As we slow down to make space for a break, we’re reflecting on all we accomplished together in 2022. The past two years pushed us to experiment with how we stay connected and share our work. Like in our shows, we tried to harness everything we learned with each “intervention” and put that learning into action.

Here’s some of what blossomed in the past 12 months! Help us with the next 12 — donate today!

Welcome! The Rapid Response Troupe invites you to be a Spect-Actor for our newest production, 1-800-Keep-Ur-Crib. We’re excited to have you participate from wherever you are!

Step 1: Watch the video on this page

Step 2: Send us back your thoughts!

Step 3: Share this email with other people who have been struggling to keep their apartment!

The Rapid Response Actors will read what all of you send, and use that to create more scenes for 1-800-Keep-Ur-Crib to share with an in-person audience on December 1. RSVP if you want to join us. 

Thank you from: Amorarey Carolyn Cat Gariyana. Letitia Liz Majory Maria Sulu

The government says the pandemic is over and now your landlord wants the rent you owe or else! After years of paying off THEIR mortgage, you’re about to lose YOUR home! Rapid Response Troupe brings to you 1-800-KEEP-UR-CRIB, an episodic forum accessible for viewing on our website, for audiences in NYC and beyond. Watch and share your tenant rights idea, then stay tuned for the final chapter at our live show at The Bernie Wohl Center on December 1st

There are so many wonderful books about Theatre of the Oppressed out there. However, on our practice we wished for a book we couldn’t yet find: a truly accessible, visual, and interactive guide that could prepare us to work with a community in real-time. A book we could write in, rip pages from, and use over and over again. So we wrote it! The Wildcard Workbook: A Practical Guide for Jokering Forum Theatre is a +200 page illustrated interactive guide to support creative advocacy and role play facilitation in various contexts. Included is a week-by-week guide, flow charts, games, stories, and more!  We hope you'll scribble in the margins, tear out the pages, and challenge the ideas within, on your way to using embodied play and imagination toward social action! Written by Sulu LeoNimm, Elizabeth Morgan, and Katy Rubin. Created in collaboration with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and design by Shreyas R Krishnan and Kruttika Susarla of SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT. Made with financial support from the New York Community Trust. 

Download the book for FREE here! 

To introduce the book to our community, we're hosting two events on July 28, 2022. Please join us! See the following links for details.

• 1pm - 2pm on Zoom: Meet the Wildcard Workbook. A online preview of the creation and possible uses for the workbook (RSVP)
• 5pm - 7pm in Battery Park: A Toast to the Authors! A Happy Hour celebration 

Photo: TONYC Jokers Elizabeth Morgan (l) and Letitia Bouie (r) set up for a workshop. Photo by Kwame King.

We are looking for experienced facilitators who have used Theatre of the Oppressed.

Job Title: Joker, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
Deadline to apply: April 18, 2022. 
Schedule: We plan to have interviews with candidates in May and early June, to invite people to join the staff by late June for summer training. New jokers will begin rehearsals on projects in Fall 2022. 

December 22, 2021, A message from Sulu - We’re entering the time of the year for collective reflection. Personally, it’s taking some effort to remember what season it is, so I appreciate looking back over TONYC’s calendar and reconnecting the dots between what we did at TONYC, when we did it, and how we learned along the way. I know our community may be part of one show or workshop, so I’m excited to share a glimpse of what our jokers and actors built and shared this year.