In this blog:

• NPQ Article by Katy Rubin & Liz Morgan
• Spring 2025: Devising Through Accelerating Crises
• Upcoming Opportunities

Theater as a Tool of Democratic Imagination

This month, Liz Morgan, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC’s Director of Pedagogy and Training, and Katy Rubin, our former and founding Executive Director, published “Rehearsing for the Revolution: Theater as a Tool of Democratic Imagination.” By grounding readers in the history of Theatre of the Oppressed, and a review of the techniques, Liz and Katy make a call for this artistic practice to be leveraged in the work of building community power. 

The goal is not only to raise awareness or to shift dominant narratives; it’s also to generate, rehearse, and commit to strategies for collective action. During each performance, actors and audiences collaborate to think critically about the social justice problems posed in the play, and brainstorm possible resolutions together. The audience becomes “spect-actors,” improvising and testing out alternatives—whether through individual interventions, collective action, or policy change—followed by further analysis, debate, and iterations. This is called Forum Theatre: transforming the community arts space into a forum for shared experience of problem solving.

Read the full article on Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ)

Are you on LinkedIn? Comment to the authors here!

Spring 2025: Devising Through Accelerating Crises

We’re taking a pause to reflect on our work this spring, continually thinking about how Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) practice adapts to support people through an environment of increasing and accelerating attacks. We anchor ourselves in our tools, that offer space to share our struggles in community with each other, find solidarity in our outrage, break the programming that tries to keep us quiet, compliant and isolated, and practice action.

Here’s how and where we applied these tools in the first part of the year: 

• Youth actors in Sunset Park built a Cinderella-themed Forum scene to look at the cost of living and financial literacy. They used Newspaper theatre to explore the neighborhood tensions related to the construction of a shelter. (Pictured below)
• Students at Manhattan International High School built Forum Scenes to practice responses to bullying related to racism and xenophobia. 
• Youth participants at the Ali Forney Center presented Newspaper Theatre to express their outrage at the combined threats of wildfire pollution, social media misinformation, and billionaires - and connected with visiting guests from Recess and Extinction Rebellion.

• Artists, teachers, and organizers joined us in person and on zoom , to learn how to bring Forum Theatre, Legislative Theatre, and de-mechanizing games into their work and communities. 
• Actors in our ESCUCHA Troupe adapted their performance experience to develop a Spanish-language community workshop, co-facilitated by actors and TONYC jokers. Actors stepping into facilitation of games and discussions about power & creativity, with Forum Scenes about access to health care and battling landlords.

• Our day-long event, Devise Dissent, connected artists and advocacy partners as we piloted three new workshop offerings - Answering the Call, Newspaper Theatre, and Collaborators & Co-conspirators. 
• Our joker team facilitated workshops to support communities at Montclair State University’s Latino Oral History Project (HOLA), Good Shepherd Services’ Day of Racial Healing, Harlem Wellness Center’s Racial Healing Hub, TCG’s Artistic Leaders of Color affinity space, Stevens Institute of Technology and NYU’s TESOL program. 
• We took this year’s This is Not a Date: Pride Edition out of the nonprofit office and out to the bar at BOYFRIEND coop!

In dialogue with Liz & Katy's writing, "The goal is not only to raise awareness or to shift dominant narratives; it’s also to generate, rehearse, and commit to strategies for collective action."  This spring's projects investigated how our tools can equip communities for the actions of the moment, and expand networks of solidarity and organizing. Talk to us about bringing our tools to your space - info to book a call at www.tonyc.nyc/workshops

We are grateful to collaborate with our program partners at Red Hook Community Justice Center/Womankind, MCC Theatre, Ali Forney Center, and our workshop hosts!

Upcoming: 

• Sulu LeoNimm will be speaking as part of “Arts for Social & Structural Well-Being” presented as part of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab’s global Healing Arts initiative in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). This conversation will be curated and moderated by Dr. Nisha Sajnani, Assoc. Professor and Director of the NYU Steinhardt Graduate Program in Drama Therapy, Chair of the NYU Creative Arts Therapies Consortium, Co-Director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, and co-founder of Healing Arts NYC, a city-wide arts and health network. 
• Check out the Black Dance Change Maker’s Summer Untensive (July 26- 27) - a two-day immersive experience blends leadership development, advocacy workshops, and artistic practice, empowering Black dancers and organizers to reimagine their role in creating systemic change in the dance world and beyond.
• Save the Date on October 2 to join Theatre of the Oppressed NYC for FIGHT-RAISER II: Tactics & Theatrics! Contact [email protected] to sponsor this annual benefit or offer an in-kind donation!

Dollars & Di$$ents

This spring, our Dollars & Di$$ents campaign has been crowdfunding with a goal of $13k to celebrate our 13th year (what luck!?).  We believe in the collective power of our community of supporters to help sustain us - send a donation to help us reach our goal!