Program Manager: Susie Tanner

Teaching Artists: Alex Alpharaoh & Sharon Freedman

Led by program administrator Susie Tanner, teaching Artists Alex Alpharaoh and Sharon Freedman lead a workshop series which teaches students how to explore and examine the fundamental tools of performance art, with Mr. Jason Hayes class at Sonia Sotomayor High School. The multi-session workshop focuses on introducing students to the building blocks of what makes performance art a powerful tool for self expression and global processing. The workshop begins with an explanation what an ensemble is; this is followed by building ensembles through various exercises that permit students to collaborate with each other to either execute theatre games or create tableaux which tell stories using shapes, depth, physical and negative space, and gesture. Next begins a discovery of how conflict is a foundational tool in storytelling which then allows students to practice script analysis using simple scenes where they create their own scenarios that require conflict resolution. This gives students the opportunity to develop characters that are either similar or different from whom they are in their day to day lives. Students then imagine if the impossible were possible by letting their imagination fuel their inspiration as they pose questions of what would happen if they could make the inaccessible accessible. These exercises prepare students to write dialogue that challenges their global views, and introduces critical thinking elements that are required for conflict resolution. Finally, students perform each other's scenes and monologues written throughout the workshop series. ​