What are YOU doing?

From Marketing Director, Katy Beth Cassell -
In The New York Times today, there was a great article titled "A Safety Valve for Inmates, the Arts, Fades In California" (There is a link to this article on our Facebook page!) The article discussed the ways in which theatre and theatre organizations, such as the actor Tim Robbins' The Actor's Gang, truly make a difference in the lives of prisoners by sharing their art, sharing their passion, and sharing their time.

This article raised the question in my mind - what are YOU doing? What am I doing to share my art? To take theatre out of the performance hall and into marginalized communities?

My answer - I'm working for the Applied Theatre Center.
I became interested in applied theatre my sophomore year of college. At a state conference in South Carolina, I watched a documentary about a theatrical troupe from Rock Hill, South Carolina, called the Merry Pranksters.The Merry Pranksters are actors and actress with special needs and disabilities. They perform an original production each spring, and each actor and actress learns more than their lines - they learn that they have a unique gift and ability that they can share while developing social skills and confidence. The goal of the Merry Pranksters is to encourage other agencies to explore the use of theatre and drama and its benefits for those with disabilities.

Members of the troupe spoke after the documentary was broadcast and it immediately peaked my interest in the many ways that theatre can impact various communities.

Five years later, I'm still working hard to spread the word about applied theatre and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to work for the Applied Theatre Center. If you do not know, the Applied Theatre Center was started as a challenge to Executive Director Dale Savidge by a mother of an autistic son. She believed in the potential of theatre to aid her son in his social skills development and asked Dale to explore the possibilities. He, along with many others, quickly became convinced that theatre was a poweful tool in addressing the needs of those on the autism spectrum. His initial research blossomed into that of applied theatre in general because of the many strands connecting the applied theatre disciplines and the commonality of needs across people groups served by applied theatre.

People have needs, and some of those needs may be addressed by various forms of applied theatre. Applied theatre does not lecture people about the solutions to their needs, it engages them in exploring their needs and finding solutions through that exploration. Theatre is alive, and living is a lot like doing theatre. Theatre is a unique experience for living (and reliving) our lives and in that process experiencing growth into our full potential to live productively and happily in the world.

ATC is unique because it offers the only conference of its kind. While there are specific applied theatre conferences, such as those dealing with Playback theatre, improvisation, and Theatre of the Oppressed, the Applied Theatre Center produces a conference that addresses ALL of these in one setting. The ATC conference aims to provide specific training (in discipline tracks) but also allows for interaction between the various AT disciplines.

So, this is what we are doing. If you are asking yourself, "how can I get involved? How can I use my theatre to impact a certain community" or even "how could I bring theatre into the social work that I already do?" I would encourage you to look into our conference, June 28-30, 2012. We are very excited about the track leaders we are bringing in, but we are also excited to add an "applied theatre in action" component and take what we learn into the community of Greenville, SC, at the end of the conference. We will continue to post updates on our website and on this blog, and we all look forward to putting applied theatre in action with you soon.