Spring 2014 Workshops

One, Two and Three Session Series
At The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street
See below for dates, times and descriptions.

Philadelphia Theatre of the Oppressed (T.O. Philly for short) is excited to present a variety of sessions on an array of topics led by a team of 5 different facilitators. All of these workshops combine games, movement, sounds, images and discussion to critically examine social structures from various angles. This season we've arranged for workshops to happen on different weeknights to fit different schedules. The short list:

• Monday, April 7, 7:00-9:00pm: Intro to Theatre of the Oppressed
• Mondays, April 21+28, 6:30-9:00pm: Living in Communities
• Tuesdays, April 22-May 6, 6:45-9:30pm: The Cop & The Rainbow
• Monday+Tuesday. May 12+13, 6:30-9:00p: Seeing the Mask—Work-self vs. Home-self
• Wednesdays, May 21+28, 6:30-9:00p: What is Justice?

Full descriptions below. Pre-register with an email to "tophilly@gmail.com", or call our NEW voicemail number: 267-282-1057.

We kick off with a stand-alone session from 7:00-9:00pm (2 hours total). It is free to attend

• Monday, April 7: Intro to Theatre of the Oppressed. Led by the T.O. Philly Facilitation Team, this workshop will pack in the games, techniques and theories used by Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners all over the world. It will also be a chance to come and meet T.O. Philly's facilitators, sign up for subsequent workshops and talk with us about what we do. Tuition: Free, donations accepted. Pre-requisites: None.

These next workshops span two sessions apiece from 6:30-9:00pm (each is 5 hours total). Each double session is $15-$35 sliding scale. Group discounts and work-trade are available on request:

• Mondays, April 21+28: Living in Communities.  Led by Julie Lipson. 
  Many of us are constantly around others, and yet often feel alone. This two-part workshop provides the opportunity to explore what we look for in a community, what our roles are in community, and how we can build and sustain community with those around us. Through improv games and theatre techniques, we will dig deep into the dynamics of being roommates, neighbors, and even strangers to the people we encounter every day.
• Monday+Tuesday. May 12+13: Seeing the Mask—Work-self vs. Home-self. Led by Amy Capomacchio and Erika Barrington.
  Do you ever feel like the person you are at work is not who you are at home? We all wear various hats and play a variety of roles in different areas of our lives, and this workshop explores that tension between our work-selves and home-selves by asking the following questions:
       ·  What societal pressures influence your work environment? 
       ·  Are the values of your workplace in conflict with your personal values?
       ·  When is it healthy to be able to play a role, and when is it inhibiting your ability to do your work or make systemic changes?
       ·  What is your relationship to the monetary compensation you receive for your work?
       ·  How does society dictate what masks we wear?
  Through Theater of the Oppressed techniques, participants will play with the sources and repercussions of these different masks and explore alternative strategies toward reconciling these different sides of self.
• Wednesdays, May 21+28: What is Justice? Led by Mika Taliaferro.
  Theatre of the Oppressed was created to bring justice to people facing oppression in every facet of every society on earth.  This 2-part workshop explores that theme of justice from two angles:
       ·  Part One: What does "justice" mean? How do we define justice in our society? In our communities? Is the justice in "criminal justice" the same as that in "social justice"?
       ·  Part Two: What could "justice" mean? What does a world where justice has been achieved look like? How can we re-imagine our understanding of "justice" to support our vision of a just world?

And then we have a working group that will begin with three weekly sessions, 6:45-9:30pm (eight hours total). Tuition for this is $25-$55, sliding scale, and prior experience with Theatre of the oppressed is recommended:

• Tuesdays, April 22-May 6: The Cop & The Rainbow. In this weekly working group led by Morgan Andrews, we will utilize the Cop in the Head/Rainbow of Desire techniques. Sometimes called "the Boal method of theatre and therapy", this group will share, embody and unpack personal stories while asking important questions about the shared goals of personal growth and social change. 

Pre-register for any of these workshops with an email to "tophilly@gmail.com", or call our NEW voicemail number: 267-282-1057.

T.O. Philly News: Winter 2014

2013 may have been the best year yet for Philadelphia Theatre of the Oppressed with many amazing facilitators sharing their expertise: Ariel Morales, Magda Scharf and Morgan Andrews unpacked race and unraveled religion, Qui Alexander workshopped gender, Julie Lipson and Mason Rosenthal helped us hone our voices, and Erika Barrington and Amy Capomacchio created a dialogue about the the relationship between therapeutic goals and the goals of social change in their workshop for mental health professionals, which they then brought to the American Dance Therapy Association's national conference in New York.  All in all it's been a year of powerful, wide-ranging and wide-reaching work.

The question of therapeutic goals and the goals of social change is a good one.  Douglas Hundley raises the issue in his essay, "Theatre of the Oppressed: An American Tradition?" (Platform Vol. 1, No. 1, Autumn, 2006) where he writes about Augusto Boal's training in New York and how U.S. political and experimental theatre-makers during the Great Depression and Vietnam War helped shape the development of T.O. in South America.  Hundley concludes in saying that when Boal's work was brought back to North America, "the potentially subversive edge was gone and replaced with techniques for coping with society rather than changing society." (Hundley, 27).  This is something that T.O. Philly considers in the work that we do: workshops are often experiential and personally transformative, but they are only rehearsals for reality—real transformation can only come from taking action in the wider world.

We also recognize that in Theatre of the Oppressed there is the "theatre" side and the "of the oppressed" side and that both are important, which is why we offer a spectrum of events for a spectrum of desires.  On the theatre of side of things this January, we are promoting a 3-day workshop with Donna Oblongata drawing on traditional puppetry techniques, Pochinko clown teaching, and the her own theatre company's method of creation and performance.  Mason Rosenthal and Morgan Andrews will also be staging their new play "Nobody's Home", which was devised in part using T.O. techniques.  See the T.O. Philly Calendar on the right side of this page for details.

On the "of the oppressed" side, we are teaming up with Mariposa Co-op to present a month of anti-oppression events, including a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop on January 11th.  We are also working with Temple University's Institute on Disabilities, Bryn Mawr College's Education Program, and Haverford College's Student Leadership Office to bring anti-oppression pedagogy to students and faculty working both on and off-campus. More details soon!

Photos are from our Images of Transition workshop in December of 2013. The images above depict views on the mental health care system.