Stages of Change: Theater Practices for Healing and Engagement – October 10-12

Curated by David J Diamond

Workshop leaders: Derek Goldman, Michael Rohd, Jessica Litwak, Liz Morgan, Daniel Banks, Heather Fox

BIOS

DANIEL BANKS | DEVISING FOR COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Daniel Banks is a director, deviser, dance dramaturg, and community organizer. He is Co-Founder/Co-Curator of DNAWORKS, which centers Global Majority and LGBTQQ2SPIAA+ voices and experiences to create more complex representations of identity, culture, class, and heritage through theatre, dance, film, and art installation. He has served on the faculties of NYU, CUNY, Carnegie Mellon, and as Chair of Performing Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

In this interactive and improvisational workshop, Daniel will share practices that DNAWORKS has used in 38 states and 17 countries to bring people closer together and create a greater sense of connection and belonging.

MICHAEL ROHD |THEATRE AS COALITION/DEMOCRACY AS PUBLIC HEALTH

Michael Rohd Michael Rohd is a theater-maker who has spent 35 years leading process and facilitating conversation around complex public issues across the nation, as well as co-designing community programs, convenings and public engagement work. In 2022, he founded Co-Lab for Civic Imagination at University of Montana, where he serves as a University-Wide System Dramaturg/Artist-in-Residence.
State of Mind is a touring, theatre-based public dialogue and coalition-building project/campaign that shifts culture around behavioral health in the Western US by tackling stigma, centering youth and strengthening how we care for each other. By the time of this workshop, State of Mind (THEATRE AS COALITION/DEMOCRACY AS PUBLIC HEALTH) will have performed and conducted workshops and public meetings in nearly 25 (mostly small & rural) Montana communities. In this session, Michael (Project Creator/Director) will offer development, workshop and performance strategies from State of Mind as tools for public practice, community dialogue and civic imagination.
 

JESSICA LITWAK | THE FEAR PROJECT

Jessica Litwak is a recognized leader in the field of creative activism and socially engaged theatre. She utilizes her passion for theatre and art to support individuals towards self expression and teamwork. She accomplishes this through her professional therapeutic practice experience and enthusiasm for social justice and international collaboration.

The Fear Project is an artful interpretation of verbatim text organized with collaboration through one voice. I balance community building and therapeutic goals with the creation of well-made plays: plays created with clear characters, a dramatic arc, strong structure (stasis, happening, crisis, climax, resolution) and poetic voices. The heart of this project is creating a theatrical event to inspire audiences and participants to become more aware of their fears and to address them.

DEREK GOLDMAN | IN-YOUR-SHOES

Dr. Derek Goldman is an award-winning international stage director, playwright, producer, festival director, adapter/ deviser, curator, and published scholar. He serves as Artistic and Executive Director of The Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics (The Lab), with a mission “to humanize global politics through performance.” 

In Your Shoes™ employs techniques rooted in theatrical performance to promote deep listening and empathy, bringing participants of diverse backgrounds into mutually respectful creative exchange. Participants build communities of trust, often in polarized settings, by engaging in facilitated group activities and pair conversations in which they curate and perform one another’s exact words.

 

LIZ MORGAN | THEATR OF THE OPPRESSED

Liz Morgan (she/her) has worked with Theater Of the Oppressed NYC since 2015. She is an award-winning theatre artist based in NYC best known for her poem “Why I was Late Today…” (Huffington Post). Liz studied theatre and dance abroad at the London Dramatic Academy, the Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed in India and the Yeredon Center for Malian Arts. Liz was a member of the A.R.T./NY Body Autonomy Leadership Council and TCG’s 2021 Rising Leaders of Color cohort. In 2022, she co-authored The Wildcard Workbook, a practical guide for devising forum theatre.

Theatre of the Oppressed is an interactive and hands-on tool used to investigate situations in which we are denied our basic rights, personally and collectively. We use theatrical debate, through games and scenes, to uncover the many possible alternatives to these real-life challenges. By imagining and rehearsing solutions together onstage, we prepare ourselves to take action offstage. This tool is designed to empower the participants to become catalysts for change in their own lives and communities.

 

HANNAH FOX | PLAYBACK THEATRE

Hannah Fox is a university professor of applied performance, co-director of the New York School of Playback Theatre and founder of Big Apple Playback Theatre. Hannah has led Playback trainings around the globe for over two decades and has a special interest in using Playback and other applied theatre forms as tools for promoting social justice. She is the author of Zoomy Zoomy: Improv Games and Exercises for Groups (2010), and has published several articles and chapters on Playback Theatre. Hannah is the daughter of the founders of Playback Theatre.

Playback Theatre creates a sacred space for stories, validating individual voices while building collective understanding. In a time when people long to be heard and understood, it serves as both mirror and bridge, inviting empathy through shared humanity.