I facilitate workshops and classes on socially-engaged performance techniques for diverse participants, ranging from university to community contexts. Whether training future facilitators or engaging first-time participants, in one-off or ongoing sessions, I tailor aims and activities to the given group and create a community of learning in which we can support one another to try new things.

Devised Theater

‘Devising’ is a contemporary performance practice, based in the process of creating original material from participants’ own skills, interests, research and experiences, through the collaborative exploration of theatrical techniques that play with boundaries between performer and audience, art and reality. It also offers a way to understand ethnographic research from new perspectives, including affective and somatic qualities that are communicated through bodies and objects as well as narratives.

Puppets and Masks

The imagination is unleashed through scenographic techniques, such as papier-mache mask-work, shadow puppetry, and stop-motion animation, propelling participants to make their own worlds of poetic imagery, where the objects take on an enchanting life of their own and bring people together. I teach puppet and mask making and performance, as well as facilitation skills for bringing puppets into prisons.

Embodied Movement

The method of physical training I studied at the Moscow Art Theater and the Vakhtangov Theatre Academy in Russia develops physical awareness, strength, coordination, balance, flexibility, stunts and stage combat skills. I also offer workshops and classes on the somatic practice that I have developed for embodied listening, moving-with other people’s stories, as a form of group resonance and response.

Learning English Through Theater

Participatory Theater techniques, applied as an educational tool for teaching English, provide an effective, fun means of encouraging creative expression, enhancing communication skills and building self-confidence among English language learners at any level. I also train students to design and facilitate workshops with ESL groups, taking a multilingual approach that embraces participants’ cultural backgrounds while creating engaging contexts for applying English.

Theater in Educational and Social Contexts

I invite students to explore the theory and practice of socially-engaged performance, looking at contemporary models and methodologies for facilitating community engagement, and specifically examining potential ways for students to generate social and educational dialogues, with a global perspective on their local terrain.

 

For more information, please email me: sarahashfordhart@gmail.com / sahart@wm.edu