Amplify & Ignite: Creative Practice in and With Communities: Full Schedule

Welcome to Amplify & Ignite 2025

Thank you to our generous Donors -
Emerson College:

Academic Affairs
School of the Arts
Social Justice Collaborative
Department of Performing Arts
Graduate Studies
Elma Lewis Center
Theatre Education Graduate Association

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Sustainability Invitation
Emerson Sustainability is currently preparing for the annual Campus Race to Zero Waste competition that runs from February through the end of March. It’s a friendly competition between universities in North America to reduce waste on campuses and raise awareness about waste-related behaviors. In celebration of Campus Race to Zero Waste, we are participating in the Green Event Certification program and we hope you will join us in this challenge. In advance of your travel to Boston, we encourage you to bring a reusable water bottle and/or hot thermos and utensils to reduce the need for single use products.

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9:15am EDT

Theatre, Sense & Story: Returning to what Grounds Us

Saturday March 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:30am EDT

LB 225

Session Evaluation

(Re)Turning to Storytelling
Presenter: Alex Ates

The COVID-19 shutdowns, the violent political conditions in the United States, the corporate manipulation of social media, and the rapid rise of AI necessitate a return to the basics of theater pedagogy storytelling. In 2022, I introduced a new course, Storytelling and Performance, at Westtown School, where I was the director of the arts. The course was an introductory course to the grades 9-12 Theater program, designed to intrigue and attract students who might not typically foresee themselves taking an introductory theater course. It worked. Sixty percent of the students who enrolled in the course had never taken a Theater course or participated in a production. After a series of intimate, in-class "slams" (performances) of their stories, students compellingly performed themed stories for the enraptured school body. Performances were audio-recorded and evolved into an intentionally-produced podcast. Storytelling and Performance focused on the simple, innate human need and ability to share compelling stories that impact life experiences despite the "slings and arrows" of dehumanizing modernity.

Using Theatre Practices to Manage InfoWhelm
Presenters: Milly Schmid + Jackie Agliata
In the Spring of 2024, Jackie and Milly co-presented a six-session-long artist-in-residence program using exercises from Newspaper Theater to investigate media coverage of Climate Change and Climate Justice with 11th and 12th grade International Baccalaureate theater students at Snowden International School at Copley in Boston, MA. In this workshop, Jackie and Milly will highlight the moments of success and emerging tensions in developing the curriculum for the project and then lead symposium participants through an embodied, Newspaper Theater-inspired devising activity. Session participants will unpack and reflect on the devised work and brainstorm applications to their own education or community context. Participants will receive a residency map and example exercises to explore media literacy with youth.

The Weathering Project: A Sensory Theatre Workshop for Connection and Inclusion
Presenter: Kaitlin Jaskolski

Step into a world where the senses reign, and connection takes center stage. The Weathering Project is a sensory theatre workshop designed to create immersive, inclusive experiences for diverse audiences particularly those often left out of traditional arts spaces. Just as weather can shift in an instant, this workshop invites participants to explore the fluid, dynamic nature of sensory theatre, where touch, sound, movement, and visuals combine to spark new forms of creative expression. In this workshop, we'll harness the elements of sensory engagement to foster connection over perfection. Participants will explore how sensory stimuli can be used to break down barriers, build bridges, and celebrate the beauty of shared experience. Together, we'll weather the storm of uncertainty, embracing the unpredictable and playful nature of inclusive performance. By focusing on creating experiences that prioritize connection between participants, their careers, artists, and teachers, we'll uncover how sensory theatre can encourage deeper, more meaningful collaboration. This workshop will also explore how these "weathered" experiences born from collaboration and sensory play can lead to transformative change in performance, community building, and education. Just as the weather can be unpredictable, the connections made in sensory theatre can surprise and inspire, creating powerful, lasting memories of shared creative moments. Participants will explore together new ways to amplify voices, celebrate diversity, and weather the elements of inclusion together.

Speakers

Alex Ates

Kent Denver School

Alex Ates is a theater artist from New Orleans. He serves as the first Director of Arts at Kent Denver School in Colorado. Previously, he was the Director of Pre-K-12 Visual and Performing Arts and David Mallery Fellow at Westtown School. Since 2017, Alex has directed the Arts and... Read More →

Milly Schmid

Milly Schmid (they/she) is a queer, neurodivergent, interdisciplinary teaching artist, educator, activist, and non-profit administrator originally from Sterling, VA. After receiving Level One Joker Training from Theater of the Oppressed NYC in 2018, Milly has applied their knowledge... Read More →

Jackie Agliata

Jackie Agliata (she/her) is a middle school educator originally from the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. Currently in her sixth year of teaching seventh grade English, she is passionate about arts-integration and its role in a holistic, culturally responsive educational experience. Jackie... Read More →

Kaitlin Jaskolski

Dr. Kate Jaskolski is a theatre facilitator, director, and educator with over 20 years of experience creating joyful, inclusive theatre experiences around the world. She holds a PhD in Applied and Educational Theatre from the University of Cape Town and a Master's in Educational Theatre... Read More →

Saturday March 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:30am EDT
LB 225

Panel

10:45am EDT

Knowing With: Storytelling as a Rehearsal for Revolution

Saturday March 22, 2025 10:45am - 12:00pm EDT

LB 229

Session Evaluation

Theater of Union: Our Stories as Life Sustaining Projects?
Presenter: Annalise "River" Guidry
As artists who inherit a lineage of empire, how do we create and cultivate life where systems of domination have left ruin? Inspired by mushrooms and informed by indigenous, feminist and anthropological notions of "knowing-with," and, "a love ethic," Theater of Union is a decolonized theatrical pedagogy and praxis- with love as the foundation and knowing as the practice- to contribute to life-sustaining, world-building projects with theater as the vehicle.

Storytelling as Empowerment: Voices from 'The Stories of Giving Birth'"
Bindi Kang

"The Stories of Giving Birth" (dir. Zhao Zhiyong, Beijing, 2019) is a groundbreaking theatrical production collaborated by professional artists and rural-urban migrant workers. Developed in a collaborative manner, "The Stories of Giving Birth" is a devised theatre work woven from archival materials gathered from more than 30 interviews with female migrant workers. This project illuminates the intersectional challenges faced by women at the margins of societal structures. Emerging from extensive community engagement organized by a local NGO Mulan Community Service Center, this production provides platforms for migrant women to voice their living experience that includes traumatic experience of abortion, persistent cycles of economic marginalization, and systemic familial and social neglect. Following the production's success, a subsequent interactive museum exhibition expanded the project's reach, designing immersive experiences that bridge diverse social backgrounds through personal narratives. After its initial success in the theatre house, in 2021, Mulan Community in collaboration with Beijing Yue Art Museum, launched an interactive art project called Personal History/Game Theatre + Exhibition The Story of Mulan Narratives of Grassroots Migrant Women Workers. This project featured the play, the women's stories, and their everyday items, documents, photographs, etc. Moreover, the creative team also designed an interactive game, inviting the museum visitors, to immerse themselves in the life journey of a randomly assigned female worker character. Through this method, the curators aimed to connect the experiences of the female workers with the largely middle-class and well-educated museumgoers. In my presentation, I aim to take this production as a case study, to survey how theatre serves as a consoling instrument among the members in the migrant wokers' community, as well as a communicative tool between this grassroots community and middle class art consumers.

This is My Body
Kimberly LaCroix

Working at the intersection of gender studies, theology, and philosophy, I am researching how applied theatre can be utilized to explore Judeo-Christian theology's influence on female embodiment. Then, in collaboration with the Gordon College theatre program in Wenham, MA, I will be working with a group of college students who both ascribe to the tenants of Christianity and identify as female. This work will culminate in an ensemble-devised production, performed on Gordon's campus, January-February, 2025. I hope this production will be a sort of Complete History of Female Embodiment, Abridged in the style of Reduced Shakespeare Company. In a world deeply obsessed with the differences between us- our gender, religion, political affiliation, all aspects of our positionalities- I am committed to joy, play, and common ground. This production aims to be a celebration of resilience, while likely also being a hobble through some difficult territory.

Speakers

Annalise "River" Guidry

Annalise Guidry is a non-binary Black and Puerto Rican theater artist from New Orleans, based in Boston with a background in anthropology. They have shown a deep commitment to theater and the Boston community during their time so far working with The Theater Offensive as their True... Read More →

Bindi Kang

Emerson College

Bindi Kang is a theatre scholar and dramaturg. Her artistic interest, as well as her research specializations encompass Asian and Asian/American experiences and representation in theatre and performances, especially in performances concerning social movement, and performances of... Read More →

Kimberly LaCroix

Gordon College, Emerson College

Kimberly LaCroix has directed musical casts of 75 people, devised new works exploring themes from adolescence to modern sex slavery, and performed her one-woman show, Mzungu Memoirs, for eight years. Her work is rooted in community development, social activism, and the liberatory... Read More →

Saturday March 22, 2025 10:45am - 12:00pm EDT
LB 229

Panel

2:45pm EDT

Community Engagement from Theory to Impact

Saturday March 22, 2025 2:45pm - 4:00pm EDT

LB 226

Session Evaluation

[PLAY]ING THROUGH OUR DIFFERENCES: How Creating a Fictional Play Can Open Real Community Dialogue Presenter: Taylor St. John
"SHAVONNE: In case you haven't noticed we live in the same hood, Einstein. BAKARI: Nah, we in the same hood living two different lives." An excerpt from We All We Got: A Binghampton Play By Ann Perry Wallace Over the past two years, I have been leading a new community-playmaking program in one of Memphis, Tennessee's most diverse neighborhoods. Binghampton (pronounced Bing-HAMP-ton) is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Memphis (with over 27 languages spoken). It is also a neighborhood where national conversations about immigration, policing, gentrification, discrimination, and safety are all playing out daily on the streets. Through the duration of the project, community members shared hundreds of real stories about the beauties and challenges facing their neighborhood. These stories then inspired a fictional play, We All We Got: A Binghampton Play, written by local playwright Ann Perry Wallace that featured over 40 community members performing onstage. In this presentation, I will use this latest community-playmaking project to reflect on how working within a fictional context allowed a safe entry point that made it possible for participants from very different backgrounds to coexist along differences, build authentic relationships, step into other's shoes, and have discussions that simply may not have been possible within the limitations of "real life". In addition, I will provide analysis of the human, artistic, and operational challenges of engaging with multiple communities that often have conflicting needs. Finally, through stories from the project, we will explore the benefits of community-playmaking in neighborhoods.

A Collective Vision for a Future in the Arts through Community and Civic Engagement Programs
Presenter: Sharon Counts

The arts have the power to effect change and animate democracy by demonstrating the public value of creative work that contributes to a larger social good. In this accelerated moment of radical change, the arts are being more consciously used as a way to engage communities around achieving civic goals and to create positive connections. A major tension in the field right now revolves around how to galvanize our collective resources and knowledge toward building a more sustainable future for theater at large. This article centers the use of civic and community engagement programs as one prominent and effective method that can foster synergy with communities that arts organizations and theaters engage and seek to engage. Many theaters are using community engagement programs to ignite community conversations and address past inequities. A case study highlights how one regional theater, Mid-Sized City Theater (MCT), a pseudonym, used community and civic engagement programs to promote reimagining their organization as a civic institution and to rebuild relationships with their community. The pursuit to improve relationships between theaters and communities using community engagement programs is one way this sector is working to address historical inequities for cultural workers, artists, and participants in the arts.

Speakers

Taylor St John

Orpheum Theatre Group

Taylor St. John (he/him) is a leader, theatre maker, and educator currently serving as the Director of Education and Engagement at the Orpheum Theatre Group in Memphis, TN. At the Orpheum he directs the Neighborhood Play Program (a community-playmaking program) and the Teaching Artist... Read More →

Sharon Counts

Parsons School of Design, The New School

Sharon Counts is an Assistant Professor of Business and Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design and the Associate Director of the Masters of Strategic Design and Management program. Her research-led creative practice explores the efficacy of social impact and community engagement... Read More →

Saturday March 22, 2025 2:45pm - 4:00pm EDT
LB 226

Panel