On April 26 and 28, 2005, CIIS’s Drama Therapy program presented an original theater piece that reflects underlying conflicts related to diversity at the Institute itself and society at large. The project, called Theater for Change, is supported and sponsored by the CIIS administration in conjunction with the school’s Diversity Action Team. The relationship between this spiritually and culturally based Institute’s ideals–and the experiences of students of color–is one of the topics theatrically tackled in the sometimes comical, sometimes devastating, always compelling Theater for Change. The CIIS troupe was invited to perform this piece at the National Association for Drama Therapy Annual Conference, held August 11-15 in Portland, Oregon.

A multi-ethnic group of drama therapy students, under the leadership of a recent graduate of the program, Emily Burkes-Nossiter, and the Founder/Director of the Drama Therapy program, Renée Emunah, developed this performance through improvisation, drama therapy, self-revelatory theater, Theater of the Oppressed, and much dialogue. This dynamic, provocative, poetic, personal, poignant 60-minute piece explores the dynamics of oppression, privilege, power, and difference. The intent is to raise consciousness, increase cultural sensitivity, shed light onto the more subtle forms of racism, and reflect back to the Institute its own inconsistencies, helping to deepen the school’s commitment to multiculturalism. The piece speaks to issues familiar to all academic institutions, and, more universally, addresses some of the most urgent issues of our time.

The project was initiated in 2003 by Dr. Emunah, in collaboration with Drama Therapy students. The Drama Therapy Program–now in its 21st year (and still one of only two accredited graduate drama therapy programs in the U.S.) is dedicated to facilitating not only individual healing and change, but also social transformation. Theater provides a way of reaching hearts as well as minds, so that the effects of racism and other forms of oppression can be felt, rather than only intellectually discussed. Theater also offers a way to speak truths, and have audiences “digest” these, in a way that often feels too confrontational in dialogue. The performances, attended by of the CIIS faculty, administration, staff, and a majority of students, was received with great enthusiasm.

The Drama Therapy program is committed to personal healing and change as well as social transformation This year’s troupe worked together for five months. All troupe members are students in the Drama Therapy Program, except for Richard Wright, who is a student in the Expressive Arts Therapy Program. The director, Emily Burkes-Nossiter, graduated from the Drama Therapy Program in August 2004. She is now drama therapist/MFT intern at the Living Arts Counseling Center; co-director of the Herstories Project, a community-based storytelling/autobiographical theatre workshop for women; drama therapist with teens at Horizon’s (Females Against Violence Peer Resource Training Program); and President of the Northern California Chapter of the National Association for Drama Therapy.

Renée Emunah’s involvement included supporting and assisting Emily and the troupe in the artistic direction of the piece, and in the development of the process/product. She also served as “producer,” and oversaw the project as a whole. For more information about Theater for Change, please contact Renée Emunah at 415.575.6231 or remunah@ciis.edu.

THE CAST

Liora Abrahams-Brosbe
Emily Burkes-Nossiter
Laurel Carangelo
Graal Jacobson
Rena Marie Jones
Andea Major
Doug Ronning
Nazbah Tom
Richard Wright

Directed by Emily Burkes-Nossiter
Faculty Consultant: Renée Emunah

Sound: Janna Browning
Additional technical assistance: Deanna Esquibel, Alexis Lezin, Michelle Ramsey

MUSIC AND POETRY CREDITS

music:

In Rena and Liora’s dance:
Brachot L’Shana Hadasha (Blessings for a New Year), Israeli Ethiopian musician Idan Raichel
Ella’s Song by Bernice Reagon, sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock

In Laurel’s ancestral scene: Claudio Arrau, Chopin, The Nocturnes

Following Graal’s taxicab scene: Telegrama, written and sung by Zeca Baleiro.

poetry:

read by Graal: A Native Person Looks Up from the Plate by Alice Walker
read by Nazbah: written by Nazbah Tom
read by troupe: Defuse Me by Thich Nhat Hahn

Photo credit: Scott Hess