Newsletter #7 — PTW 2018

Gabrielle Kurlander (left) with All Stars Talent Show youth performers,  the Tigerettes

Lois Holzman (top right) and the 2013-14 International Class

We will gather in various studios and theaters of the All Stars facility, connected via video conference. In the building’s largest performance space, there will be brief presentations of the sponsoring organizations from Gabrielle Kurlander, President and CEO of the All Stars Project, Inc. and Lois Holzman, Director of the East Side Institute. We’ll also have a special worldly welcome from Ami Dar, founder and executive director of Idealist.org, the online site that connects millions of people with opportunities for action and collaboration all over the world.

Ami Dar (far right), founder and executive director, Idealist.org

Next up will be “Different Voices from PTW” during which Gloria Strickland, Vice President of Youth and Community Development, at the All Stars Project, and Dan Friedman, Artistic Director of the Castillo Theatre and Associate Dean of UX, will conduct lightning interviews with a sampling of people who make PTW possible.

Gloria Strickland (center) with All Stars Youth

On the panel will be: a new presenter; a returning presenter; an intern from the East Side Institute; an All Stars staff member; a housing host; a house staff volunteer; and a young person from the All Stars’ youth programs. Cathy Salit, CEO of Performance of a Lifetime and improviser extraordinaire, will then lead a group of skilled improvisers in creating with what the panelists have shared.

Cathy Salit (far right) doing a one-minute  “performance of your life” with participant

Then comes the decentralization. Facilitators in each room will lead participants in improv games designed to help us get to know each other. We will end with everyone singing “Bread and Roses,” a song that emerged from a textile strike of thousands of women workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts a hundred years ago. “Bread and Roses” declares, “Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, and give us roses” – expressing a spirit embedded deep in Performing the World. You can find the words to “Bread and Roses” [put in where on the Pathable app]

What follows are three days of 80 presentations from cutting edge performance activists, educators, healers, artists, community builders and researchers from all over the world. The closing session on Sunday, September 23 at 4:00 p.m., is “Performing Performing the World.” Participants will get to choose among six different ways to respond to and reflect upon the experience-through conversation, movement, musical improv, storytelling, theatre, or visual arts.