Transformational Theater: Play and Discovery Reconnecting Us to Ourselves and Our Community

We set out together on the edge of our journey, looking at the vast expanse in front of us and seeing only the terrifying beauty of possibility. As we put one foot in front of the other -- sometimes cautious, sometimes unfettered, wild and raucus -- we slowly make ourselves more real, more truly manifest in this world. Each moment we choose to enter into creation is a courageous act of becoming who we will be -- in flesh and yearning and voice.

We challenge and inspire each other to show more of ourselves, bringing the picture of our lives and the lived sense of humanness into palpable relief.

We see each other. And we begin to see ourselves. The pictures move, three-dimensional, close, vibrating. We reveal the many faces of our spirit, and reach across space toward each other through the magical field we all inhabit.

We feel each other, we begin to know the hidden truths of life as we witness one of us in a moment of discovery. We feel each other's pain and exaltation because those impulses of life exist in all of us and we are hungry to see them live their full lives.

We are hungry to see what unfolds on the stage, in the heart. We are hungry to share the journey.

The Practices of Transformational Theater

We make agreements to show up in unconditional caring and unflinching witness of each other.
We hold space. We take up space. We move in space. We turn what's inside out and outside in.
We stand up without knowing what will come through us.
We trust.
We start with breath, with a feeling, with an image or a phrase or closeness of another.
We learn to listen to our impulses, to trust their knowledge, to let them carry us.
We feel sometimes like we're walking in the dark, diving off a precipice, submerging.
We play, and sound and tumble and stretch and remember being children.
We challenge a room full of people to tell it more like it really is.
We dare each other to feel more, to reach out and feel in. We dare each other to live.

Our bodies, our lives, are microcosms of the world, of the universe. And through the many forms this work inhabits, we begin to see more of the whole picture. We practice improvisation and art-crafting. We practice moving gently and slowly out into the light. We learn the delicate and powerful tools of body-sensing. And we continue to surrender more and more deeply to the most profound practice of all: witnessing each other as each unfolds a story that is whispering or elbowing or demanding to be told.