Unpacking Race • Fall 2017 Workshop Series

5 Tuesdays: Nov 7–Dec 5, 2017

Each session 6:30–9:00 PMat the Rotunda • 4014 Walnut St.

Tuition: $45–$125 sliding scale

REGISTRATION CLOSED

On Tuesday nights this fall we bring back our popular series on race and interrupting racism.  Over the course of five weeks we'll excavate this topic through exercises, discussions, and techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed, and equip participants with things to read and do between sessions. Our aim is to unlearn systemic racism we’ve been taught throughout our lives, to heal from racial privilege and oppression, and to offer starting points for structural and personal change for ourselves, our communities, and our world. 

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED for the Fall 2017 Unpacking Race Series To inquire about or book a future series, email "tophilly@gmail.com" or leave a message at 267-282-1057. 

Philadelphia Theatre of the Oppressed has run the Unpacking Race curriculum for Widener University, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Philadelphia Theatre Company, Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, Circle of Hope, and at the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference, as well as several times as a public workshop in Philadelphia.

Momentary Monuments: an introduction to Theatre of the Oppressed

Tuesday • October 24, 2017 • 7–9PM
at the Rotunda • 4014 Walnut St.
Free • donations accepted as well

All monuments have a lifespan. People create them with a purpose and an agenda, and inevitably each will disappear. Many change during their existence, either due to exposure to the elements or through further human intervention. And these monuments also mark  changes in us as individuals, societies and nations.

Theatre of the Oppressed is built on games and techniques that make theatrical monuments (called "images") out of living actors. Unlike wood or stone or bronze, actors are immediately adjustable, meaning that we can make and change and dismantle our monuments in an instant. In this workshop, everyone will play both sculptor and sculpture as we make and remake the monuments we see—and would like to see—in this very moment.

This workshop is free and open to all. While it serves as an introduction to the theory and practice of Theatre of the Oppressed, people with more experience in T.O. will get a lot out of it. T.O. Philly will also be accepting donations to support our sliding-scale and scholarship fund. Contact "tophilly@gmail.com" for more info.

The photo above is of a monument to Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay. After the people ousted the dictator in 1989, artist Carlos Colombino proposed that the statue appear as if crushed between two giant concrete blocks. Here's a radio piece about it, produced by PRI's The World: