Blind Games: a free workshop

WINTER 2015 • THREE SESSIONS:
• Friday January 9 • 7:30-9:30 PM
• Saturday January 10 • 3:00-6:00 PM
• Sunday January 11 • 3:00-6:00 PM
(Come to the first part on Friday, return 
on Saturday and/or Sunday if you like)
at the Rotunda • 4014 Walnut Street
Free Workshop • Click here to RSVP
or email "tophilly@gmail.com

Blind Games are just what their name implies: games where some or all of the players cannot see. For one evening and two afternoons, we will explore these theatrical games and what they reveal about sightedness and blindness, ability and disability, power and privilege, as well as the nature of games and playfulness. We'll also look at cultural depictions of blindness and dis/ability with a critical eye as to how that ripples out in society and within ourselves.

This fully experiential workshop will also serve as a launching point for a new theatrical work about vision loss made by two visually impaired artists. Anyone attending the first part on Friday evening  can return for either or both of the other parts on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Look forward to:
  • Friday, 7:30-9:30 PM: We play several blind games that dynamize the other senses and prepare ourselves for the theatrical work on the following days.
  • Saturday, 3:00-6:00 PM: We examine depictions of blindness in film, theatre, art, mythology and elsewhere through re-enactment and re-imagination.
  • Sunday, 3:00-6:00 PM: We delve into disability within our own lives, how it affects us and our relationships to each other.
Come and see what this is all about—Click here to RSVP or email "tophilly@gmail.com

About the facilitators:

Morgan Andrews has been making activist art and theatre in Philadelphia since 1998. He started with woodcuts and shadow puppets as a method for visual rehabilitation, and then branched out into other forms of performance, working with the Bread & Puppet Theater and other affiliated artists for over a decade. Morgan discovered and trained in Theatre of the Oppressed in Brazil, New York and India, and then founded T.O. Philly in 2008 as way to make this work accessible and affordable in his home city. He also teaches yoga and theatre around town, and creates plays with the Medium Theatre Company.

Mason Rosenthal is an actor, creator, dancer, director, and teacher from Skokie, Illinois. He holds a BFA in drama from NYU where he studied embodied voice with Katie Bull and community-based performance with Jan Cohen-Cruz. In 2007 Mason joined the faculty at NYU's Atlantic Theater Company Acting School before moving to Philadelphia to work for The Headlong Performance Institute. Mason has since collaborated with many Philly artists—see his website for the ever-growing list!