Compassionate Conversations: Theater for Social Action and Understanding

Join us for another transforming experience through our Compassionate Conversations program. In this high-energy workshop, participants will be introduced to the foundations of the Theater of the Oppressed, a theater technique designed to help promote social and political change though individual and collective action. Through a variety of games and exercises, we will explore the dynamics of power and oppression, as well as our own stories and experiences. As an ensemble, participants will cycle through an arsenal of skill-building activities which focus on being in the moment, expanding the language of the body and gesture to create dynamic stage pictures, and the practice of authentic storytelling. This fun, low pressure workshop will give you a taste of a creative and collaborative tool which can be used in a variety of settings, circumstances and communities for the purposes of promoting greater understanding, conflict-transformation, art and activism. About Melissa Shaw, workshop facilitator: Melissa Shaw is a writer, theater artist, and educator who offers a unique consultancy based in the arts, social justice, diversity and inclusion and social emotional learning. She has taught or led sessions in schools, summer camps, detention centers, yeshivas, corporate offices, and long-term temporary housing centers. She has facilitated workshops for high school students, security guards, chaplains, non-profit managers, video game designers, Buddhist monks, school principals, older adults, NGO leaders, and the NYPD. She is currently on faculty for the Foundation for Jewish Camp's Cornerstone Fellowship and is a teaching artist and creative coach for various community-based organizations, including Community Word Project and the Lulu and Leo Fund. Melissa also facilitates for a variety of the Anti-Defamation League's programs, including it’s A World of Difference Institute, Words to Action, Echoes and Reflections and Respect for All initiatives. Last summer, she was on faculty at Drew University's Institute On Religion and Conflict Transformation where she helped to foster dialogue among religious and lay leaders from Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, and Indonesia. Melissa holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.