and helped to build com­mu­ni­ties that have sup­ported the national expan­sion of the of All Stars. Learn how to per­form as a community-building fundraiser as we explore the pro­fes­sional, per­for­ma­tory, emo­tional and other dimen­sions of ask­ing and giving.

 

Per­form­ing Kenya

Pamela Ateka, Nancy Muraya, and Charles Muthiora

Kenya

In this ses­sion we will explore sto­ry­telling, poetry and the power of the spo­ken word as a source of heal­ing and com­mu­nity devel­op­ment. Every­one is a par­tic­i­pant in this ses­sion, and all par­tic­i­pants will have an oppor­tu­nity to also tell their own sto­ries and write their own poems. We will explore the com­mu­nity of sto­ry­telling and the sto­ry­telling of com­mu­nity. Enjoy a piece of Kenyan passion!

Per­form­ing the Word for the Peace of the World

Babafemi Babatope

Nige­ria

This ses­sion is both the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal, con­sist­ing of an aca­d­e­mic paper enti­tled “Per­form­ing the Word for the Peace of the World” and a 15-minute solo drama sketch on HIV and AIDS called “The Scourge.” The paper will empha­size per­form­ing the word (the­atre) for the ame­lio­ra­tion of social dys­func­tion­al­ity. The sketch will dra­ma­tize the ordeal of a man at the advanced stage of AIDS who decides to share his story before he gives up the ghost.

Trans­for­mance: Learn­ing to Per­form Per­sonal and Col­lec­tive Self-Determination

Dan Baron-Cohen

Brazil

This illus­trated pre­sen­ta­tion will demon­strate how sto­ry­telling, dance-drama, dia­logic sculp­ture and col­lec­tive ‘impro­vi­sa­tion’ tech­niques can be used to trans­form schools, work­places and com­mu­ni­ties into the­atres where we can learn coop­er­a­tively, inter­cul­tur­ally and demo­c­ra­t­i­cally to shape and per­form our iden­tity, our desires, and our capac­ity to respond cre­atively to the ‘per­for­mance pres­sures’ of an increas­ingly com­pet­i­tive and con­stantly chang­ing mul­ti­cul­tural world.  Through a two-year project based in an agro-ecological com­mu­nity school, it will show how these tech­niques cul­ti­vate sol­i­dar­ity, dia­logic ques­tion­ing, per­sonal and col­lec­tive moti­va­tion, inter­cul­tural self-awareness and col­lec­tive self-confidence to build and per­form the­atres of coop­er­a­tion and sus­tain­able community.

 

Impro­vi­sa­tional Teach­ing: Pre-service Ele­men­tary Teach­ers in the Ped­a­gog­i­cal Dance

Kirstin Bratt

USA

Dur­ing this work­shop, we hope to engage par­tic­i­pants in exam­ples of the impro­vi­sa­tional work that we use with our pre-service teach­ers in lan­guage arts and dance meth­ods for ele­men­tary edu­ca­tion majors. We use children’s lit­er­a­ture as a basis for move­ment and, through these texts, encour­age move­ment that does not repro­duce lit­er­a­ture but rather responds to it through body, effort, space, and shape.

Chang­ing the “Lan­guage Games” of Schools, Orga­ni­za­tions, and Institutions

Volker Bun­zen­dahl

Den­mark

A story about the devel­op­ment of a non-dogmatic method with which we try to cre­ate zones of the next pos­si­bil­i­ties together, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with pupils, ser­vice assis­tants, teach­ers, edu­ca­tors and all peo­ple involved in the school. The story con­tains speech, pic­tures and small video clips, and the work­shop will involve all par­tic­i­pants in play­ful activ­i­ties. Come and join a work­shop where the­ory and the “best of aca­d­e­mics” meet with prac­tice and “the best of activism.”

Other Voices—Youth-Driven The­atre as Par­tic­i­pa­tory Action Research

Andrew Bur­ton

Canada

Andrew Bur­ton and mem­bers of the award-winning Street Spir­its The­atre Com­pany lead this work­shop exam­ple of inter­ac­tive the­atre as par­tic­i­pa­tory action research. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with local com­mu­ni­ties of shared con­cern, youth actors cre­ate plays that reflect local expe­ri­ence of social prob­lems such as drug addic­tion, racism, sex­ual exploita­tion and fam­ily vio­lence. The play is per­formed for the pub­lic in “Forum,” allow­ing audi­ence mem­bers to inter­vene and try to resolve the issues in the play. The cre­ative process includes com­mu­nity con­sul­ta­tion through inter­views and focus groups to iden­tify the issues as well as workshop-style play cre­ation includ­ing our youth per­form­ers and com­mu­nity vol­un­teers lead­ing to a com­plete rep­re­sen­ta­tive play. The work­shop will include an out­line of how we work and a per­for­mance of  an orig­i­nal play cre­ated by youth in Prince George, British Colum­bia dur­ing a research tour on sex­ual assault.

Pro­mot­ing Children’s Social + Play Skills Through Improv-Based “Play Group”

Faye Casell and Barb O’Neill

USA

Early child­hood spe­cial edu­ca­tors Barb O’Neill and Faye Cas­sell dis­cuss the appli­ca­tion of impro­vi­sa­tion and cre­ative drama activ­i­ties as tools to pro­mote the social-emotional devel­op­ment of both spe­cial edu­ca­tion and gen­eral edu­ca­tion stu­dents.  Both of these edu­ca­tors have imple­mented improv-based “play groups” in preschool class­rooms in order to pro­mote the social devel­op­ment of the par­tic­i­pat­ing chil­dren.  They dis­cuss anec­do­tal evi­dence that sug­gests that the use of play group inter­ven­tions in school set­tings can help chil­dren of all abil­i­ties to take risks, develop new play skills and cre­ate friendships.

TLC Project—Theatre of Lib­er­a­tion Com­mu­nity Project

Simon Christo­pher De Abreu

Canada

The­atre of Lib­er­a­tion Com­mu­nity Project (TLC Project) is a fun sus­tain­able social action that works to fos­ter demo­c­ra­tic par­tic­i­pa­tory sys­tems of social change.  The TLC Project brings peo­ple together to have some “SERIOUS FUN.”  The­atre games are used to empower cit­i­zens to engage their cre­ative spirit, so they can com­mu­ni­cate the chal­lenges they and their com­mu­nity are fac­ing.  The­atre of Lib­er­a­tion is an EMPOWERING col­lec­tive, cre­ative act that pro­vides cit­i­zens an oppor­tu­nity to rehearse pos­si­ble real life changes which offers hope for a pos­i­tive trans­for­ma­tion of our col­lec­tively shared present, thus secur­ing a more socially JUST future … so please DO get involved!

Per­for­ma­tive Approaches to Sup­port­ing Refugee Children

Lau­rent Dit­mann, Christina Shun­narah, Jen­nifer Greene and Mcken­zie Wren

USA

This forum will allow performance-focused pro­fes­sion­als from all fields deal­ing with war-impacted chil­dren and refugee chil­dren to debate sup­port­ive method­olo­gies with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Inter­na­tional Com­mu­nity School of Decatur, Geor­gia.  The only insti­tu­tion of this type in the United States, ICS is a free char­ter school of the DeKalb County School Sys­tem (K/6) serv­ing the needs of local chil­dren as well as refugee and immi­grant chil­dren to learn about the beliefs and tra­di­tions of oth­ers and encour­age a respect­ful envi­ron­men­tal and global perspective.

Per­form­ing Recovery

Margo Edwards

USA

This work­shop intends to con­tinue the dia­logue about using per­for­mance in recov­ery.  We will ini­tially look at the exist­ing per­for­mances used in social model recov­ery.  Drug and alco­hol coun­selors and oth­ers in the recov­ery com­mu­nity are invited to share their own learning/development expe­ri­ences and how they have com­mu­ni­cated or shared these expe­ri­ences with oth­ers. Coun­selors can ben­e­fit greatly from this performance-based ses­sion, which will be ther­a­peu­tic for those in recov­ery (both coun­selors and those enrolled in recov­ery pro­grams).  Come!  Let’s learn to Per­form Recovery!

Hand­book for Begin­ners: Vocab­u­lary of Mistakes

Vera Erac and Alek­san­dra Jelic

Ser­bia

In this work­shop we want to present an applied the­atre approach from the side of com­pli­ca­tions and frus­tra­tions. Come to explore with us our begin­nings in devel­op­ing the drama-based approach to work­ing with peo­ple in dif­fer­ent set­tings (pris­ons, schools, Roma com­mu­nity) in Ser­bia. Go with us through a series of impro­vi­sa­tional exer­cises and trans­for­ma­tions of mis­take sit­u­a­tions, and help us to look at the mis­takes from dif­fer­ent perspectives.

From Burnout to Fired Up!: The Cre­ativ­ity of Con­ver­sa­tion in the Non­profit Workplace

Esther Farmer and Dale Hamilton

Canada and USA

In order to respond to the vari­ety of issues in human ser­vices, orga­ni­za­tions fre­quently oper­ate in cri­sis mode. In this envi­ron­ment staff some­times gets stuck in stul­ti­fy­ing roles that can lead to burnout. Lat­eral Strate­gies is a com­mu­nity devel­op­ment con­sul­tancy led by Esther Farmer from New York and Dale Hamil­ton from Ontario, Canada, that uses per­for­mance to re-ignite cre­ativ­ity in com­mu­nity build­ing. Our work with NGOs uses per­for­mance to cre­ate new con­ver­sa­tions and rela­tion­ships among staff and clients. Par­tic­i­pants will “try on” new ways of per­form­ing rela­tion­ships, poten­tially open­ing up new pos­si­bil­i­ties in their every­day encoun­ters in the non­profit sector.

Impro­vi­sa­tion in Psy­chol­ogy and Social Work Edu­ca­tion (Or, “What is there to teach?”)

Nancy Feld­man, Mur­ray Dabby, and Rafael Mendez

USA

Devel­op­men­tal learn­ing is impor­tant in a world in which there is no know­ing the ‘right answer’ to many of the prac­ti­cal and eth­i­cal ques­tions that stu­dents con­front. We are edu­ca­tors in psy­chol­ogy and social work who focus on devel­op­men­tal learn­ing, par­tic­u­larly through the use of per­for­mance and impro­vi­sa­tion. Our pre­sen­ta­tion will include a dis­cus­sion of our expe­ri­ences with impro­vi­sa­tion as a teach­ing tool in psy­chol­ogy and social work classes. Through impro­vi­sa­tion games and dia­logue with the audi­ence, we will explore the nature of devel­op­men­tal learn­ing and its crit­i­cal role in education.

The Ill-Tempered Orchestra

John Find­lay

Aus­tralia

Here’s your chance to play your­self as a musi­cal instru­ment.  Bring your best moans, whinges, griz­zles, rowls, nag­ging and wails along. First we write the score and the libretto. Then we per­form our sym­phony of discontent.

 

Spin-a-Play to a Hip Hop Aesop

J.E. Franklin

USA
Jazzed, Bopped and Beat-Boxed s both a lit­er­ary board game and multi-purpose learn­ing tool which frames the goals of lit­er­acy, edu­ca­tion and spir­i­tual heal­ing as a per­for­mance expe­ri­ence. The
ses­sion will intro­duce par­tic­i­pants to richly tex­tured, fable-based
three-minute plays, writ­ten for either inter­ac­tive or choral read­ing
pre­sen­ta­tion. Per­for­mance Teams to be formed at the ses­sion, using  only
“human orches­tra­tion” rather than instru­men­ta­tion, will be given sev­eral
min­utes to rehearse the plays before per­form­ing them for the workshop.

Mak­ing Plays Through Per­for­ma­tory Play

Dan Fried­man and Brian Mullin

USA

At Youth Onstage! we build our young per­form­ers’ capac­i­ties for “per­for­ma­tory play.”  We orga­nize the­atri­cal envi­ron­ments in which they can play with and chal­lenge the polit­i­cal, social, and philo­soph­i­cal assump­tions cir­cum­scrib­ing their lives.  In this work­shop, par­tic­i­pants will expe­ri­ence some of the meth­ods by which YO! has cre­ated its acclaimed improv-based the­ater pieces. Inter­ac­tive exer­cises will explore how to use obser­va­tion of the world around you as well as tex­tual sources as mate­r­ial for impro­vi­sa­tion and inno­v­a­tive the­atri­cal experimentation.

Imag­ing That! Using Image Work (The­atre) in War-Affected Areas

Elise Griede

The Nether­lands

How can appli­ca­tion of cre­ative meth­ods pos­i­tively influ­ence the lives of young peo­ple affected by war? This is a ques­tion that War Child Hol­land tries to answer. War Child is an inter­na­tional NGO that uses Cre­ative Meth­ods (drama, art, music, sports) in its projects with chil­dren and youth in 11 war-affected coun­tries. How does that work? Com­bin­ing pre­sen­ta­tion with the­atre exer­cises, this work­shop aims to give the par­tic­i­pants an (inter)active intro­duc­tion to the vision, the meth­ods and the chal­lenges of work­ing cre­atively in a war-torn context.

Pro­cess­ing the “-isms”

Tom Griggs

USA

Par­tic­i­pants are invited to engage in process drama (O’Neill, 1995) to explore one use of act­ing, train­ing, and per­for­mance tech­niques I pro­pose mak­ing in teacher pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment.  Using a sce­nario drawn from my own first year of high school teach­ing expe­ri­ence, this work­shop will explore the dynam­ics of exclu­sion­ary “-isms” and how they affect us, whether con­sciously or oth­er­wise.  We will also inter­ro­gate how these atti­tudes shape our pro­fes­sional effec­tive­ness in work­ing in diverse setting.

Soweto Children’s Musi­cal Games as Play and Performance

Susan Harrop-Allin

South Africa

This ses­sion focuses on children’s musi­cal games observed in Soweto pri­mary schools in South Africa and how these games func­tion for chil­dren as play and per­for­mance. I sug­gest that these games are not only inter­est­ing and impor­tant forms of musi­cal prac­tice in their own right, but that they have impli­ca­tions for ped­a­gogy. I will present a num­ber of the games on video and dis­cuss the musi­cal knowl­edges and capac­i­ties they embody, and finally con­sider how teach­ers may ‘recruit’ these games as poten­tial resources in the classroom.

Drama in the Hospital

Karelisa Har­ti­gan

USA

This pre­sen­ta­tion con­tin­ues and updates my PTW3 paper on drama and heal­ing, ancient and mod­ern. I dis­cuss how Play­back The­ater is used at Shands Hos­pi­tal at the Uni­ver­sity of Florida. When a patient sees his/her story per­formed by the drama troupe, he/she can come to terms with it. In this way the reen­act­ment assists the heal­ing process. Every week the actors see their work val­i­dated by patient reac­tion, either bed­side or in a com­mon space. A DVD video doc­u­ments their work.

Trau­matic Per­for­mances: 1. The Art of Silence 2. The Sin Eater 3. The Bystanders

Jen­nifer Hartley

UK

Deal­ing with trauma through drama. Trauma result­ing from oppres­sion – look­ing at the var­i­ous points of view of all those involved and the work­shop meth­ods devel­oped to work with them. Part of a three-stage project work­ing with tor­ture sur­vivors, their tor­tur­ers and oth­ers involved in the process that resulted in a tril­ogy of plays. Look­ing at pro­duc­ing the­atre from trauma work­shops and the reper­cus­sions of involv­ing case stud­ies in per­for­mances of their expe­ri­ences – the ethics and the ther­a­peu­tic process. A study of the com­plex­ity of oppres­sive sit­u­a­tions to be judged in black and white terms.

How Per­for­mance Art Inter­ven­tions Con­tribute to the Field of Con­flict Resolution

Dena Hawes

USA

Art can influ­ence the way peo­ple inter­pret, per­ceive, and ulti­mately act in their com­mu­ni­ties. This talk explores and explains the role of art and the place of the artist in resolv­ing and trans­form­ing com­mu­nity con­flict. Focus is given to per­for­mance artists Suzanne Lacy and James Luna. Empir­i­cal research mea­sured the impact that a spe­cific kind of cre­ative expe­ri­ence had on an audi­ence, explor­ing the issue of inten­tion­al­ity —how the artist’s inten­tion can influ­ence the atti­tudes and per­cep­tions of the viewer and change the way indi­vid­ual mem­bers of an audi­ence per­ceive a group, sit­u­a­tion, or event.

Soci­etal Masking

Soci­etal Masking

Janus

Canada

In this work­shop we will cre­ate per­sonal masks and per­form a col­lab­o­ra­tive “Hap­pen­ing.” These soci­etal masks exam­ine the per­sonal psy­cho­log­i­cal need to dis­place or heighten one’s own iden­tity by feign­ing sit­u­a­tional char­ac­ter types. Masks build self-confidence by pro­vid­ing us with a pro­tec­tive space that we can observe, par­tic­i­pate and per­form from. This vital­iz­ing work­shop invites you to con­sider your own soci­etal masks and per­form them out­side of the secu­rity of work­shop walls.

School and Democ­racy: Cre­at­ing New Com­mu­ni­ties of Inclusion

Rikke Moller Johannesen

Den­mark

This panel is about chil­dren and their oppor­tu­ni­ties to enter into and cre­ate new com­mu­ni­ties of inclu­sion in a change­able and polar­ized world. I want to show that the for­ma­tion of the self is a basis for the oppor­tu­ni­ties. The self forms through play and social inter­ac­tion, and an aware­ness of this must be inte­grated into the ped­a­gog­i­cal work of the teacher who aspires to con­tribute to cre­at­ing new com­mu­ni­ties of inclu­sion. In this light I want to show that the ped­a­gog­i­cal work with democ­racy and cit­i­zen­ship edu­ca­tion in school can be an impor­tant key.

Dis­cern­ing Com­mu­nity Issues for Youth The­atre Devising

Lau­ren Jost

USA

This inter­ac­tive work­shop will focus on the meth­ods and the­o­ries uti­lized for dis­cern­ing com­mu­nity issues dur­ing the devis­ing process of a 2007 urban youth the­atre case study in East New York, Brook­lyn.  In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing exam­ples of stu­dent work, we will actively explore the tech­niques used in dis­cern­ing the issues that the young peo­ple iden­ti­fied as impor­tant to their com­mu­nity and how these issues were applied to the theatre-devising process through brain­storm­ing and scene devel­op­ment. Work­shop par­tic­i­pants will acti­vate var­i­ous mod­els and reflect on the effi­cacy of these tech­niques with dif­fer­ent pop­u­la­tions of young people.

Double-trouble

Djordje Jovanovic and Edmond Makasci

Ser­bia

In the first part of our pre­sen­ta­tion we will try to show how a post-war devel­op­ing soci­ety influ­ences the lives of peo­ple who are dif­fer­ent. More­over, we will try to show what hap­pens with peo­ple who are a minor­ity within a minor­ity, based on our per­sonal expe­ri­ence. In the sec­ond part, we will sug­gest a solu­tion—some­thing that helped us deal with dis­crim­i­na­tion. We are eager to hear what you think about it.

Dif­fer­ent is Beau­ti­ful: The­atre in Edu­ca­tion Project in Tol­er­ance Build­ing Among Youth in Mul­ti­eth­nic Regions in Serbia

Svet­lana Kijevcanin

Ser­bia

This ses­sion will be a short pre­sen­ta­tion of two sim­i­lar projects that used the­atre in edu­ca­tion method­ol­ogy in a tol­er­ance build­ing process among youth com­ing from dif­fer­ent eth­nic back­ground in Ser­bia: Bosni­ans, Serbs, Alban­ian and Roma.

Both projects were real­ized within the CARE Inter­na­tional Ser­bia and Mon­tene­gro in the period from 2002–2004 in the Sandzak region and South­ern Ser­bia, in part­ner­ship with NGO CEDEUM (Cen­tre for Drama in Edu­ca­tion and Art).

Secu­rity System

Mar­i­anne Kim and Joseph Ravens

USA

Secu­rity Sys­tem is a portable inflat­able mul­ti­me­dia per­for­mance inspired by fear and the illu­sion of safety. Choreographer/video artist Mar­i­anne M. Kim and installation/performance artist Joseph Ravens col­lab­o­rate to address site-specific per­for­mance and the role of pub­lic per­for­mance. Within this piece, the per­form­ers become inven­tor, vic­tim, wit­ness, and per­pe­tra­tor. Their actions blur the line between task-oriented func­tion­al­ity and struc­tured rit­ual. Trans­for­ma­tion, muta­tion, and decay serve to rein­force the con­cept of fear and imag­ined safety. Kim and Ravens cre­ate work that chal­lenges expec­ta­tions and cham­pi­ons the dia­logue between art forms in order to tran­scend gen­res and dis­cover con­cepts that are psy­cho­log­i­cal and political.

Cul­ture and Health: Eth­nic Dif­fer­ences in Health

Prem Kuwar

Nepal

This research pro­gram searched for expla­na­tions for eth­nic dif­fer­ences in health and health care and revealed the rea­sons for these dif­fer­ences and the ways to reduce them. In this work­shop we will show how new knowl­edge about eth­nic dif­fer­ences from epi­demi­o­log­i­cal and clin­i­cal research can be used to improve prac­tice in the areas of pre­ven­tion of var­i­ous pre­ventable dis­eases, includ­ing both pri­mary health care and men­tal health care.

What We’ve Learned About Social Ther­apy Group Over the Last 35 Years

Chris­tine La Cerva and Joyce Dattner

USA

How does the social ther­apy group work? What have we learned from years of cre­at­ing groups?  How do groups develop? What is the role of the ther­a­pist? The patient? What are we dis­cov­er­ing in the day-to-day prac­tice of the social ther­apy group about human devel­op­ment? This work­shop will explore, inves­ti­gate and con­tinue to cre­ate the social ther­apy group.

Shake­speare and the Col­lec­tive Imagination

Fiona Les­ley

UK

This ses­sion uses col­lab­o­ra­tive expe­ri­en­tial engage­ment with Shakespeare’s text to unlock pow­er­ful sources of mean­ing and per­spec­tive between actors and non-actors. The approach focuses on the spirit of inven­tion within the text and pro­vides an expe­ri­en­tial space where actors and audi­ences can explore, exam­ine and cre­ate together. Through prac­ti­cal exer­cises that are both acces­si­ble and chal­leng­ing, we will unpack the metaphor­i­cal lay­ers of Shakespeare’s craft work­ing with story, loca­tion, char­ac­ter and imagery to open up new insights into the plays and the power of the imag­i­na­tion between actor and audience.

“Hey, I have an idea for a game”: Cre­at­ing Improv Activ­i­ties that Sup­port Learn­ing and Development

Car­rie Lob­man and Matt Lundquist

USA

What does it take to cre­ate your own improv games?  How can cre­at­ing improv activ­i­ties enhance learn­ing and help you relate to every­thing as part of an ongo­ing impro­vi­sa­tional per­for­mance? In this work­shop, Car­rie Lob­man and Matthew Lundquist, authors of the book Unscripted Learn­ing: Using improv activ­i­ties across the K-8 cur­ricu­lum, will work with par­tic­i­pants to develop games and activ­i­ties for use in each person’s learn­ing environments—whether it be a class­room, a work­place, a fam­ily, or a polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tion. You will come away with many new activ­i­ties, and even more impor­tantly, you will develop as an activity-creator.

“How Do We Build with this Mess?”  Cre­at­ing Cul­ture in an Inner-City Pub­lic School Using a Unique Blend of Impro­vi­sa­tion and Brain Research

Gwen Lowen­heim, Stephen Appea, Joan Mahon-Powell, and Stu­art Sears

USA

There are two excit­ing yet seem­ingly dis­con­nected trends gain­ing momen­tum in the fields of psy­chol­ogy and orga­ni­za­tional devel­op­ment these days. One is the grow­ing impact of technology-aided brain research and its rev­e­la­tions about the impor­tance of sus­tained inten­tion for tak­ing advan­tage of the brain’s ‘plas­tic­ity’ for cre­ative re-wiring. The sec­ond is per­for­ma­tive psy­cholo­gies that relate to human beings as active cre­ators of their lives who have the capac­ity to con­tin­u­ally per­form beyond them­selves. Through pre­sen­ta­tion and impro­vi­sa­tional group build­ing activ­i­ties, we will show you how a team of train­ers has inte­grated these two strands and part­nered with a school prin­ci­pal to cre­ate a work­ing, organ­i­cally devel­op­ing cul­ture in a New York City ele­men­tary school.

Masks of Manipulation

Simon Mal­bo­gat

Canada

Simon, Artis­tic Direc­tor of Mixed Com­pany The­atre in Toronto, will share how the Sweet Med­i­cine Teach­ings from the Metis Deer Tribe Soci­ety (par­tic­u­larly the Exter­nal Manip­u­la­tors and the Tyrant Oppres­sor Wheel) and his Masks of Manip­u­la­tion may be applied to work in Forum The­atre.  Through explo­ration of the teach­ings and the Masks, par­tic­i­pants will start to develop a unique and cre­ative lan­guage and method­ol­ogy with which to iden­tify the var­i­ous manipulations/oppressions at the cen­ter of dra­matic con­flict.  The ideas pre­sented will com­ple­ment the cre­ative and ana­lyt­i­cal processes involved in devel­op­ing a the­atri­cal piece for both pro­fes­sional and community-based activities.

The Art of Change: Explor­ing Cul­ture, The­atre, and the Devel­op­ment of Young People

Jerry Maraia, Jen­nifer Holmes, and Fiona Lesley

Var­i­ous Countries

The Art of Change is an inter­na­tional the­atre edu­ca­tion research project that seeks to develop new prac­tice between the­atre artists and edu­ca­tors cross-culturally. It has been ini­ti­ated by a group of lead­ing the­atre edu­ca­tion prac­ti­tion­ers from the UK with their inter­na­tional col­leagues in Japan, India, Cat­alo­nia, and the USA.  The project exam­ines the rela­tion­ship between the­atre prac­tice, young peo­ple, and cul­ture. This ses­sion will pro­vide a prac­ti­cal insight into the way The Art of Change has worked with cre­ative prac­tice as a tool for col­lab­o­ra­tive research and share find­ings from devel­op­ments of the project in the USA.

Writ­ing “Ugly Duckling”

Ana Marjanovic-Shane

USA

Explor­ing con­nec­tions between child play and cre­ative writ­ing is the goal of this two-part work­shop. First, par­tic­i­pants engage in joint re-writing the “Ugly Duck­ling”, while explor­ing mem­o­ries and ideas about what they want to achieve with regard to genre, pos­si­ble audi­ence, and type of pre­sen­ta­tion —book, play, poem, etc (to be video­taped.) In part two, par­tic­i­pants are guided in these taped inter­ac­tions and dis­cussing dif­fer­ent processes involved in the activ­ity of story cre­ation, estab­lish­ing mutual rela­tion­ships and new indi­vid­ual and group def­i­n­i­tions of themselves.

Impro­vis­ing With(in) the Sys­tem: Per­for­mance in Action with Inner-City Schoolteachers

Jim Mar­tinez, Matt Lundquist, and Bar­bara O’Neill

USA

Three New York City teach­ers will share how they have used impro­vi­sa­tion, as well as the performance-based method­ol­ogy devel­oped by New­man and Holz­man, to cre­ate pos­si­bil­i­ties for learn­ing and devel­op­ment in some of the least cre­ative envi­ron­ments: inner-city schools. By using impro­vi­sa­tion, teach­ers can go beyond the tra­di­tional teacher role and cre­ate unscripted per­for­mances of teach­ing and learn­ing with their stu­dents. This ses­sion will pro­vide a forum for an inter­ac­tive dia­logue about the ways in which suc­cess­ful teach­ers are work­ing within the cur­rent edu­ca­tional cli­mate to main­tain a focus on the devel­op­ment of their stu­dents as cre­ative, inquir­ing social learners.

Merg­ing Lives: All Stars Project Present Inter­gen­er­a­tional The­atre Workshop

Susan Mas­sad, Vicky Wal­lace, and Amanda Williams

USA

Inter­gen­er­a­tional The­atre (IGT) is the newest pro­gram of the All Stars Project, a
non­profit orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cated to pro­mot­ing human devel­op­ment through the use of an inno­v­a­tive performance-based model.  IGT brings together seniors from var­i­ous eth­nic and class back­grounds with inner city ado­les­cents inter­ested in the per­form­ing arts. Led by a trained the­atre direc­tor, par­tic­i­pants learn impro­vi­sa­tion skills and cre­ate dra­ma­tized sto­ries, using mate­r­ial from each of their lives.  In cre­at­ing the scenes, ‘my’ story becomes ‘our’ story. Peo­ple who don’t ordi­nar­ily do things together cre­ate new con­ver­sa­tions. Every­one devel­ops. Seniors and youth will per­form and lead a discussion.

Act­ing Cre­ativ­ity Through Theater

Kim­berly A. McCarthy

USA

Pre­sented herein are two hands-on meth­ods that address, through the proac­tive medium of the­ater, some of the most chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ments that lack in com­mu­nity. The first is derived from the Los Ange­les Poverty Depart­ment  (L.A.P.D.), a the­ater com­pany based in Skid Row, Los Ange­les, Cal­i­for­nia. The sec­ond, Scrap Met­tle Soul Per­for­mance Com­pany, is based in Uptown, Chicago, the most diverse neigh­bor­hood in the United States. How can a sense of com­mu­nity exist in such high-risk, diverse, and uncer­tain envi­ron­ments, ones in which a tran­sient lifestyle has its rewards?  Par­tic­i­pants in this work­shop will par­take in some of these suc­cess­ful techniques.

Cer­e­mony as the Orig­i­nal Per­for­mance: Post-modern Perspectives

Lewis Mehl-Madrona

Canada

In the pre-modern world, cer­e­mony was done in accor­dance with pre­scribed rit­u­als and pro­to­cols, passed from one gen­er­a­tion to the next, chang­ing as cul­ture changed.  How do we do cer­e­mony in a post-modern world in which any group meet­ing together can be com­posed of mul­ti­ple cul­tures and prac­tices?  Through cir­cu­lar (non­lin­ear) com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­niques such as the Lakota talk­ing cir­cle, mem­bers of mul­ti­ple cul­tures can con­tribute per­for­mance vignettes which may be assem­bled into a spir­i­tu­ally pow­er­ful, novel nar­ra­tive evolved from the group at hand, con­tain­ing ele­ments of all the cul­tures and fam­i­lies represented.

Tokens, Torch­bear­ers and Trans­gres­sors: Per­form­ing Gen­der in the 1970s

Lois Melina

USA

Women in the 1970s entered pre­vi­ously male-dominated jobs and fields of study in num­bers unprece­dented in peace­time. As they chal­lenged pre­sump­tions that cer­tain abil­i­ties, qual­i­ties, and roles were more nat­u­rally “male” or “female,” they man­i­fested new ways of being women. They nego­ti­ated and per­formed gen­der. This work­shop will engage par­tic­i­pants in a read­ers’ the­ater pre­sen­ta­tion of the sto­ries of women in the 1970s based on inter­views with women now in their fifties. Fol­low­ing the read­ers’ the­ater per­for­mance, both the actors and audi­ence will be invited to respond to the sto­ries and the per­for­mance experience.

The Art­maker as Active Agent: Six Portraits

Susan Mon­a­gan

USA

This work­shop presents find­ings from a project that has engaged community-based artists in dia­logue about their own expe­ri­ences of work­ing with com­mu­ni­ties and address­ing and defin­ing the new prob­lems pre­sented by a chang­ing pub­lic life. This pre­sen­ta­tion will use par­tic­i­pants’ expe­ri­ences to facil­i­tate an inter­ac­tive dis­cus­sion about the par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties pre­sented by this work, espe­cially those that per­tain to crit­i­cism and research.

The People’s Poet

Car­o­line Nder­itu and Pamela Ateka

Kenya

Even though, like other writ­ers, we write and per­form for arts’ sake on love, life, sun­shine, but­ter­flies and gen­eral enter­tain­ment, the bulk of our work has been writ­ing on top­i­cal issues such as HIV/AIDs, peace, water, cli­mate change, the dig­i­tal divide, elec­tric­ity, jus­tice, patri­o­tism, agri­cul­ture and the like. There­fore, it is only nat­ural that we would want to accen­tu­ate the place and power of poetry as a viable voice on day-to-day issues in our soci­eties by stag­ing some of our social poetry.

1. Time to Deliver 2. Arise Africa

Gbenga Ojo, Nicholas Aise­wom­hion, and Eli­jah Jaiyeoba

Nige­ria

These two songs are nice African melodies com­posed pri­mar­ily to raise aware­ness on HIV/AIDS and to call on all stake­hold­ers for increased com­mit­ment and proac­tive­ness in com­bat­ing the pandemic.

Icy

Jen Pearcy, Sabine Chou­cair, Robin Edwards, Dorie Kin­n­ear, and Andy Langenfeld

UK

“Icy” is the story of a young girl grow­ing up in rural Ken­tucky in the 1950s with undi­ag­nosed Tourette’s syn­drome. Afflicted with vio­lent ticks, uncon­trol­lable curs­ing and phys­i­cal defor­ma­tion when the “spells” set in, she strug­gles to find her place in the small town world she lives in within the Appalachian moun­tains. Infec­tious The­atre inves­ti­gates this story using sto­ry­telling, mime, pup­petry, and Butoh dance.  We seek to find, along with Icy, where it is that she fits in.

Per­form­ing Cit­i­zen­ship: Con­sti­tu­tional Edu­ca­tion and Youth Devel­op­ment in South Africa

Betsi Pendry, Fan­tino Masike, Ice Ngubane, Chiliza Nkabinde, and Stom­pie Selibe

South Africa

The work­shop will be a com­bi­na­tion of lis­ten­ing to and see­ing some of the doc­u­men­tary work that learn­ers in the Democ­racy Begins in Con­ver­sa­tion have cre­ated. We will also do some of the per­for­mances that the DBIC does and will have a dis­cus­sion of cit­i­zen­ship, per­for­mance and youth devel­op­ment from the South African van­tage point as well as how oth­ers under­stand and engage it from around the world.

From mar­gin to cen­tre: Youth Per­form­ing and Grow­ing Under the Willows

Ruth Pick­er­ing, Daniel Allen, and Robin Pittis

Canada

Under the Wil­lows in Hamil­ton, Canada, where vul­ner­a­ble youth join artists to gar­den, play and per­form, is a grow­ing com­mu­nity. Here, artists, vol­un­teers and chil­dren work in rela­tion­ship and mutual respect as they grow and learn  … in Music Cir­cle, Drama Dres­sup, Oceans of Potions or Clay­world. After four weeks of con­sort­ing with Bas­ket­heads, Olivia, the Moon Bird, Foo the Phool and oth­ers, the pro­gram cul­mi­nates in a final glo­ri­ous cel­e­bra­tion with music, face-painting, cos­tumes, and story.

Gramma, Sim Frug, Foo and Olivia join dr ruth (Pick­er­ing), Daniel Allen and Robin Pit­tis and you for a (brief) day Under the Willows

Color Bonita: A Dia­log­i­cal Act to Wit­ness and Be Witnessed

Christo­pher Ramirez and Eddy F. Alvarez Jr.

USA

Color Bonita comes out of an ethno­graphic art project that began two years ago in Los Ange­les, Cal­i­for­nia.  The ini­tial dia­logue occurred in Whit­tier, where 29 Latino men par­tic­i­pated in a con­ver­sa­tion that included dis­cus­sion around grow­ing up queer and Latino, the Latino fam­ily, the Catholic Church, homo­pho­bia and racism.  Par­tic­i­pants in this ses­sion will explore and inter­act with these nar­ra­tives by con­tribut­ing to an ongo­ing dia­logic per­for­mance, Color Bonita.  In essence, the audi­ence becomes par­tic­i­pants them­selves in a col­lec­tion of voices illu­mi­nat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of the queer Latino experience.

Youth Par­tic­i­pa­tory Eval­u­a­tion: As Seri­ous Play

Kim Sabo-Flores

USA

Within the non-profit sec­tor the terms “eval­u­a­tion”, “out­comes”, and “impacts” have become a part of our every­day con­ver­sa­tions.  How­ever, what do these terms truly mean? And how can eval­u­a­tion be con­ducted in such a way to inform our fun­ders while con­tin­u­ously cre­at­ing our pro­grams and devel­op­ing our youth?  This ses­sion will exam­ine these ques­tions and will pro­vide con­crete hands-on exam­ples of par­tic­i­pa­tory eval­u­a­tion drawn from Kim Sabo-Flores’ new book Youth Par­tic­i­pa­tory Eval­u­a­tion.  It will be argued that these types of par­tic­i­pa­tory eval­u­a­tion processes sup­port indi­vid­ual, orga­ni­za­tional, and com­mu­nity development.

Per­form­ing the (Musi­cal) World

Cathy Rose Salit and David Little

USA

Join the cho­rus!! This musi­cal work­shop will be a rehearsal for some of the num­bers in “Music to Make A Rev­o­lu­tion By,” our Sat­ur­day evening con­cert on the Per­form­ing the World stage. If you love to sing, please join us for a song-filled ses­sion where we’ll arrange, learn, and prac­tice a few songs together as the newly dubbed “PTW 4 Chorus.”

“Yes, And” in a “No, But” World

Cathy Rose Salit, David Nack­man and Mau­reen Kelly

USA

Come play with Per­for­mance of a Life­time (POAL), a train­ing and con­sult­ing firm that uses the per­for­mance tools of impro­vi­sa­tion and the­ater to help exec­u­tives and employ­ees across the globe grow as lead­ers, com­mu­ni­ca­tors, and col­lab­o­ra­tors. In envi­ron­ments where “No” and “No, but” are the cul­tural ver­nac­u­lar, POAL brings a “Yes, and” approach to the myr­iad of con­ver­sa­tions in the work­place. With clients rang­ing from Cit­i­group to the United States Olympics to the Women’s Envi­ron­ment & Devel­op­ment Orga­ni­za­tion, POAL helps peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions to impro­vise, per­form, and grow.

 

Ther­a­peu­tics, Play and Play Ther­apy for the New Millennium

Ishita Sanyal

India

As prac­ticed in India, art, music and play ther­apy have empow­ered thou­sands of chil­dren and adults alike. Based on the idea that the cre­ative act can be heal­ing, they have been par­tic­u­larly use­ful in cases of peo­ple suf­fer­ing from schiz­o­phre­nia to help express hid­den emo­tions, relieve fear and anx­i­ety, and to dis­cover an inner sense of free­dom and secu­rity. Art not only acts as a tool for exter­nal­iza­tion of inter­nal stress but is invalu­able for voca­tional ther­apy and eco­nomic reha­bil­i­ta­tion. We will explore this modal­ity using art and per­for­mance media — music, poetry, writ­ing, com­puter graph­ics, and more — to cre­ate a cre­ative and heal­ing environment!

MYethiOPIA-Stories from the AIDS EDUCATION CIRCUS

David Schein

USA/Ethiopia

David Schein founded an AIDS Edu­ca­tion Cir­cus in Ethiopia.  MYethiOPIA puts the audi­ence in an Ethiopian mar­ket­place where a show turns dan­ger­ous. The show explores the colo­nial aspects of work­ing as an artist in a “devel­op­ing” coun­try where the cost of a cam­era is a year’s food for a fam­ily. The moral: Art is a com­mon lan­guage; in some sit­u­a­tions, when lan­guage, reli­gion, pol­i­tics, and com­pas­sion don’t work, Spolin can save the day.

Where do pro­grams go when they die?: Legacy, Trans­for­ma­tion and Development

Bar­bara Silverman

USA

Many prac­ti­tion­ers and youth have grap­pled with the defund­ing of their programs.

What’s the impact on staff and youth? Is there a loss and if so what gets lost?  Where do pro­grams and the work that was done go?  Is there a place called pro­gram heaven?  Join Bar­bara Sil­ver­man, founder of Let’s Talk About It, a school based men­tal health pro­gram that ran for 14 years in a panel dis­cus­sion to explore new possibilities.

Let the Body Speak!

Shoshana Simons and Nina Quirk

USA

How does the imper­a­tive to write in the lan­guage of an aca­d­e­mic dis­ci­pline restrict our abil­ity to express the “text-ured” nature of our sub­ject?  Entry to the Acad­emy is pred­i­cated on speak­ing the “master’s tongue.”  In doing so we risk los­ing the deeply held know­ing that brings so many of us into pas­sion­ate inquiry. In this work­shop, we will bring other ways of know­ing into the space.  Using a range of embod­ied and impro­vi­sa­tional activ­i­ties, we’ll facil­i­tate the unleash­ing of our indige­nous knowl­edge in a way that is con­sis­tent with the emerg­ing ter­ri­to­ries we are explor­ing in our fields.

Trick­sters in White Coats: Hos­pi­tal Clown­ing in the Inter­na­tional Play Zone

Nancy Smith­ner

USA

This work­shop will be intro­duced by a brief talk on the impact of hos­pi­tal clown­ing on pedi­atric set­tings glob­ally, nation­ally, and specif­i­cally in New York City.  From the per­spec­tive of an aca­d­e­mic and a fool, I have been work­ing as a clown in hos­pi­tals for the past 15 years, and have par­tic­i­pated in and observed the ways that this per­for­mance work builds com­mu­nity and nur­tures the soul. We will then delve into some exer­cises which involve play, impro­vi­sa­tion, noses and tech­niques of clown­ing. I have devel­oped some very acces­si­ble tech­niques for find­ing the clown within and express­ing the inner trick­ster. Hos­pi­tal clown­ing is often what we term “soft sell” clown­ing, because sen­si­tiv­ity and lis­ten­ing skills are key. This ses­sion will inves­ti­gate the merger of humor and seri­ous per­for­mance business.

The Power of Play: BE-ing in Your Body

Jeff Smith­son

USA

Unless rec­og­nized as an ath­lete or per­former, few of us pay close atten­tion to how we move through space.  Be-ing in a body offers infi­nite oppor­tu­ni­ties for expres­sion. And yet we often restrict the focus of our com­mu­ni­ca­tion to words, thereby rel­e­gat­ing our body’s expres­sion to the uncon­scious. What hap­pens when we bring greater aware­ness to what is hap­pen­ing beyond our brain?  From solo warm-up exer­cises to group games, par­tic­i­pants will be encour­aged to solo down and dis­cover pow­er­ful new (and old) means of expres­sion.  Please dress in cloth­ing that allows for movement.

Using Impro­vi­sa­tion and Sports Psy­chol­ogy to Enhance Sport Performance

Man­fred Straehle and Bri­anna Kearns

USA

Have you ever won­dered if there was a rela­tion­ship between sports per­for­mance, sports psy­chol­ogy, and the­atri­cal impro­vi­sa­tion? This work­shop is designed to review and apply some basic con­cepts of sports psy­chol­ogy and the­atri­cal impro­vi­sa­tion using the PETAIM sys­tem (Straehle, 2003) to increase ath­letic per­for­mance. Specif­i­cally, we will review the PETAIM acronym in detail, which stands for Plan, Emo­tion, Thought, Accep­tance, Intu­ition, and Move­ment. The PET part derives from sports psy­chol­ogy con­cepts while the AIM part derives from the the­atri­cal impro­vi­sa­tion lit­er­a­ture. After learn­ing and review­ing PETAIM terms and con­cepts, indi­vid­u­als will be asked to par­tic­i­pate in sport exer­cises such as Fris­bee, Nerf bas­ket­ball, and mini-golf.

Per­form­ing with the Ances­tors: Rela­tion­ships and Devel­op­ment in African Spiritualities

Tiffany Tracey

South Africa

I’d like to tell the story of what it is to per­form as a san­goma, a healer in the Zulu tra­di­tion. Many heal­ers of south­ern Africa believe that the spir­its of fam­ily mem­bers who have died con­tinue to direct and guide liv­ing rel­a­tives, and sango­mas are men and women who help peo­ple to hear what their ances­tors ask. We are peo­ple who cre­ate devel­op­men­tal rela­tion­ships with the amad­lozi who guide us, and help oth­ers do the same with the spir­its who guide them. Mostly we per­form: we pray, we dance, we give, we sing. We grow into what we are not yet, with the love and guid­ance of peo­ple who are not there.

Power of Per­for­mance Workshop

Arlene Vadum

USA

This work­shop will focus on the “how-tos” of re-visioning self, oth­ers, and social sit­u­a­tions to pro­mote enhanced liv­ing with oth­ers. Par­tic­i­pants will iden­tify behav­iors that they would like to exper­i­ment with mod­i­fy­ing through per­for­mance. We then will work on cre­at­ing fic­tional char­ac­ters, based on ideas from social sci­ence and impro­vi­sa­tional act­ing, embody­ing the qual­i­ties that they hope to develop in them­selves, to try out on a “let’s pre­tend” basis in day-to-day inter­ac­tions. Such per­for­mance offers a play­ful, enjoy­able way to learn about the power of imag­i­na­tion in cre­at­ing ful­fill­ing inter­per­sonal relationships.

The Music Nar­ra­tives Project: Using Art, Edu­ca­tion and Ideas for Change in India

Caitie Whe­lan

USA

This pre­sen­ta­tion explores the dynamic role of music in the lives of the Merasi (Msi­cian) com­mu­nity of Rajasthan, India.  The Merasi, who are cat­e­go­rized as Untouch­able, descend from 37 gen­er­a­tions of rich musi­cal legacy.  Despite their seem­ingly noble employ­ment as sto­ry­tellers, they live in crip­pling poverty. Amidst tremen­dous mar­gin­al­iza­tion, these musi­cians have begun to use music as an agent for social change.  Draw­ing from a tapes­try of pho­tographs and tra­di­tional desert music, this inter­ac­tive pre­sen­ta­tion explores the issues of hope, human rights, and cul­tural preser­va­tion through the emo­tive voice of the Merasi.

SAFE SEX, NO WAHALA

Gbenga Win­dapo and Hafiz Oyetoro

Nige­ria

“SAFE SEX, NO WAHALA” is one of the many plays in the reper­tory of  Com­mu­nity Alive Project, a community-based anti-HIV/AIDS project, and has been of tremen­dous suc­cess and impact in Niger­ian com­mu­ni­ties where it has been staged. A two-man com­edy, “SAFE SEX, NO WAHALA” dwells on the lives of Tom (Gbenga Win­dapo) and Adoola (Hafiz Oyetoro), two men liv­ing with HIV/AIDS. The play mir­rors their lives, before and after con­tract­ing the virus, and how their pos­i­tive liv­ing helped changed the neg­a­tive atti­tude of their com­mu­nity towards them and thereby gave hope to oth­ers liv­ing with the virus.