Second City and Sightseeing Chicago!

Second City

In addition to the inspiring conference, I had the pleasure of experiencing the great city of Chicago! Part of this was attending two different, but A M A Z I N G theatrical experiences in Chicago. The first was a performance at Second City, a famous comedy club which great comedians like Tina Fey and Stephen Cobert started out in. The show entitled "South Side of Heaven" was two part semi-scripted hilarious comedy show which included skits about living in the South Side of Chicago, racial and class conflicts, and other taboo issues. The last act was completely improvisation based on audience suggestions. Even though I was in Chicago for Theatre of the Oppressed, this show reminded me that I have sooo much to learn about the different aspects of theatre. A lot of the jokes had to do with Chicago, so it taught many of us, out-of-town guests, about their home, this vibrant city. This is something I have always try to remind my students-- use what you know. Even though it wasn't completely interactive, they made fun of audience members and the jokes had my mind stimulated and my mouth laughing every second. It gave me ideas to add to my improvisation and comedy units for my drama class. The set was basic, but the music, lighting, and props all equaled the most entertaining three hours at a comedy club. Highly recommended! 

The second show, "Beauty and the Beast", was completely opposite, but was just as entertaining. The theatre was beautiful. The lighting, the set, the costumes, the music was masterfully orchestrated. It is a great introduction musical for the kiddies because the characters are so animated, and it follows the plot just as we remember from the movie.  One day when our district and/or school can afford to fund a project like this, I would love to put a full on musical production like this! Until then, I think mediums like improvisation/sketch comedy and forum theatre are great places to start. Just as powerful!

  

Other highlights from Chi-town:

Cloud Gate aka "The Bean"

Millennium Park

Marriage with Children Fountain!

Willis Tower, used to be known as The Sears Tower

Can you say Chi City?

Favorite facilitator! Alex Santiago

About a month ago I attend my second leg of my fellowship at the Pedagogy and Theatre of Oppressed Conference in Chicago Illinois. Amazing experience!  The theme was "We are each other's Harvest", and I truly felt that theme resonated throughout my stay there. I attended different workshops and heard remarkable, accomplished key note speakers related to Theatre of the Oppressed, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and many other social justice related topics. One of my most favorite workshops was led by Mr. Alex Santiago who I met during my class at NYU for the Intro to the Theatre of the Oppressed Class and Leigh Thompson from the Forum Project in New York. The workshop was titled "Queer Concientizacao: Foundations for Understanding Anti-Queer Oppression". Since they have done extensive work with Queer youth and LGBTQ communities, I got a real sense of which activities I can use with my students who struggle with their own identity. Whether or not a student is gay or straight, many students have trouble expressing how they feel, and I found the work we did with theatre gives them a diffrent medium that the students may really respond to. After we engaged in a discussion about Queer terminology, we learned how to accept and combat homophobia with Theatre of the Oppressed activities like Sculpting and creating a group Tableau. 

Key Note Thursday, Omi Osun L. Jones

All the key note speakers were incredible, but the one I remember the most was by a woman named Omi Osun Joni L Jones entitled "The Role of Allies in 2011."  Even after lunch when most people are tried and full, she kept the audience engaged by listing several key ideas that we should remember as social justice educators, activists, and allies to those who are marginalized. Among the key ideas were "be loud, so we don't have to" and "being liberal is not enough." Her speech made me reflect about my actions not only a teacher, but as a human. Do I turn the blind eye when put in an uncomfortable situation? Do I speak up enough for those who have no voice? It inspired me to be more mindful about my actions and more conscious about the struggle of others. It may be hard for me to voice my opinions at times, but for others it may be even harder. 

Cartonera Workshop

Another memorable experience from the conference was a workshop entitled "Cartonera Project: Human Rights, Literacy, Arts, and Engagement" by a woman named Maggie Guntren. Based on her experience in Argentina, one part of the workshop focused on creating "cartoneras" which are books made from old boxes. People in Argentina learned to recycle "trash" as a way to give voices to unpublished authors and creating a work force to combat the  growing trash problem. After creating our own books, the second part of the workshop was centered around reading and responding to a short story using modified T.O. techniques. We stopped throughout the story to create alternative plot scenarios that may be suitable to the protagonist, similar to the way forum theatre is performed. Although I wasn't looking to find English Language Arts techniques related to T.O., i'm glad I found it! It seemed like the perfect way to engage my students in the process of forum theatre before they have to perform it. 

Overall, the PTO conference was by far the best conference I have ever attended. Honestly! It was not only the content, philosophy, location, but also the people. I know I have said it before, but being around like-minded individuals truly invigorates me! I met so many amazing individuals-- teachers, facilitators, community organizers-- that I know I will keep in touch with. I also enjoyed that the conference was so diverse in the workshops they offered. It was not only solely focused on Theatre of the Oppressed but other human right topics related to social justice and/or theatre. Many workshops utilized T.O. activities and icebreakers, where others were more discussions and dialogues. One session I even attended a screening of a  documentary entitled "Arna's Children" which highlighted the efforts of a mother and son to use theatre and art as a way of engaging the children caught in the middle of the  Palestinian and Isreali conflict. I hope to attend this conference in the future because I walked away with a plethora of ideas and experiences to take back to my work in the classroom. 

Still to come... the rest of my Chicago experience!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

It's been such an unbelievable summer that I haven't really gotten time to sit and digest all this yummy educational/experiential goodness! Since I last blogged in New York, I completed that seminar, wrapped up the school year, left and returned from a Zora Neale Hurston Workshop in Florida, left and returned from the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference in Chicago, and am getting ready to go on a family vacation to Seattle/Vancouver tomorrow. Phew! 

My T.O. classmates/ new friends

Since it's easier for my mind to describe these events chronologically, I'll do a wrap up of the events in New York, then go on to Florida/Chicago in my next entries.

The last few days of the workshop were some of my favorite for two reasons: 1) I was able to meet Alex Santiago from a New York organization called the Forum Project.  Alex has worked with many groups in New York, including migrant youth and queer youth, and was able to give a lot of insight into T.O. work. Great resource for the future! He "jokered" (facilitated) our final performance scenes. 2) We rehearsed and performed our own forum theatre scenes! Our forum theatre scene was a short, but highly complex piece about a young woman teaching sex education in a small village in Africa. The antagonist bullies and threatens her because she is a woman and also an outsider who is teaching the children what he deems is "white" or "western" ways. The scene was beautiful in that it required the audience (spec-actors) to think about sexism, ethnocentrism, class-ism,  and the role of education in the span of ten minutes. It reminded me of the power of theatre-- being precise and concise with our words and actions. For this particular scene I did not play the antagonist or the protagonist, but rather one of the students in the classroom. It was great to be able to act again, since it's been so long! It was also interesting for me to want the spec-actors to replace my role as a bystander because that is the role most people identify with, even though I know it's most effective when the protagonist is replaced. This was my first time seeing and participating in Theatre of the Oppressed, and it was definitely memorable. Before this workshop, I never thought of theatre, or art in general, as interactive, but now I can see how meaningful it can be when it involves the audience. I would never dismiss more traditional forms of theatre, but this class definitely expanded my knowledge about what art is and how it can be used for different functions.

By the end of the ten days in New York, I was sad to go. Being in the hustle and bustle of the city is so exhilarating, plus I made so many great connections with the instructors and my classmates. Many of them are passionate educators/activists from all over the country and a few even from other parts of the world. But it was nice to return to my students and immediately apply some of the strategies and play some new games! We played Colombian Hypnosis, 3x3 by Bradford, pacman, and a few more games I can't seem to remember the "official" names. It doesn't matter how many times I read and reread about the activities in Games for Actors and Non-Actors by Augusto Boal, nothing really beats participating in it firsthand. You learn best by doing, right?

Next up, tales from Chicago!  

Sunday Morning

This past week has been unbelievably overwhelming and exciting. Overall, it has been a positive experience for me to able to take some time away from the chaos of the educational system in Los Angeles and truly reflect on my practice as an educator. I went into teaching bright-eyed, ready to change the world but over the last four years I have found it an uphill battle having to deal with the politics and complexities of education that they don't necessarily teach you in grad school. These experiences have made me stronger and wiser, but I know I still have a long way to go. Being here in New York and with this workshop has reminded me that no matter how difficult the fight may seem, it is a cause worth fighting for. Theatre of the Oppressed is most certainly a "weapon" that I didn't know I needed,  but i'm glad I've had the opportunity to find it.

Kayhan Irani 

This week I learned that Theatre of the Oppressed is used as a "rehearsal for the revolution." It's about giving the  power back to the oppressed people and discovering ways in which change can occur. There are multiple theatre techniques in TO, but I believe the one that is most associated with TO is Forum Theatre. I will attempt my understanding of it so far: a group of actors present a scene in which oppression has occurred and the audience, the spect-actors, participate by presenting alternative solutions in which the oppressed individual, the protagonist, can overcome this particular situation. On Thursday, we had the pleasure of working with Kayhan Irani to develop our own Forum Theatre scenes to be presented on our last day of the workshop, Tuesday. It's exciting to actually put the knowledge in practice. More on that soon!

Baby Boal, Process Drama, and Other Fun Stuff

Fortunately, Julian Boal is soon to be a proud father of a baby boy; unfortunately, he had to leave our class sooner than expected and fly back to France to be with his partner. Luckily, New York and New York University has phenomenal connections within the Educational Theatre world that the class continues to thrive despite this unforeseen circumstance. I still felt privileged to work with him for a short time, and I look forward to continue studying his work.

Cecily O'Neill

Today, we had the honor of working with Cecily O'Neill, a well-known authority on Process Drama and theatre education. It was the first time hearing and participating in Process Drama, and I certainly look forward to bringing it into both my English and Drama classroom. We assumed the roles of war veterans, loved ones, counselors, and military officials and re-enacted various situations in which they would interact. It was powerful because I was able to both connect to a grieving soldier's wife who I played and myself as a teacher who was frantically thinking of ways to adapt the activity to my classroom. Although not entirely connected to Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, Cecily explains that Process Drama does provide the participants an opportunity to explore a variety of issues, themes, and relationships in order to understand alternative viewpoints. Both TO and Process Drama allow actors and participants to be conscious about different aspects of the human condition.

Tomorrow, we study and have the honor of working with Kayhan Irani. She is another well-known authority on Theatre of the Oppressed. We will also begin working on our own final presentations to present in the Black Box Studio next Tuesday. Exciting!

"These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you, let's here it for..."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK! 

Wow. I haven't realized I haven't blogged in a minute. I have so much to tell you guys about: my students short and small production, the costume shop tour, New York! I will start with New York because i'm here and it's the most exciting. 

I flew in Sunday evening with a friend that came along for the ride.We are both staying at a close friend's apartment in the East Village. This week my Introduction to Theatre of the Oppressed course runs from about 1pm-6pm everyday at New York University, so before my first class yesterday we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and eat at Grimaldi's pizza. It was such a beautiful day.

After our lunch, we parted ways because I had to head over to class. On the subway ride to campus, I was extremely excited, but also very nervous. I felt like my own students asking myself silly questions: What are the other students going to be like? Is it going to be hard? I wonder if i'm going to look dumb? What is he going to make us to? What should I bring? It's been a while since I took a college class. After calming myself down, I bought myself a notebook and proceeded into the small Black Box Theatre near Washington Square Park. I don't know why I was so nervous. It's a small intimate class of about 18 easy-going, theatre lovers/activists/educator-students like me! One women teaches middle school Theatre in the Dominican Republic and another taught AIDS awareness through theatre in Africa. Amazing group of people. 

Mr. Julian Boal and me

During this first class we played games and dialogued about he origins of Theatre of the Oppressed and the meaning of oppression. It's nice to be a student again. Julian Boal, the instructor and son of Augusto Boal who created Theatre of the Oppressed, shared amazing stories about their experiences with this work all over the world. First day, completely inspired.

Later that evening, I topped the night off by watching Avenue Q with my friend, Morley. She was able to get discounted tickets from the TKTS booth while I was in class. It was the second time seeing it, but it was still just as funny. Who knew puppets can be so insightful and hilarious? 

food for thought

As I count down the days to summer, I'm stealing a few moments here and there to anxiously flip through books and read what I can about Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed. In Games for Actors and Non-Actors by Boal, i'm learning more and more how this work is so beautiful and powerful. Boal believes, "Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, instead of just waiting for it." This is both exciting and intimidating. I would love to think that what happens in my classroom is transforming lives, but  it also adds so much pressure. I constantly question whether i'm doing enough and/or doing it "right". Are the students "getting it" or are they merely going through the motions? Hmmm.

In other news, I am officially all booked for New York and Chicago: plane tickets, hotel, conference registration and enrollment at NYU. Woohoo!