Alex and Andrew, two actors from Covenant House Troupe, discuss their first experiences with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC and the rehearsal process. This interview is part of a series conducted by Lance Richardson, in preparation for TONYC’s third annual Legislative Theatre Festival, Inside/Outside.

by Sophie Nimmannit

by Stevie Walker-Webb, Intern and Joker-in-Training

“These stories we’re telling, are our stories.  Real stories, it’s the shit we have to put up with”.

She arrives an hour and a half late to rehearsal dragging a large suitcase she can barely lift. She looks like an extra for Erykah Badu’s “Bag Lady” video. I pick up her suitcase and struggle to carry it up three flights of stairs. How in the world has she managed all day with this thing?

“How was your day?” She shoots me a look that explains it all. She walks into the rehearsal room and instantly the atmosphere brightens.  You would never know it by looking at her but she’s transient homeless.

Getting to rehearsals for a new troupe is always a new adventure. It’s all about getting there fast and close and from the various places I might be on a given day - full of getting on express train when I need a local, maximizing transfers and figuring out how to improvise new routes when on familiar routes just stop.  Making a Forum Play is similarly path-full, with many ways to arrive at an actor-created play that will challenge the institutions and agents of oppression.

by Vincent, Joker-in-Training

Everyone stands in a circle, or the closest approximation we can given the shape of the room, facing each other with anticipation. An actor swings their arm in an underhanded motion across their body to the left. The actor to the left of them quickly makes the same motion, also to left...