VIRTUAL Session Block 3

Friday, July 29th, 11am-12:15pm (EDT)

All of the Session Blocks will be hosted on Zoom Meeting. You will be sent an email, 24 hours prior to the next day's events, which will contain all of the log-on details for each event. As in an in-person Conference, please feel free to select whichever workshop you would like to attend in the moment.

Network: K-8

Its In the Bag: Engaging Readers through Simple Puppets

Session Chair: Steven Lawrence Barker

The power of puppetry is unleashed. Join Steve Barker as he demonstrates the essential parts and pieces of a virtual residency in Paper Bag Puppetry. Enjoy the exploration of construction paper, scissors, glue, and imagination as we bring characters to life. Laugh and love the hot seating of major and minor characters from tales told in both English and Spanish by students. (re)Discover the universal puppet language of breath, focus, locomotion, voco-motion, and voice that will allow your young artists from the entire global reach to open the curtain on the infinite libraries available to them.

Network: Youth Theatre

Ending Generational Curses: Using Art and Wellness Modalities

Session Chair: Monique Letamendi

Other Presenter(s): Myrlevens "Levy" Adrien, Amanda Garder, Geanina Riley, Kenya Lewis, Camryn Bruno

In this session led by Monique Letamendi, Artistic Director of viBe Theater Experience participants will explore the tools and techniques that are necessary to engage in healing-centered,  collaborative art-making with Black girls/ young women/and gender expansive youth. In this space, attendees will learn new theater-making and improvisation techniques by examining the ways that white supremacist cultue disrupts the education of Black/Brown youth, and fuels school push out and the school-to-prison pipeline for youth of color. We will also learn how to be in deep communication with youth of color by analyzing the generational cycles that impact youth and the reasons why they take responsibility in breaking them. At viBe, we believe that as educators, artists and adults (who have aided in creating these generational curses), it is our responsibility to continue to create space in collaboration with Black girls/young women/and gender-expansive youth of color to address cycles of harm by centering diverse wellness and healing modalities. During this session, we will explore and investigate the several ways art and wellness can be used as modalities to spark change by looking at viBe and its performing arts and Wellness programming as a case study. We will look at viBe’s partnerships with organizations, including Liberation-Based Therapy and Akika Essence, to utilize wellness as a tool to answer these important questions and give our participants the resources they need to be emotionally supported.

Network: Various

Consent in Creative Practice

Session Chair: Nicole Perry

This workshop is an introduction to consent-based practices in the creative process, specifically for those in teaching, directorial, or choreographic roles. Intimacy for the Stage is a hot topic in the professional industry and needs to be considered from the educational perspective as well. This interactive workshop will focus on creative process skills for a consent-based rehearsal room that facilitates collaboration and communication and promotes safety and story-telling. After the Workshop, the theatre educator and creator will be able to develop a plan for leading students in consent-based creative work.