Three women, the Midwives, working on their final thesis for their master’s in applied theatre at City University of New York, set out to utilize playbuilding as an applied theatre convention to help celebrate the journeys of women and men in a long-term residential housing unit in New York City. The Journey Theatre Project (JTP) worked with women and men in a transitional state from homelessness into housed. The Midwives, worked on Mondays, beginning on January 7th at the men’s home and Wednesdays, beginning on January 9th at the women’s home. Each session was 90-120 minutes in length. The workshops were over a course of 5 sessions culminating with a final performance in front of an audience.
Each time we begin a project, JTP begins with self-reflection first in relationship to the participants we will work with. We look for intersectionality as a way to build bridges, however we are always conscious of the many facets that people can have in the world and want to truly embrace all of them. We work hard and diligently to get to know our population. Their needs, wants, and goals in order to carefully tailor a session to fit them. Participant centered is always putting the participant first.
JTP utilized theatrical conventions to pull stories and eventually theatrical pieces from the participants. JTP took an in-depth look at the benefits of utilizing playbuilding to explore the external and internal oppressions on the participants.
Through every process, reflection is important. We encourage our participants to not only engage in the moment but to reflect how what they encountered, affects their lives on a daily basis.