Break the Script: Theatre as a Bridge
How do we turn disagreement into dialogue and isolation into connection? In this dynamic, highly participatory workshop, we explore Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre, born in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, as a tool for crossing political, social, and personal divides. Have you ever walked away from an unfair or polarized situation wishing you had built a bridge instead of a wall? In this session, we will use theatre to rehearse real-world solutions. Participants will build short scenes highlighting challenges they and their communities face today, from interpersonal conflicts to systemic inequities. Then, the audience steps onto the stage as "spect-actors" to pause the action, test tactics for empathy and active intervention, and discover how performance can connect us where we were once divided.
Presented by...
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Rachel Graf Evans (she/her) is a theatre artist, arts educator, community worker, and fierce advocate for the arts as a garden for empathy and transformation. As the Program Manager at Arts Ignite, RGE serves as the administrative catalyst to help young people connect with their own creativity capacity, courage, and community one workshop at a time. RGE holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from The Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University and an M.F.A. in Musical Theater Collaboration, as well as Graduate Certificates in Teaching in Higher Education and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from Temple University.
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Will Thomason (he/him) joined Arts Ignite in 2018, and has enjoyed working as a Teaching Artist, Program Facilitator, and Performer for initiatives in NYC and beyond. He recently received his master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, spending a year living in Brazil while conducting research on the arts as a tool for social change. Will has worked with organizations focused on education, development, and community engagement, in the United States and abroad.
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Arts Ignite (formerly Artists Striving to End Poverty), founded in 2006, cultivates community, creative capacity, and courage in young people through the arts. Arts Ignite has brought arts workshops, summer camps, and after school programs to over 44,000 young people on four continents (Asia, Africa, North and South America.) Arts Ignite programs engage youth ages 4-24 through partnerships with community organizations, NGOs, and schools, serving youth affected by systemic issues and their effects including: the justice system, gun violence, refugee status, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, systemic poverty, and the caste system. www.artsignite.org
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