The Life Stories Toolkit a Blueprint for Theatre Artists, Educators, and Service Providers

The Life Stories Toolkit A Blueprint for Theatre Artists, Educators, and Service Providers

“When we become the storytellers of our lives, we are no longer victims of circumstance. We are artists — who make things happen, who write the next chapter, who change the ending.” — Theatre Lab Co-Founder Deb Gottesman, from her TEDx Talk on Life Stories The Life Stories Toolkit: A Blueprint for Theatre Artists, Educators, and Service Providers

Published by: The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts Authors: Quique Aviles, Deb Gottesman, Ryan Heathcock, Anna Laszlo, Buzz Mauro, Amal Saade, Oran Sandel, and Thomas Workman Designer: Alice Lewis

The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts 733 8th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 www.theatrelab.org

Photo credits: Nicole Boxer, Teresa Castracane, Ryan Heathcock, Colin Hovde, Lauren Kirby, Paul Oberle, Second Glance Photography

2 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Contents

Book1: Is Life Stories for You? What is Life Stories? ...... 1:2 The Framework of Life Stories...... 1:2 The Transformative Power of Theatre ...... 1:2 The History and Successes of Life Stories ...... 1:3 Who Has Benefited from Life Stories? ...... 1:3 Who Else Could Benefit from Life Stories? ...... 1:4 Life Stories with Homeless Women in Recovery...... 1:5 The Basic Life Stories Model...... 1:6 Moving Forward...... 1:6

Book 2: How to Design a Life Stories Program The 5 Ws...... 2:2 “Why?” — The Benefits and Rewards of Life Stories Programs ...... 2:2 “Who?” — The Unique Characteristics of Your Group...... 2:3 “When?” — Finding the Time for Life Stories ...... 2:4 “Where?” — Making the Most of Your Surroundings...... 2:5 “What?” — Choosing the Life Stories Model That Is Right for Your Group. .2:6 “How?” Creating Your First Life Stories Program...... 2:9 The Life Stories Logic Model...... 2:9 Partner Organization Involvement...... 2:11 Securing Funding...... 2:12 Recruiting Participants ...... 2:14

Book 3: Generating Life Stories Finding the Story...... 3:2 Getting the Creative Juices Flowing...... 3:3 First Group Exercises: Story Stimuli...... 3:5 Second Group Exercises: Creating Connectedness...... 3:6 Structuring Your Sessions...... 3:7 Structuring the Story...... 3:9 Developing Extended Stories...... 3:9 Creating Stories for Dramatization ...... 3:10 Acting Out the Story ...... 3:13 Structured Story Improvs...... 3:13 Critiquing the Improv ...... 3:14

Book 4: Delivering Life Stories Rehearsing the Stories...... 4:2 What is Rehearsal?...... 4:2 A Model for Early Rehearsals...... 4:4 Producing the Show...... 4:7 Finding the Show...... 4:7

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT 3 Outlining the Performance...... 4:8 Final Stages ...... 4:9 Film Production...... 4:12 After the Show...... 4:16

Book 5: Managing Life Stories Assessing Capacity to Implement Life Stories...... 5:2

Implementing Life Stories...... 5:5 Funding Sources...... 5:5 Working with Service Providers: Creating MOUs...... 5:6 Ensuring the Quality of Life Stories Instruction ...... 5:7 Evaluating Your Life Stories Program ...... 5:10 Why Evaluate? ...... 5:10 Informal Evaluations ...... 5:11 Formal Evaluations...... 5:11 Building a Multi-Faceted Life Stories Program...... 5:12

Celebrating Success...... 5:14

Appendices Exercise Appendix...... A:2 Pass the Object...... A:3 Magic Box...... A:4 Imaging to Music...... A:4 Mirror Exercise...... A:5 Group Sculptures ...... A:6 Name, Feeling, Movement...... A:8 Group Stop...... A:8 Physical Energizers...... A:8 Silly Tongue Twisters...... A:9 Zip Zap Zop ...... A:9 Dump ...... A:10 Circle Stories (or Sentence-at-a-Time Stories)...... A:11 “Once upon a time…” ...... A:11 Pairs Sculptures...... A:13 “I Am From…” Poems ...... A:14 The Critical Response Process...... A:16 The Rules of Improvisation...... A:17 Resource Guide...... A:18 Creating Your Logic Model ...... A:19 Sample Flyer...... A:21 Sample Letter of Intent ...... A:22 Sample Memorandum of Understanding ...... A:26 Image Release...... A:28 Evaluation Models ...... A:29 Further Reading...... A:32 Further Watching...... A:32

4 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Acknowledgments The concept of Life Stories has developed over many years with the input of many talented people. The program would not exist at all without the extraordinary work of the instructors who have taught it at The Theatre Lab over the last fifteen years: Quique Aviles, Jose Carrasqui- llo, Vince Eisenson, Karen Friedman, Ryan Heathcock, Michael Mack, Nia Medina, Matt Miller, Jennifer Nelson, Elizabeth Pringle, Amal Saade, Amy Saidman, Oran Sandel, Thomas Workman, and especially Michael Rodgers, who was not only our longtime partner at The The- atre Lab, but also taught the very first Life Stories program. They have our deepest gratitude. Many thanks to Theatre Lab Board Chair Diane Willkens for her vision and leadership in the creation of the Life Stories Institute, and to the staff of The Theatre Lab — Elizabeth Heir, Terah Herman, Bonnie Morrison, George Page, and Dane Petersen — for their skills, energy and commitment. Thanks, too, to everyone at N Street Village, longtime partner in our most extensive Life Stories project, especially Executive Director Schro- eder Stribling, Ann McCreedy and Kristyn Carrillo, and to the many women who have participated in that project over the years, especially those who performed My Soul Look Back and Wonder at the Kennedy Center and have continued to inspire people with their stories. We are deeply grateful to Calvary Baptist Church and Pastor Amy Butler for providing a loving home for The Theatre Lab and our Life Stories programs. Special thanks to Anna Laszlo, coauthor of this toolkit, for her expertise, hard work and good humor. We dedicate this toolkit to the more than 2,000 courageous people who have shared their Life Stories through The Theatre Lab’s programs and, in so doing, have transformed not only their own narratives, but also those of countless others who have gained strength by learning they are not alone in their struggles.

Deb Gottesman and Buzz Mauro Co-Executive Directors The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT 5

The Life Stories Toolkit: BOOK 1 Is Life Stories for You? What is Life Stories?

“Theatre is The Framework of Life Stories The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories program is founded on the premise that where your life choices can be safely, yet powerfully, brought into focus, examined, and re-envisioned through dramatic expression. story meets Under the guidance of trained instructors, Life Stories participants my story and take artistic control of their personal narratives and transform them into films or dramatic works for the stage. becomes OUR If you’re interested in facilitating such a program in your own community, this toolkit will teach you how. story.”

— Oran Sandel, The Transformative Power of Theatre Life Stories Instructor Artists, whether actors, musicians, painters, or dancers, instinctively know the transformational power that their art has for them — tapping into their deepest emotions, strengthening their sense of self, and connecting them to their community. But what about people who have never thought of themselves as artists, or never had the opportunity to develop their artistic impulses? What can the theatre arts offer to them? Studies by both theatre professionals and psychologists have proven the value of dramatic self-expression in achieving therapeutic goals. Accord- ing to the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) “the intentional use of dramatic processes … [can] facilitate personal growth, enhance self-worth, instill more appropriate behaviors, improve function- ing, and reinforce proactive choices in a safe and flexible environment.”1 The proven real-life benefits of theatrical self-expression include increased self-confidence, improvement of interpersonal skills and rela-

1 NADTA Fact Sheet, “Drama Therapy with Addictions Populations,” http://www.nadta.org/assets/documents/addictions-fact-sheet.pdf

1:2 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard tionships, and relief from the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The “For me, therapeutic uses of theatre programs are many and varied: from maximizing cognitive and communication skills in older adults2 to develop- it’s about ing new coping skills in children and adolescents3 to helping people in recovery envision a drug-free future.4 connecting Most importantly, dramatic self-expression gives people the opportunity to take control of their stories and, in some cases, to actively change with people their life’s narratives. who don’t get a chance to tell The History and Successes of Life Stories When people act, they transform themselves into characters, of course, their stories but we’ve found, through years of teaching theatre, that even their real lives can be transformed in the process — often in powerful and unex- and finding pected ways. Founded in 1992, The Theatre Lab is Washington, D.C.’s largest and value in their most comprehensive school of the dramatic arts. Our mission is simply stories. “to transform lives through theatre.” Since launching Life Stories in 2000, The Theatre Lab has worked with hundreds of young people and adults, often with no previous connection to acting or the theatre, If you’re helping them to honestly explore their own challenges, decisions, and lives through the medium of dramatic expression. honest in your The magic of theatre is that it tells the story of the human condition: emotions that draw us together as well as those that separate us; events approach to that alter a single life as well as those that alter a nation’s destiny; deci- your character, sions that expose our demons within and those that reflect our most heroic natures. And theatre is immersive — you do it with your whole self-discovery heart, mind and body, so honesty and intimacy are inescapable. There is perhaps no more perfect art form than the theatre to tell your story, occurs along my story, our story. the way.”

— Thomas Workman, Who Has Benefited from Life Stories? Life Stories Instructor More than 2,500 people have shared their stories through original films and performances since The Theatre Lab introduced Life Stories. Some are young people who have experienced the murder of a parent, been victims of violence and neglect, are in substance abuse recovery, or were incarcerated before they were old enough to drive. Some are seniors who find that it’s possible to alleviate isolation and loneliness by gain-

2 NADTA Fact Sheet, “Drama Therapy for a Geriatric Population,” http://www.nadta.org/assets/documents/geriatric-fact-sheet.pdf 3 NADTA Fact Sheet, “Drama Therapy with Children and Adolescents,” http://www.nadta.org/assets/documents/adolescent-fact-sheet.pdf 4 NADTA Fact Sheet, “Drama Therapy with Addictions Populations,” http://www.nadta.org/assets/documents/addictions-fact-sheet.pdf

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 1 1:3 “I feel like it ing the skills to artistically share the experiences of their younger selves. All have discovered the power of theatrical expression to strengthen brought us their communities and envision better futures for themselves.

closer together The Theatre Lab has created Life Stories programs for: in terms of • Recently adjudicated and/or hard-to-place youth, through the Potomac Job Corps Center, a GED and vocational training center creativity, in Southwest D.C. dreams, • Residents in substance abuse treatment, through Phoenix Houses of the Mid-Atlantic Region. and what we • Latino and recently arrived immigrant youth, through GALA really want Hispanic Theatre’s Paso Nuevo youth program, a unique afterschool performance workshop. to accomplish • People living with HIV/AIDS, through the Whitman Walker Clinic. in life.” • Young men in prison, through New Beginnings, the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services’ most secure — Youth Participant, Paso Nuevo Program correctional facility for juvenile offenders. for Latino Youth • Seniors in assisted living facilities throughout the Washington, D.C. area. • Children with illness and their families, through a partnership with the National Institutes of Health. • GLBT youth, through the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL). • Homeless women in substance abuse recovery, through N Street Village.

Who Else Could Benefit from Life Stories? The history of Life Stories clearly demonstrates that the program is appropriate for anyone who is open to the healing process of sharing their story, reflecting on their choices, and being a part of a larger community that cares. The Theatre Lab is currently helping to nurture programs for return- ing war veterans, college freshmen, and transgender persons — but there are many applications that have yet to be explored. Perhaps the question is not “Where has Life Stories been?” but “Where would you like to see it go?”

1:4 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard “It just wasn’t safe being a girl child ’round my way.”

— Participant, My Soul Look Back and Wonder

SPOTLIGHT

Life Stories with Homeless Women in Recovery Since 2007, The Theatre Lab has been partnering with N Street Village — a community of empowerment and recovery for homeless and low-income women in Washington, D.C. — to serve more than 30 homeless women in substance abuse recovery each year through Life Stories. In 2012 our N Street Village participants amynd teaching artists worked with a professional playwright to develop “My Soul Look Back and Wonder: Life Stories from Women in Recovery,” an original play performed by the women themselves at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The production was hailed by The Washington Post as “the most moving performance at The Kennedy Center this year” and is the subject of a major documentary, “How I Got Over,” by Academy Award nominee Nicole Boxer.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 1 1:5 “It gives parents The Basic Life Stories Model Each of our Life Stories programs is unique — specifically tailored to the and their population it serves and the setting it takes place in. In Book 2, we’ll explore some of the important factors to consider in creating a program children the that meets the emotional and physical needs of your participants and makes best use of your particular resources. But every Life Stories pro- opportunity gram features the following components: to have fun • An invitation for participants to share openly about their lives and a and act silly safe space in which the sharing can occur together. • Improvisational exercises and storytelling techniques that facilitate the sharing Everyone ends • An exploration of common themes that have emerged from the sharing up laughing • Guiding principles for developing the work into a final product (whether an informal storytelling session, a film featuring scripted a lot, which scenes, or a fully staged live performance) relieves all • A structured rehearsal process the stresses of • A public affirmation opportunity (performance or screening for peers or the larger community) the day.”

— Program Coordinator, Moving Forward Children’s Inn, National Institutes of Health Is Life Stories for you? If you are intrigued by our history and our success; if you understand, from your own experience, the healing power of storytelling; if you are a theatre artist, a teacher, or a service provider who can envision how Life Stories might be beneficial, if not transformative, for members of your community; … read on!

1:6 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard

The Life Stories Toolkit: BOOK 2 How to Design a Life Stories Program The 5 Ws

One of the most common things you’ll hear about any kind of story is that it must have a “who, what, when, where and why.” Every narrative — be it a fairy tale, a novel, or the story of a real person’s life — has its own unique arc, determined by the singular constellation of those 5 Ws. And so does every Life Stories program. No matter what brings you to Life Stories — whether you are a theatre artist hoping to partner with an organization serving a particular population, or a service provider looking to develop artistic skills with which to serve your constituents — you will need to spend some time thinking about “who, what, when, where and why” before you are ready to tackle the “how” of creating your unique Life Stories program.

“Why?” — The Benefits and Rewards of Life Stories Programs If you’re reading this Toolkit, you probably already have a pretty strong “why”: Perhaps you are an actor who has always wanted to use your craft to benefit people who are struggling, or you’re a counselor in a recovery program for teens looking for a new way to reach some of the young people you work with.

The benefits for participants are many: • improvement of both spoken and written communication skills; • increased self-confidence; • help in expressing difficult and perhaps painful experiences as a step toward healing; • strengthened sense of community because of the joint effort involved; and • a feeling of artistic achievement that might have seemed beyond the reach of the people you’re working with before they began the program.

2:2 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard The Life Stories experience can be a way of putting a life in perspective, Checklist: examining pivotal choices, and maybe even envisioning a new and hap- Know Your pier ending to the story. Participants

And Life Stories instructors are often surprised to find themselves just as challenged and enriched as the participants. Potential Strengths (check all that apply):

o Comfort level with sharing

“Who?” — The Unique Characteristics of Your Group o Comfort level with the group

Life Stories works best with groups that already have some kind of o Creativity cohesion — they may reside at the same facility, or come to a certain o Verbal skills meeting or community center at the same time each week. o Reading skills

For any population, give some thought to whether you want to work o Writing skills with an entire existing group (everyone in Unit A of the correctional o Ability to memorize facility, or the entire “Social Change and Leadership” class at the uni- o Prior experience with the arts versity, for example) or to choose individuals from an existing group o Wealth of life experiences based on some criterion (length of time in the group, greatest need for o Desire to be part of the process structured self-expression), or to allow each individual to decide to par- o Sense of humor ticipate or not. These decisions should be made in consultation with o Attention span key staff members at the organization you’re working with. o Mobility

o Physical health To help you think through some of these issues, see the “Know Your o Mental health Participants” Checklist at right . o Of course, each group is unique in what its members can bring to the Stamina process, and that will affect the type of Life Stories project you’ll want Potential Challenges to undertake with them. (check all that apply):

o Comfort level with sharing

Example: Seniors o Comfort level with the group

If you are developing a program for seniors, you might partner with an o Creativity assisted living facility, and limit the group to residents who are all regu- o Verbal skills larly available at a certain time of day. o Reading skills You’ll want to be mindful that, while seniors may have the absolute o Writing skills greatest wealth of life stories to tap, some may be challenged by mobil- o Ability to memorize ity, hearing, or memory issues. o Prior experience with the arts For this group, a Life Stories program that emphasizes stories from o the distant past but requires little memorization or stage blocking might Wealth of life experiences be your ideal model. o Desire to be part of the process o Sense of humor

o Example: People in Recovery Attention span If you are creating a program for people in recovery, you may want to o Mobility partner with a clinic or transitional living facility. Be aware that your o Physical health participants may be on new medication regimens and experiencing o Mental health health challenges (including HIV/AIDS, liver damage, and hepatitis) o Stamina that may cause their energy to flag or affect their ability to focus for

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 2 2:3 Our Experience long periods of time. A program that allows for frequent breaks and Tells Us… that mixes physical activity and theatre games with more structured rehearsal time might be the perfect Life Stories structure.

At The Theatre Lab we’ve Also be aware of the length of stay of your potential participants, as found that the most successful residential treatment facilities often experience a high rate of attrition. Life Stories programs If you plan a lengthy Life Stories program, you may lose some of your serve between 8 and 18 participants along the way. participants — enough to create a vibrant collaborative cohort while still leaving time Example: People in Correctional Facilities for the instructor to get to know If you are working with people in correctional facilities, you might need each individual’s strengths and to consider whether there are gang affiliations or alliances that could areas of need. affect participants’ ability to share openly in front of one another. Pay- ing careful attention to how you compose a group could be the key to your success with Life Stories in this setting. When working in a correctional facility, you will also need to consider other structured programming your participants may take part in. For example, they may be involved in GED classes, parenting education, or substance abuse treatment programs which may impact their availability for the Life Stories program. As you devise your program, keeping the strengths and challenges of your potential Life Stories participants in mind will help everyone get the most out of Life Stories. Use the ”Know Your Participants” Checklist on the previous page to assess your group’s potential strengths and challenges.

“When?” — Finding the Time for Life Stories Life Stories programs can be as short as a one-night session of structured improv or as involved as a six-month play development and rehearsal process. As you will see below, the model you choose will, in some ways, determine the length of your Life Stories process. So, too, will the needs of the organization you choose to partner with. Some facilities may be looking for a one-time, three-hour recreational activity for their residents, while others may want to build your program into their regular schedule. If you plan to bring Life Stories into the middle school or high school classroom, then a 45-minute weekly slot may be all you can get. Life Stories is a scalable program, and in Books 3 and 4 we’ll help you figure out how best to use the timeframe you have. But there’s more to timing than simply deciding how many hours are required to effectively implement your Life Stories model. There are also “time of day” issues based on the unique needs of the population you will be working with.

2:4 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard • Is this a group that has limited physical energy? Then an afternoon Our Experience program might be preferable to an evening one. Tells Us… • Is this a group that struggles with attention? Then a program that incorporates a snack break in the middle might be your best bet. At The Theatre Lab, we have used the Informal Sharing • Is this a group that has a day full of highly structured activities? model very successfully in Then an evening jaunt into creativity may be just the thing. our programs for seniors, our program for children awaiting treatment in a medical facility, Seek out advice from people — counselors, teachers, administrators — and our intergenerational who work on a daily basis with your prospective participants. program pairing seniors with middle schoolers.

“Where?” — Making the Most of Your Surroundings Where will your program take place? Life Stories programs typically meet participants where they are — in classrooms, shelters, treatment facilities, prisons, and senior residences, to name just a few. Most of these facilities have a large classroom space or meeting room which can be adapted for rehearsals. Programs that culminate in a large performance or film screening may require teaming up with a local theatre venue, at least for the final sharing.

Wherever your program takes place, there are things you’ll want to consider about the physical layout of the space: • Will it feel like a comfortable space to speak freely in? If not, can you rearrange the furniture so that it feels more inviting (move chairs into a circle, bring in some cushions)? • Is it easy to see and hear people in the space? If not, can you address these issues (move people closer together, augment the lighting with a lamp or two)? • Is it a self-contained space? If not, can you alert facility staff that you are doing sensitive work and ask for foot traffic to be minimized during your class time?

Knowing the answers to these questions, and working closely with administrators from facilities where the program will take place (see “Partner Organization Involvement” on p. 2:11), will help you maxi- mize the potential of the space as a setting for artistic creation.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 2 2:5 “What?” — Choosing the Life Stories Model That Is Right for Your Group Once you’ve identified some of the potential strengths and challenges you expect for your group, the time constraints you may be facing, and the surroundings in which you will be working, it’s time to think about how to structure a program that will make the most of what Life Stories has to offer. To do that, we suggest you begin with the end.

What do you want the final sharing to look like? • Do you imagine an intimate gathering where participants informally tell stories to an audience of peers? • Do you envision a large audience watching a carefully scripted piece of theatre? • Do you think that stories might best be captured on film and then screened for peers or the larger community?

These three models — Informal Sharing, Scripted Performance, and Film Production — are the most common Life Stories “deliverables,” though it’s certainly possible (and you’re encouraged!) to create other performance-based products that seem right for the group you’re working with. Even within the three models outlined above, there’s plenty of latitude for customization. (Will your play incorporate poetry and music, or simply monologue and scene work? Do you want your film to be a single linear narrative, or a loosely connected series of vignettes? Will your participants play themselves only, or take roles in each other’s stories?) But before you start exploring the nearly infinite number of variables that go into any creative collaboration, think about which of these basic models is closest to what you might want to do, given what you know about your participants and your resources.

Life Stories Model 1: Informal Sharing An Informal Sharing of stories or of scenes that have been generated through improvisation requires minimal rehearsal time. With proper guidance, material can be developed in as little as one session. If improvised scenes or stories are the focus, memorization is not required. If individual storytelling is the focus, participants can work on their own to refine their material.

This model works especially well when working with groups where: • Participants may love to share but have difficulty memorizing;

2:6 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard • Participants may have little or no interaction with one another in Our Experience the time between Life Stories classes; Tells Us… • Participants may have to miss class sessions or even a performance because of circumstances beyond their control (such as medical At The Theatre Lab, we’ve appointments or unpredictable family schedules). used the Scripted Performance model to give Latino teens in an afterschool theatre Life Stories Model 2: Scripted Performance program the chance to share This is the most time- and work-intensive Life Stories model, and one their perspectives with the that works best with groups that can sustain a long-term rehearsal pro- larger community, and to cess. To create a scripted Life Stories performance requires time spent help women in drug recovery create an original work about generating material (through improvisation and/or writing exercises), their lives, My Soul Look refining that material into a workable script, rehearsing the script and, Back and Wonder, which depending on what venue you have chosen for the final performance, the women performed at The dealing with production concerns like set, costumes, lighting, acoustics, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. etc. The challenges of creating this type of Life Stories model are con- siderable, but so are the rewards.

The Scripted Performance model works best when: • Participants have 100% buy-in and individuals have all volunteered to be part of the process; • Participants already have some experience with collaborative artistic work, through other programs or other Life Stories models; • The instructor will have at least twelve weeks to work with participants (sometimes multiple times per week); and • The instructor will get maximum support from the partner facility — ensuring that participants can get to all rehearsals, etc.

Life Stories Model 3: Film Production Live performance creates a powerful bond between performer and audience. But we’ve also discovered, over the years, that there is remarkable power in being able to create a lasting, portable work of art on video. Filmed work allows participants to view themselves through the camera’s lens as they replay significant moments from their lives or create a new narrative that explores where they want to be ten years down the road. And a movie is a permanent record of accomplishment. If you have access to a video camera and some editing software, you’ve got the makings of a film-based Life Stories program. Much of the production process mirrors the Scripted Performance outlined above but, because you have the capability to do multiple takes, scenes need not be

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 2 2:7 Our Experience scripted word for word (which can be very helpful for those who have Tells Us… literacy or memory challenges). Because scenes can be short and need not be shot in sequence, the film model works well with groups that have limited attention spans At The Theatre Lab we’ve used and/or short bursts of rehearsal time. the Film Production model successfully with youth who And it offers opportunities for those who are not interested in acting are incarcerated, people to get involved — whether behind the camera or creating a soundtrack. living with HIV/AIDS, students in a residential vocational The Film Production model works well with groups where: program who are trying to turn their lives around, and acting • Participants can’t leave their surroundings or easily travel to public students who want to learn performance spaces; how to develop original films that touch people’s lives. • Participants have learning challenges that make memorization difficult; • Participants are interested in developing technical production skills in addition to acting skills; • Participants want or need tangible evidence of their accomplishments.

2:8 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard “How?” Creating Your First Life Stories Program

The “how” of teaching Life Stories — helping your participants discover their most compelling stories and turn them into a full-fledged performance — is what the rest of this Toolkit is about! But there’s also the “how” of planning your Life Stories program and getting it off the ground. And when it comes to planning, there’s no better place to start than with a Logic Model.

The Life Stories Logic Model A logic model is essentially the “map” to your Life Stories program, outlining the short-term, intermediate and long-term goals and outcomes you hope to achieve. The logic model is a critical planning tool, and the process of creating it will allow you to consider:

• Who your Life Stories program will serve; • How your Life Stories program will be structured and operated (recruitment of partners and instructors; training for staff and instructors; role of consultants; evaluation; etc.); • Who your community partners will be; • How your Life Stories program will be funded; • What resources can be mobilized to support Life Stories; and • What activities or “outputs” will need to be implemented to achieve your goals.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 2 2:9 Note: The Logic Model will also help you chart the impact that you hope the Life Stories program will have both on your participants and your organization. In Book 5, we will explore the Logic Model’s role in Program Evaluation.

Below, is the logic model The Theatre Lab developed for the Life Sto- ries program for at-risk youth (Film Production model). You can refer to the Logic Model Creation Chart in the Resource Guide at the back of the Toolkit to help you build your own Life Stories Logic Model.

Sample Life Stories Logic MODEL

Goal: To empower severely at-risk youth to think creatively and communicate effectively by using the skills and practices of the dramatic arts to create dramatic works from the real Life Stories

Resources Outputs Outcomes

Funding New partnership (1) Short-Term Intermediate Long-Term confirmed for 12–24 Trained and weeks of programming Awareness of The Acceptance of Theatre Alumni are active experienced instructors and current partner Theatre Lab’s theatre Lab scholarships participants of The (one per project) contracts renewed education programs and Theatre Lab Increased interest scholarships One professional Curriculum developed in drama-related or Sustained interest in videographer per Increased knowledge of structured creative the arts (hobby and/or project 8–12 sessions held once basic acting skills activities career) a week for 2 hours with Participants 8–15 participants Confidence/ability to Marketable artistic skills Increased sense engage in discussions of mastery and Partners (facilities Improved relationships Homework assigned and with instructors and/or accomplishment housing ot serving at- with adult role models completed by participants other adults risk youth) Improved self-image Appreciation and Site Coordinators Identify positively with Designated staff person understanding of the Increased sense of attend all sessions and new group of peers from each partnering ensure youth attend and value of teamwork belongingness site participate Increased knowledge of Engage in critical Improved critical thinking the concept of critical Program Director thinking behavior skills Site Coordinatroes thinking ensure physical and Equipment Use effective verbal Improved performance psychological saftey of Increased knowledge communication skills with in language arts Audience youth of effective verbal peers and adults communication skills Improved work ethic Youth participate in video Engage in writing of their “Life Stories” Increased knowledge in activities outside of Life Imrpved and/or writing changed self concept Final video completeed Stories and screened within Understanding of the Gained resilience to 2 weeks of program benefits of using writing deal with everyday complettion as a form of self- challenges expression Viewing of final product with class with Q&A and annual screening of Life Stories footage at Theatre Lab event

2:10 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Partner Organization Involvement Our Partners So now that you have a road map for your program, who will be on the Tell Us… journey with you? Well, we’ve already spent some time thinking about the participants you would like to serve. But how will you reach them? “If you have students going Like all good theatre endeavors, Life Stories is a highly collaborative through situations and process, and one of your key collaborators will be the organization you problems, they can come to partner with to recruit your participants. this class and let loose and speak their minds. No one tells them they can’t say ‘this’ and Finding the Right Partner they can’t say ‘that.’ This is an If you are a teacher in a school setting, a counselor in a treatment facil- outlet for students to open up, ity, or any other service provider who is hoping to start a Life Stories change their stories, and let program where you are already employed, you can probably just glance it go.” through this section to make sure you have a handle on how to work —Partner Staff from Potomac with your colleagues to develop the program that best fits your organi- Job Corps Center zation’s needs and capabilities. But if you are an independent artist or educator who is seeking to partner with an organization in order to begin a Life Stories program, read this section carefully, as there are a number of things you’ll want to consider when identifying and engaging potential partners. Here’s the most important thing to remember: your program is exactly as good as your partner. Meaning that, no matter how effective a teacher you are, if you enter a chaotic environment where there is inadequate staff support for activities, you will likely end up with a chaotic program. So it’s not enough to simply identify an organization that serves the population you want to work with (a homeless shelter, a nursing home, an afterschool program). You have to find a good one that knows how to program and support recreational activities. How do you find partnership-ready organizations? As with just about everything, word of mouth is your best bet.

• Do you know someone who has had a positive volunteer experience with an organization? • Do you know someone who works in the field who can guide you through the landscape? • If you don’t have personal connections, there are resources that can help. Many cities have listings of “best charities,” and there are websites, like www.guidestar.org, that will break it all down for you by type of organization and community rating.

Of course, your desire to create a program with a particular organization does not necessarily mean that organization will be receptive to

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 2 2:11 what you are proposing. Best to compile a list of a few strong organizations to which you can pitch your program. For large organizations, you may want to reach out to the recreation or activities coordinator. For smaller organizations, a well-crafted email pitch to the Executive Direc- tor might be your best route.

Developing Clear Expectations Once you’ve identified a partner organization that wants to work with you, it’s time to lay out a very clear plan for who does what. Your role will likely be to teach (or oversee the teaching of) the Life Stories program and to produce the deliverable, be it a film, a live performance or whatever you have decided is the best model. But what about everything else?

• Who will recruit the participants and ensure that they get to every session? • Who will provide the rehearsal space and guarantee that it is properly set up before each session? • If something of a personal nature comes up during a class session, who will follow up with the participant to make sure he or she feels safe? • How much involvement will staff members from your partner organization have with the program — does someone need to be present for every session? • Who will invite audience members to the final sharing?

The Partner Expectation Assessment on the next page will help you sort out these questions as you move forward with identifying just the right partner. All these questions — and any others that occur to you! — should be discussed openly with your potential partner and then put into a formal agreement or Memorandum of Understanding that specifically spells out the responsibilities of each party. More on MOUs in Book 5. For an example of a Life Stories Partnership Memorandum of Understanding, see the Resource Guide.

Securing Funding Who will pay for the Life Stories program? In some cases, an organization might have an activities budget and will hire you to teach Life Stories as part of their recreational offerings. Or you might find success teaming up with a theatre or arts organization that will engage you to offer Life Stories as part of its own community outreach mission. But

2:12 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Partner Expectation Assessment

Partner Capabilities Comments to Consider

Primary Contact at Partner Organization

Will the partner take responsibility for recruiting LS participants?

What materials does the partner have or need in order to successfully recruit participants?

Does the partner have staff (paid or volunteer) that can be a resource to the LS program?

How many staff will the partner assign to LS?

What will the partner staff contribute to the LS Program?

Who will supervise partner staff?

Does partner have suitable facilities?

What are the facilities?

Constraints of the facilities?

Will partner market final performance?

Does the partner have additional resources (administrative, monetary, etc.) to contribute to the program?

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 2 2:13 you are much more likely to find success starting a program if you come with your own funding. Life Stories programs are appealing to many different kinds of funders because they operate across sectors, combining arts, culture, education, community building, and services, often to typically marginalized populations. You might work with a service provider or a school to develop a joint funding proposal that will enable them to offer Life Stories without impacting their existing budget. Or, if you are connected to a 501(c)(3) non-profit, you can do your own fundraising to support the development of a Life Stories program. In Book 5, we’ll explore funding streams in a more extensive way, and offer some advice for crafting effective funding proposals.

Recruiting Participants If your partner organization is going to be responsible for recruiting participants, make sure that your key staff contacts have all the information they need about who you are hoping will participate, how the program works, and why someone might want to take part in it. Designing a simple flyer can be a great aid to recruitment. See the Resource Guide at the back of the Toolkit for an example. Ask your partner if they plan to conduct an informational meeting for potential participants. If so, perhaps they can show a model of work that has been created in other Life Stories programs so prospective participants can see for themselves what it’s all about. You can access some clips from Theatre Lab programs by visiting “The Theatre Lab’s Life Sto- ries Archives” channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/LifeStoriesTTL. If possible, attend the informational meeting so you can answer questions and overcome possible hesitation. Some typical questions the participants may have include:

• Do I have to already know how to act? • How much writing will I have to do? • What if I have stage fright?

Use the ”Know Your Participants” Checklist (p. 2:3) to help you antici- pate these and other likely questions and have your answers ready. Finally, make sure you have a clear timeline in place for when recruitment will begin and end so that you will know you have the number of participants you need by the program start date. Once you’ve got your road map, your partner, and your participants, you’re ready to go! Read on to Book 3 to learn how to begin your journey teaching the Life Stories program.

2:14 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard

The Life Stories Toolkit: BOOK 3 Generating Life Stories Finding the Story

Every life is a series of stories. But not every person considers himself a storyteller. So, your first task when you enter the Life Stories classroom is to help participants connect with the stories that are already inside of them. What does it really mean to share a story about your life? One place to start might be to help people see what a Life Story doesn’t have to be:

• It doesn’t have to be “the” story — the one that makes sense of everything that’s ever happened to you. • It doesn’t have to be the story that others tell about you. (After all, we’re more than what other people see in any particular moment.) • And, at Theatre Lab, we don’t even think it has to be something that’s already happened to you. A Life Story can be a dream or a wish as well as an actual experience.

So what should it be? It should be a story that reflects something unique about you. Your first few Life Stories sessions will be about helping participants mine the raw material of their lives to find those unique and important stories, and providing some artistic structures (improv games, writing exercises, and storytelling models, for example) into which they can pour this material. Once people are sharing, you can look for common themes among the stories and begin shaping the final product to reflect those themes. This book of the toolkit will give you a sense of how to structure your early sessions, including tips for creating a safe environment for the participants, exercises to start generating stories, and ways to start bringing out the performer in everyone.

3:2 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Getting the Creative Juices Flowing Director’s Notes Creating a Safe Environment Life Stories asks participants to share intimate and sometimes difficult “The overarching rule of thumb portraits of themselves, their families, and their lives — all while learn- is to be approachable, as an instructor, and to approach ing new skills in storytelling, scripting, acting, rehearsing and perform- participants upon their ing. Such an endeavor could be overwhelming for anyone, let alone invitation. Remember, you do someone who may be incarcerated or homeless, coping with a serious not know the participants’ illness, in recovery from substance abuse, experiencing post-traumatic “back story”; you only see and know where they are stress, or facing any one of the challenges that many Life Stories partic- today. From this perspective, ipants experience. you are working backward So it’s critical that Life Stories instructors create a safe environment to understand and learn from where participants feel valued, respected, and comfortable enough to participants. And at the same share their story. time, they are learning about you.” People feel safe when they: — Life Stories Instructor Ryan Heathcock • are fully aware of what is happening around them. • get to know the other people who are surrounding them. • have a clear vision of what is expected of them. • experience the instructor as a consistent and helpful person. • see the value of what they are about to experience.

For these reasons, it is very important that participants understand right from the start the purpose and process of Life Stories. Creating a safe environment begins from the moment participants are introduced to Life Stories.

Step 1 – Clearly Communicate • Ask participants to sit in a circle. Circles not only ensure that everyone can be seen and heard, but they also convey that the instructor is not the only one with the power to affect others in the group. • Describe Life Stories and why it matters to you. • Convey that there is an “end product” that participants will eventually deliver. The “end product” can mean anything that is seen or heard by other human beings. Be clear about whether it will be a live performance or something captured on film.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 3 3:3 Note: • Walk them through what the process will be like (how many weeks; how each aspect of the end product will be created; what will be expected of participants between class sessions; etc.). If you are doing any photographing or filming of • If you think your group would benefit from seeing Life Stories the participants’ work, you in action, consider showing a brief video from a past Life Stories will need to obtain image releases. An example is given project. (For links to The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories videos, visit in the Resource Guide. See “The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories Archive” channel at www.youtube. pp. 5:8 and 5:9 for special com/LifeStoriesTTL.) guidelines for working in settings where there may be privacy concerns, e.g., in correctional facilities, medical Step 2 — Get to Know Your Participants facilities, and with minors. • Ask questions about participants’ past experience with the performing arts. This will help identify how much artistic capital you have in the group. Ask: ––How many of you have ever been in a play or been on stage before? ––Do any of you sing? Rhyme? Play an instrument? • Let participants talk about their experience. For those who have had artistic experience, acknowledge their expertise by noting, “That’s great. We’ll look forward to drawing on those skills during this collaboration.” For those participants who have not had any formal artistic experience, relieve their hesitation and assure them, “With a little bit of training, we all can do this!” • Ask about other responsibilities participants have in their lives — at home, school, at work — that might affect their schedules during the Life Stories process. Let them know that you will create a calendar that will take their needs into account.

Step 3 — Find Common Ground • Once you’ve laid out the basic parameters of the Life Stories process, it can be helpful to provide an opportunity where everyone shares something about themselves. • Go around the circle asking each participant to answer the following open-ended questions: ––“What brought yo\u here?” ––“What do you think a story is?” ––“Can you name some ways a story can be told?”

3:4 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Using the Exercise Appendix

In all likelihood, some of your participants may be hesitant at first and may believe, erroneously, that they do not know “how” to tell a story — any story, let alone their own. Instructors can use a number of activities and exercises to inspire imagination, create characters and stimulate storytelling.

In the Exercise Appendix to this toolkit, we have provided detailed instructions for sample exercises that Life Stories instructors can use or adapt. For each exercise, we have described its purpose/intent; how to implement the exercise; and suggestions for how to debrief the exercise. All of the exercises included in the Appendix have been successfully used in The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories programs. But, of course, this is not a comprehensive list of acting and storytelling exercises, and you should feel free to incorporate your own exercises if they serve the same purposes.

• Summarize what participants noted, highlighting the “common ground” among the responses. This will help participants see that they have a lot in common and help to start the trust-building process.

Once you have established a safe environment in which to pursue Life Stories, you and your participants are ready to dive into the creative process.

First Group Exercises: Story Stimuli Whatever you choose as your first exercise should allow all participants to feel successful at creating a story “off the cuff.” We suggest you start with an exercise designed to spur short individual stories from each member of the group. Here is a quick list of great starter exercises. You’ll find detailed facilitation instructions in the Exercise Appendix. • Pass the Object: Instructor brings an object that may have strong associations for group members (a thimble, a soup ladle, an empty picture frame) and passes it around the circle, asking each participant to tell a story that comes to mind when they hold the object. • Magic Box: Similar to above, but the instructor passes around an empty box, from which participants must remove an imaginary object and tell a story about it.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 3 3:5 Director’s • Imaging to Music: Instructor plays a piece of music and participants (in Notes pairs) tell each other what they “saw” when they listened to the music.

Proper time management is How the instructor responds to the first story told by any group mem- one of the most important jobs ber is a critical part of the Life Stories process. It is important to offer of the Life Stories Instructor. positive and encouraging commentary — to model for everyone that We recommend you have an there is no right or wrong way to share — but to do it in a meaningful, extra improvisational exercise substantive way that helps guide the creation of the art. Look for what or two in your back pocket in case things go more quickly was unique, specific, expressive, relatable, funny, daring — or anything than planned. Conversely, else you feel is praiseworthy — and reflect that back to the storyteller. (“I if an exercise proves loved how you evoked the smell of your kitchen when you talked about exceptionally productive, the soup ladle in your mother’s house.”) you might want to jettison If you decide to open it up to commentary from other participants, it’s something you had planned so you can keep going with a good idea to guide the discussion toward similarly positive comments. what’s working. (“Tell us what you liked about Jack’s story” or “Which part of Kayla’s

You are the only one story spoke to you?” as opposed to “What did you think of that story?”) who knows everything that “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” happened. So Second Group Exercises: Creating Connectedness allow for some flexibility. When they perform as a group, experienced musicians and actors are Every good actor knows that used to thinking of themselves as part of an “ensemble” (which is actually what is actually happening at the French word for “together”). But, for others, the idea that the whole this moment in time between the real live bodies is better is even greater than the sum of its creative parts may be a new concept. than anything that existed So your first class session should include an opportunity for partic- only in your head. The same ipants to experience first-hand the value of the ensemble experience. is true for good Life Stories Over the course of the Life Stories process, they will not only need to instructors. feel safe sharing their own stories, but they may be asked to play the While it’s important to have mother, child, hero or nemesis in someone else’s story. Even if you an agenda and a rehearsal are preparing an end product that features only solo pieces or mono- plan, it’s equally important to be open to the moment and logues, your participants will still be influenced by the creative process keep your process as stress- and feedback of their peers in the class — which means that the sooner free as possible — for both they experience the joys of ensemble engagement, the stronger the end you and your participants! product is likely to be. So how do you create ensemble — especially in environments where people might, understandably, have built up walls? The first step is to make sure that participants are really paying attention to each other. One great way to foster connectedness is through The Mirror Exercise. In this exercise (described in detail in the Appendix), each participant pairs up with someone they don’t know very well and sits opposite that person, imagining they are looking at their own likeness in a mirror. As the facilitator guides them through a series of instructions, they must mirror every movement, facial expression, and even every thought, keeping constant eye contact throughout.

3:6 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Discussions of the Mirror Exercise tend to be lively and thought provoking. Participants might want to talk about how intimate it felt, how difficult or easy it was to take their cue from their partner, whether they preferred to lead or follow, and certainly what it meant to see and be seen by another person. It’s a great exercise for developing ensemble skills, and it’s also a lot of fun. Other exercises that help foster trust and build ensemble include: “Group Sculptures,” “Name, Feeling, Movement,” and “Group Stop.” See Appendix for details.

Structuring Your Sessions If you’ve introduced the Life Stories process, engaged your participants in discussion about their hopes and expectations, facilitated a story stimuli exercise, and fostered connectedness through the Mirror or some other trust-building game, you are probably nearing the end of a 60- or 90-minute session (depending on how many participants you have) — and you’ve accomplished a lot in one day! If you are planning to have a session even longer than 90 minutes, you can begin to incorporate group storytelling exercises described later in this chapter into your first meeting. For future sessions, we recommend you begin with some kind of physical warm-up or a group game to get people into a creative mindset and to galvanize the group. Good warm-up exercises (described in Appendix) include:

• Physical Energizers • Silly Tongue Twisters • Zip Zap Zop • Eric Morris’ “Dump”

And at the end of each session, after the main work has been completed, try to leave some time for a wrap-up of what’s been accomplished. It’s also a good idea to assign a concrete task to be completed before the next meeting, to keep the creative juices flowing during “time off.” Especially for participants who live in transient environments like shelters, halfway houses, or corrections facilities, your program is compet- ing with many other kinds of stimuli, many of which can be quite stress- ful. That’s why it can be a good idea to foster continuity by helping participants focus on their creative work between sessions. If you do

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 3 3:7 give a homework assignment, make sure you begin the next session by processing that work, so students feel their efforts are valued.

Sample Homework Assignment #1: Bring an object or a photograph that means something to you and be prepared to tell us about it.

3:8 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Structuring the Story

Once participants have some context for what it means to tell a story, the next step is to encourage stories with greater detail, allow participants to engage with each other’s stories, and prepare the ground for creating solo and collaborative storylines that can be incorporated into a final performance. This is a great moment in the process to introduce the idea of “telling your story to someone else’s story.” Theatre Lab Instructor Oran Sandel describes it to his students this way: “This was shared with me by a very old storyteller some years ago. The idea is that my life is my story. I’m living it right now. So everything I see and hear is being filtered by my experience; how I respond to anything is tempered by events that have shaped me. If a storyteller understands this, he or she knows that they’re not telling their story to a tabula rasa, a blank screen; they’re telling it to my story, and somewhere in the middle the two stories meet and coalesce to make a unique meaning. So every listener hears a different story.” No story has value in and of itself. It’s only in the intersection of my story with your story that the magic happens. The rest of the Life Stories process is about finding that intersection.

Developing Extended Stories Up until now, participants have probably told short, linear stories. Using objects and photos as stimuli, they have shared brief recollections about themselves and their lives and responded to each other’s work. At this point it’s helpful to introduce some new storytelling forms — to help participants understand that they have stories upon stories inside of them, each of which connects to the stories of others. In the Appendix, you’ll find several exercises for developing “artistic” story collaborations early in the process, including: “Word at a Time Stories,” “Once Upon a Time…,” and “Pairs Sculptures.” But here’s our

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 3 3:9 “You know, very favorite exercise for stimulating new thoughts about what a “Life Story” can be: you sort of “I Am From” Poems ignore people Described in detail in the Appendix, the “I Am From” Poem is created by asking the participant to write down responses to a few basic here because prompts (for example, name five characteristics of the town you grew up there’s so in; five values you were taught as a child; five kinds of food you hated while growing up; significant people you’ve loved) and then to compose many of them. statements that begin with “I am from…” using what they have written. (“I am from the home of ashtrays and no music. I am from mushy broccoli.…”) Students are encouraged to play with rhythm and flow, And to find combining answers to make complex sentences. Once the “I Am From” poems are created, they can be shared by out, which participants in their entirety, or the instructor can create a “choral per- I never formance,” in which participants switch back and forth as they share pieces of their poems to create an “I Am From” collaboration. suspected… that these are Creating Stories for Dramatization If you’ve done an “I Am From” exercise, your participants have already all individuals created and performed material that you might choose to incorporate and they have into a final product using the rehearsal techniques we’ll cover in Book 4. But there are many other ways to generate stories that can be shaped wonderful into performance. It’s time to get participants sharing stories that have a character arc, stories — it just meaning the person at the center of the story (often, though not necessarily, the speaker) changes as a result of something that happens to delighted me. him or her. A great way to identify those “transformational” stories is by con- These people ducting interviews with participants. At this point, you may have some participants who are more eager to share their stories than others, and are alive. And that’s okay. Remind people that it is possible to act in the stories of others even if they don’t want to share their own story. Ask for a volunteer I’ll never look at to be interviewed in front of the group. In conducting story-generation interviews, it’s helpful to have a launch- them the same ing point for the interview. Here are some you can try: way again.” • Start with a Feeling: Ask participants to think of a time when

— Participant, they felt blank . For example, proud, torn, alone, powerful, Life Stories for Seniors embarrassed, disconnected from their partner, especially connected to family.

3:10 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard • Start with a Time Period: Ask participants to think of a story from when they were young children, in middle school, teenagers, young adults, etc. Another way of phrasing this is, “Think of a story that really defined your teenage years, young adulthood, etc.” • Start with a Major Life Event: Ask participants to think of an event that changed their life. Events that are generally perceived as “life- changing” — graduating, falling in love, having a child, etc. — are great starting points, but you might want to encourage participants to think outside the box as well. What really caused a shift in your life? Was there a point in your life when you learned to trust yourself or other people … or started to distrust yourself or other people, for example?

In conducting the interview, it is important to keep in mind that ultimately the goal is to dramatize the story in some way, and the key to dramatization is journey. Let that simple fact be a guide in the interview process. For example, the question, “How did that make you feel?” is more powerful and helpful if it is later followed with, “And then how did you feel?” We want to know how the interviewee changed through the course of the story. That journey and transformation then becomes the heart of the dramatization. It’s also important to ask questions that ascertain the meaning the interviewee has assigned to the people and events in his/her story. “Can you tell me a little about your mom at this time in the story? What was she like? … This house you said you moved out of, how attached to it were you?” It can sometimes be difficult to translate an interview into a dramatization because the interviewee gives a laundry list of events — “First I did this, then that, then this happened …” — but once we know the meaning and value of the people, places, and events, suddenly the story has weight. Sometimes a participant may feel more comfortable telling a story at first to a fellow participant, as opposed to the facilitator or to the whole group. In these instances, it can help to divide the class into pairs. Each person interviews his/her partner, maybe using one of the starting points above. After both people in the pair have had a turn interviewing and being interviewed, they return to the group and each person tells his/her partner’s story to the group as if it is his/her own. This exercise can not only make participants feel more at ease in sharing their stories, but also promotes listening and lays the groundwork for taking on someone else’s story as their own — the heart of dramatization.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 3 3:11 Sample Homework Assignment #2: Ask participants to think about stories that have been shared in the class — and stories that they are formulating in their own heads that perhaps have not yet been told — and write down three ideas for stories they would like to see acted out in the next class.

3:12 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard “When you recreate important Acting Out life moments onstage or on the Story film, you do it

The real power and uniqueness of Life Stories starts to be seen when with your whole participants act in one another’s stories, taking on the role of a class- mate’s mother, father, girlfriend, even the family dog. Sometimes par- body, your ticipants will play themselves when they act out their stories, but some- whole voice, times it’s useful to play someone else — even in your own story — to get a different perspective on the situation. Everyone starts to relate to the your whole story — and to each other — in new ways. As the Life Stories focus shifts from generating story material to act- mind, your ing it out, a brief primer in the “Rules” of Improvisation might be useful. You’ll find one in the Appendix. whole heart. That’s where Structured Story Improvs Life Stories Ask a member of the group to share an idea for a story (either previ- ously told or a new one) that could be dramatized by others. If it’s a pre- gets its real viously told story, ask the participant to refresh the class on the details; if it’s new, let the participant tell it in its entirety. power to make While it would be possible at this point to simply ask for volunteers to act the story out, you’re likely to accomplish more if you, as instruc- a difference, tor, step into the role of “story guide.” As story guide, you will structure both in the the story into three scenes: a beginning, a middle, and an end. (Please note: the methodology outlined below draws liberally from techniques developed participants by Playback Theatre creators Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. For more information about Playback Theatre, please see the resource guide at the back of the book.) and in

Example their lucky Let’s say a class member tells the story of the time he was kicked out of military school for plagiarizing a paper. audiences.” As story guide, you want to help provide a performable shape to the — Buzz Mauro, story, based on the details the storyteller has provided. You might sug- Co-Founder, gest something like this: The Theatre Lab

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 3 3:13 In the first scene, you are sitting in class listening to a lecture about the Civil War. Then an announcement comes over the P.A. telling you to report to the headmaster’s office. In the second scene, you arrive at the headmaster’s office to find that not only he is there, but also your parents. Your mother looks like she has been crying and your father is holding her hand. The headmaster tells you that your paper is nearly identical to a previous year’s submission from another student and that you are being expelled effective immediately. The third and final scene takes place in your car on the drive home. You are trying to tell your parents that you were under a lot of stress and were worried about failing out. Your mother expresses her fear that you have thrown your life away. Your father comforts her. As you summarize each “mini-scene,” check in with the storyteller to make sure you have captured the basics. Once you have a structure for the improv, you are ready to get it on its feet. Ask for volunteers to play the roles. The storyteller can participate as himself, as another character, or as a director of the scene. If the storyteller chooses to be director, allow him or her to pick people to play the roles. Here you might prompt the storyteller for a few details about the teacher, the parents, and the classmates — ask for two adjectives to describe each person in the scene. Then let participants explore the story through improvisation, prompting them with a scene number (“Let’s go to scene 2”) when you feel it’s time to move on to the next scene.

Critiquing the Improv Once the group has improvised their first story, the teacher should lead the class through a discussion of how it went, emphasizing the positive. (See the Exercise Appendix for some hints on how to get the most out of a critical response session.) Then choose another participant and another story, and repeat the process. For now, the focus is on exploration, generating ideas, and getting everybody used to performing in front of each other. In Book 4, we’ll discuss how to develop the material further and structure the pieces into a compelling whole.

3:14 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard

The Life Stories Toolkit: BOOK 4 Delivering Life Stories Rehearsing the Stories

After your participants have spent some time developing material through the processes described in Book 3, it’s time to start shaping that material with an eye to performance. Any given story might be performed in a hundred different ways. If a woman in your group has uncovered the story of her reconciliation with her son after years of estrangement, the ultimate form of that story might be

• a monologue performed by the woman herself • a monologue performed by another participant “impersonating” her • a scripted retelling of the story by the entire group • an enacted scene (either improvised or scripted) between the mother and son, in which the woman may or may not play herself • even a monologue by someone playing the son

Whatever form the individual stories take, rehearsal will be required to get the participants comfortable with performing them, to make each piece as moving, entertaining, or thought-provoking as it can be, and to build a cohesive and satisfying performance out of the individual stories that will make up the whole.

What is Rehearsal? You and your participants will discover the ultimate form of each story, as well as the ultimate form of the entire presentation, by trying out various possibilities. As leader of the process, you will be the director of the show, and your job in early rehearsals will be to make suggestions for things to try, take notes as the participants try them, facilitate discussion about the results of these experiments, and eventually guide the group toward a final shape for the entire performance.

4:2 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard In the early stages of working toward performance — at least a session or two, depending on the length of your process — rehearsal looks pretty much the same no matter what your intended final product (Informal Sharing, Scripted Performance, or Film Production).

Key Aspects of Successful Early Rehearsals

1 . Discovery Rehearsal is not just repetition. In many ways, the rehearsal stage is a continuation of the work that was begun in Book 3. Contrary to most people’s expectations, rehearsal should not be about doing it over and over until you get it “right.” Rehearsal is about discovery. It’s about

• discovering deeper connections to the material. • discovering strong reasons for telling the story. • discovering new relationships with other actors and other characters. • discovering what shape the material might assume in performance.

Throughout your rehearsals, encourage your participants to think in terms of “happy accidents” instead of “mistakes.” In the early stages of rehearsal, nothing can go wrong, because everything is about discovery.

2 . Improvisation Improvisation counts as rehearsal. Whether or not your performance will ultimately be scripted, improvisation both helps to uncover the essence of the material and gets participants more comfortable with the acting of it. Each improvisation provides information for moving forward — everything from fruitful themes to explore in future improvisations to exact phrases to copy down and incorporate into a script to be memorized. Improvisation is a tool of discovery.

3 . Objectives and Actions Amateur actors tend to gravitate toward trying to express emotion, but professionals know that the most efficient and effective way to create real emotion (in both the actors and the audience) is to focus instead on objectives and actions. In short, an objective is a specific thing that a character is trying to get from someone else, and an action is anything the character does in order to get it. Making conscious choices about both objectives and actions is the best way for actors to stay focused on performable tasks, rather than trying to generate emotions that may not come naturally in run-through after run-through, or focusing too much on what the audience is thinking of them.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 4 4:3 Director’s If you are yourself a theatre artist or you’re working closely with one, Notes lots of variations on these ideas will probably arise. As always with a Life Stories project, do whatever works for you and your participants! But

Life Stories participants may what follows provides examples of how these principles might play out struggle with how much liberty in early rehearsals. they can take with the facts of a story during improvisational rehearsals. They may be A Model for Early Rehearsals reluctant to experiment with new objectives because “that’s Begin with a piece of material that shows some promise and has begun not how it really happened.” to be developed through the processes described in Book 3. Say some-

Make sure both storytellers one in your group told a particularly compelling story about the time and actors understand that of her life when she first started using drugs. You’re not making a com- what you are collectively mitment to include the story in the final product, just exploring possi- developing is a work of art. bilities. Here’s how you might work with the piece, both to develop its While it may reflect essential potential for inclusion in the final product, and as a demonstration for truths about their lives, it is by no means intended as a the entire group of how the rehearsal process works. documentary.

The best Life Stories processes 1. Get her up on her feet. Have her tell the story. and products are those that 2. Ask the group what they liked about the story and her way of telling use real-life experiences as a springboard for generating it. (Again, it’s important to keep it positive here. See the Appendix dramatic work rather than as for tips on conducting productive critiquing sessions.) an endpoint for the work. 3. Have her improvise it again, with a different focus. You can build So encourage and celebrate on the audience feedback with a suggestion like, “People seemed to creative liberties. be interested in that first encounter with the guy who turned out to be a drug dealer. Let’s see what happens if you focus on just that meeting. Take more time with it and provide more details.” 4. Try the structured improv techniques from Book 3 if you haven’t yet, or return to them if you have. Maybe rehearse it as a two-person scene by having somebody play the drug dealer. See what happens. 5. Experiment with actions and objectives. This will alleviate nerves, fight the temptation to try too hard to be generically dramatic or funny, and ultimately pull the best acting out of the actors. What happens if this actor tells her story with the objective of getting her listeners to go out and find rehab help for themselves or someone they know? How is it different if her objective is to make them laugh at her naïvete? In the scene with the drug dealer, what if her objective is to get him to like her, or to give her drugs for free, or to make him go away? What if you had her try a series of actions like: attack him, confuse him, scare him, make him feel small? And don’t forget the drug dealer! Help him try out different objectives and actions, too.

4:4 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard 6. As the piece develops and deepens, take notes on ideas and directions and points of focus that might be worth coming back to in future rehearsals.

Early Rehearsals for Informal Sharing If your expected final product is an Informal Sharing, your notes in these early rehearsals should try to answer these questions:

• As you suggested new things to try, which of these prompts seemed to stimulate the most evocative performance? • Does it seem as though this piece will work best as a solo piece, or a piece for two actors, or a choral piece, or something else? • How would you describe the essence of this piece? What elements are essential to its impact? • Can you think of ways to strengthen the piece overall? Is anything missing? (Does it have well delineated and interesting characters? Is there a clear sense of cause and effect? Could any elements be made even stronger with more detail?) • Are there “anchor points” it might help the actors to aim for in each future improvisation? For example, might it be helpful to direct them always to start at the first moment they see each other, be sure to include the part where they shake hands, and end each run- through with that moment when he touches her? • Are there props, costumes or set pieces that might enhance the piece and wouldn’t be too difficult to provide? • As the piece develops, are you starting to see any connections to other stories you’ve heard from the group?

Early Rehearsals for Scripted Performance If your expected final product is a Scripted Performance, your notes in these early rehearsals should address the questions above, and also these:

• What plot points would you like to see in the final product? These are the “anchor points” referred to above, but if a script is eventually going to be written, you need more of them. For example: They meet, they chat, he mentions drugs, she tries to get away, he makes her laugh, she tells him about her brother, he tells her how she reminds him of his sister, he reaches out and holds her shoulder.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 4 4:5 • What are the best phrases and sentences that have arisen in the improvisations — the ones that seem the most powerful, or seemed to come most from the heart, or otherwise drove the story in meaningful directions? • Who will record those phrases and sentences so they can be incorporated into a written script? Options include: giving individual actors homework to write scenes or monologues based on improvisations done in class; you as instructor can translate the improvisational work into scripted form (as long as you have a way of successfully capturing participants’ words); or you can bring in an outside scribe or playwright who will record the improvisational work and put it into scripted form.

Early Rehearsals for Film Production The Film Production process is covered in detail below, but if you’re looking at creating a movie, make sure your notes in these early rehearsals address all of the above questions, and also:

• How do you think participants will respond to having a camera in the room as they do this work? We recommend you introduce the camera as early as possible and find opportunities to let participants see themselves on camera, so the process does not seem alien. • Would including on-camera interviews with participants benefit the final movie? If so, how and where might you incorporate those? • Once students have generated a scene improvisationally, where would it be best to shoot this scene? (A particular area of the room you’re working in? Somewhere outside?) • After you’ve shot some of the improvisational scenes and played back the early footage, which parts of the footage do you and your participants find most compelling and most likely to survive in the final movie? Which should be jettisoned because they don’t lead anywhere? Which could be reworked and benefit from a second shoot?

Repeat these exercises and ask yourself these questions with other participants and other stories, always trying to keep everyone in the group involved in watching and commenting. You’re always both rehearsing a specific piece and simultaneously demonstrating the process of developing a piece for performance. Keeping that in mind is the best way to keep the entire group engaged at all times.

4:6 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Producing the Show

Finding the Show As you work with all the participants in the ways discussed above, you’ll begin to identify the pieces with the most potential for representing the experiences of the group. It may be a mixture of monologues and scenes; it may include poems and songs and dances; it may turn out to be one linear narrative about a fictional family. The possibilities are endless. After each piece has had some individual attention, it’s time to start assembling the final product.

What ties this show together?

Ask yourself: • What idea might unify the final product? What main theme or themes come to mind when you think of the pieces your participants are developing? • Can you envision an arc to the overall performance, and how might you describe it? For example, if you’re working with immigrant youth, you might see the production beginning with themes of confusion and loneliness and ending with a piece about the power of maintaining a cultural identity in a new place: an arc from displacement to empowerment. (Rarely would you want the arc of your performance to go the other way!)

What might the final product look and feel like?

Ask yourself: • How do you want to use the group? Who plays the father? The grandmother? Will the primary creator of the piece act in it?

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 4 4:7 Even in scenes with few speaking parts, other group members can sometimes be used to help create images. For example, if a young woman has a poem about her first crush, the rest of the group might be the students in the background at a school dance. • What sights and sounds might enhance the individual pieces or the performance as a whole? Lighting effects devised by you or a participant? Someone singing or playing an instrument? Remember, you want to encourage the maximum use of group members’ abilities and talents.

Who is the audience for this performance?

Ask yourself: • Is the product going to be shared with friends and family only, peers, members of the larger community? Different audiences require different things: Will it be a large audience that is unfamiliar with the kinds of stories being told? Will it be an intimate house where the feel is conversational and microphones are not necessary? • How will the audience be invited to the event? Will your partner organization contact families of residents? Will you develop a press release or a flyer to distribute?

Outlining the Performance When you have answers to at least of few of these questions, it’s time to put the individual pieces together into an outline of the final performance. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s a working document. The outline can be as simple as a suggested order in which to perform the pieces. You might suggest an order yourself, or if time allows you might have a session focused on laying out “what we have” and helping the group come up with the order. Either way, the key is to balance group ownership with making some “executive” decisions as the instructor. As you put the outline together, look for the links and the connec- tors of themes and issues. You might suggest, “Here’s where Kenny’s song about getting bad grades could go with Sophia’s monologue about being shunted from school to school.” The group should have ownership, but you guide the process and give your ideas. If you are doing a fully scripted performance, this is the time when you and your participants should be producing drafts of the script.

4:8 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Each time you put something into writing, do a “read through” of that piece and discuss whether the script captures the essence of the story, whether there are missing details, and how the scripted piece fits with anything else that has already been created. A script is a living document until a decision is made to “freeze” it (the theatre equivalent of “pencils down”). Make sure your group has a process for revising the script (Will you, as instructor, be incorporating changes? Should they get together and rewrite?) and that everyone is clear about when it will be frozen.

Final Stages Once you have an order, a sense of how the pieces fit together and exactly who’s going to do what, the final step is rehearsal of the whole — putting together all the pieces and solidifying the staging, along with props, transitions, and other details. Even here, there are still plenty of new connections to discover, but it’s time to pin down a lot of details and make the whole performance repeatable and reliable.

Late Rehearsals for Informal Sharing If you’re doing an informal sharing, it’s possible that your pieces exist mostly in improvisational form or as story outlines rather than as fully produced scripts. Or maybe your sharing will feature a series of loosely connected monologues, each developed by one of your participants. Either way, your late rehearsals will be about giving replicable shape to the pieces and allowing your performers to develop the confidence they need to perform in front of an audience. If you are putting together a sharing that features individual stories, we recommend you use your late rehearsals to allow participants to refine stories and practice putting them on their feet (or in a chair, or wherever seems right for the feel of the particular piece). As you approach the final rehearsal, be specific about homework expectations: for example, “Assemble your story and tell it at least twice a day, out loud. If writing it out helps you, then do so, but don’t memorize it. If you want to add music (recorded or live), movement, or use some of the objects you have used before, feel free to do that, too.” For informal sharings of improvised scenes, your late rehearsals will consist of “run-throughs” where the scenes are performed in order. At this point, it’s helpful for the instructor to provide some feedback to the group about issues like:

• Blocking – Is the movement of the actors on stage supporting the storytelling?

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 4 4:9 To Emcee or • Pace – Is the story unfolding in a way that allows the audience to Not Emcee? stay in the moment? If the pace is too slow, audiences will often get ahead of the story. Conversely, a rushed pace can leave the audience

So far, we’ve given lots unable to understand what’s happening. of guidance about how to Connection – Are the actors really listening and responding to prepare your participants for • their Life Stories sharing. each other? But what role will you • Design – Are there additional props, costumes or set pieces that be playing during the should be incorporated? show? A structure that works well in Whether you are doing scenes or monologues, the final rehearsal many informal sharings is to should allow participants to practice their pieces just as they would do have the Life Stories instructor them in performance. Make sure they know where the audience will be serve as emcee — the person who introduces the pieces and, seated. Where to enter and exit. What to do when they are not on stage. if desired, provides a little Be prepared to give some notes after your final run-through about glimpse into the process by issues like volume, clarity, and intention. And leave some time to offer which the pieces have been advice for handling the butterflies that sometimes come along with per- created. formance. (Note that a good energetic warm-up is often the best way to Taking a process-oriented rechannel nervous energy into productive, performance energy.) Most approach can: of all, understand that you are probably working with people who are • enhance the casual, new to the performance process and you want them to approach per- conversational feel of the formance day with a positive mindset. Make sure your comments help performance. them see all the things that are working, as opposed to focusing only on • increase the educational things that need to be changed. value of the performance for the audience. Late Rehearsals for Scripted Performance • help set appropriate In a fully scripted process, once the script is frozen, it’s time for the expectations for what the audience will see. participants to begin memorizing their lines. Give them a date by which they should be “off-book” (no longer carrying their scripts). Encourage them to memorize in stages — 15 minutes a day is much more effective than trying to cram for three hours right before rehearsal. Understand that one of the biggest challenges of using this format is that you are taking work that began as unscripted (improvised stories), going through a process where it becomes scripted, and then, as with any good rehearsal process, encouraging your actors make it all seem unscripted again even though the words are set! Throughout your late rehearsal process, which will likely include a “stumble-through” (where actors get through the whole show on their feet and off-book for the first time), extended work on individual scenes, and ultimately dress rehearsals, remind your participants that they should be experiencing these scenes and stories as if for the first time (which, of course, is what their characters are doing). To do that, they need to continue to think about actions and objectives — and, most importantly, about affecting and being affected by their scene partners.

4:10 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Director’s Technical Considerations: Know the dimensions of the space in which you Notes will be performing. If you are renting a theatre, make sure you know exactly what will be available for you to use once you get there. Set up During your late rehearsals, your rehearsal space to approximate the layout of the performance space. step back and take in the Discuss and decide on props. Depending on your budget, you might whole of what’s been created. be able to buy some props, or you may ask participants to bring in Are you satisfied with the things they own or can borrow. Or, you might decide that everyone will flow? Is anything missing? use imaginary props. For example, if you discover The same is true of costumes. (Although we don’t recommend that you’re not doing much that they be imaginary.) One of the best ways to deal with costume changes involves the entire group is to forgo full costumes and use accessories and props — such as a hat, working together, you might a clip board, a doctor’s jacket — to define different characters played by want to discuss the possibility of adding ensemble pieces. the same person. Likewise, you can keep the “sets” simple with a few folding chairs and Step back and ask, “What could we do as a full group tables to represent all furniture, or get more complex (a vase with flow- that can tie it all together?” ers on the table, a blanket and pillows to turn chairs into a bed, etc.) if This might be a chance to use setting, time, and budget allow. a poem that got axed earlier Discuss and decide on transitions between pieces. For example, who in the process or ask someone brings the three folding chairs onstage between Carlos’s monologue to write something for the whole group. and Tanya’s poem? And where exactly do those chairs come from? Work with the group to figure out what’s appropriate and easy for the actors to carry out. Make sure everyone knows their assignments for setting up and striking set pieces and props. Put those into the final script. Discuss and decide on sound cues and light cues if you’ll be using them. Even if your space has minimal tech, you can generally figure out some music transitions with a sound system or your human capital. If you don’t have a sophisticated sound system, you can bring in an iPod and a speaker, or maybe someone can do beats, sing, play an instrument, etc.

Final Preparation for the Performance • Make sure the venue is secured and that you’ve had all necessary discussions with the providers of the performance space. • Make sure you have all tech you need — lights, mics, CD player, computer, projector, etc. • Decide whether you will need volunteers (to serve as ushers, light board operators, etc.) and how you will recruit them. • Assign someone to be the stage manager — someone to be in charge of making sure people and props are where they are supposed to be

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 4 4:11 at all times and that the technical elements all run properly. Ideally, you might choose this person early in the process. It’s a great role to give an organized person who is not particularly interested in performing. • Go over the performance at least two or three times with actual elements. Have at least one dress rehearsal that completely mirrors a performance — which means everybody has to keep going unless the roof caves in!

Film Production As with the live theatrical models, there are many different forms a Life Stories film production can take. After doing substantial improvisational work, your participants might decide they want to do a linear narrative piece, where they choose one story and make a 30–40 minute film of that, with each participant playing a different character in the storyteller’s life. Or they may decide they want to do a series of vignettes — four or five short stories that add up to a film about an hour in length. Each vignette might be preceded by a brief on-camera interview with some of the participants, giving perspective on why they wanted to tell a particular story. Whatever model you choose, the process for creating a film performance is very similar to the one described above for scripted performance but, instead of capturing scenes on a page, you are capturing them on video. The film performance model can be effectuated in several ways: the instructor can serve as videographer; the instructor can train a participant to serve as videographer; or the instructor can engage either an amateur or professional videographer (which is our recom- mendation if it’s affordable). If the videographer has a commercial grade camera and boom mic, that’s terrific — but even if you are using a consumer camera that shoots digital footage, it’s still possible to make a compelling Life Stories movie that serves your educational and artistic objectives. When making a Life Stories movie, the work of the videographer has to go hand in hand with the work of the instructor. The videographer should understand the themes, know who the lead characters are, be able to communicate what the goal of each shot is and how best to achieve that for the camera, and have some sense of how editing will be used to connect the footage.

Sample Film Production Process At The Theatre Lab, our most reliable Life Stories film model is a ten- week process, during which we do four video shoots. The film then

4:12 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard spends two weeks in post-production (editing) and finally receives a screening for participants and/or the larger community. Here’s a model we’ve used successfully in ten-week processes at The Theatre Lab.

• Session 1: 1st Video Shoot (objectives of each video shoot described in detail below) • Sessions 2 & 3: Improvisations exploring characters and scenarios in anticipation of the second shoot • Session 4: 2nd Video Shoot • Sessions 5 & 6: Refining of material and scripting (often based on reactions to viewing film from the second video shoot) • Session 7: 3rd Video Shoot • Sessions 8 & 9: Development of material that connects scenes (such as music, poetry and transitional moments) and new scenes that support the larger character arcs, and preparation for reshooting scenes that need further exploration or that were not captured successfully on video (because of too much ambient noise, too many actors talking at the same time, etc.). • Session 10: 4th Video Shoot

1st Video Shoot At the first shoot the videographer conducts on-camera interviews with each participant, gets to know who they are, where they have come from, their goals and aspirations. At the end of the session, the videographer plays back for participants some of what was captured on tape. There are a number of benefits to shooting on the very first day and making sure that participants have the opportunity to see themselves on camera right from the start:

• It gets the group excited about the project and the idea of shooting the work. • It helps participants get used to being on camera. • It exposes participants to a different way of looking at themselves as they begin to develop an awareness of how they look on camera. • It creates material that may be used in the final product, particularly if you choose to include aspects of process in the final film. (The making of a Life Stories film is, in fact, a life story in itself — and can sometimes be a powerful framing device for the movie.)

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 4 4:13 Tips for Life Stories 2nd Video Shoot Videographers The videographer begins shooting the improvs developed by participants, to get them familiar with how filming works and what the expec- A videographer who is tations are. The idea of a “clean shoot” is introduced, meaning no noise committed to the vision and or reaction from participants who are watching the shoot. Participants philosophy of Life Stories and learn to repeat scenes for different camera angles, and to act with the to getting the most from the appropriate level of vocal energy required for film work (much less than participants will be focused on “meeting the population where for the stage). they are.” The instructor should leave at least 15 minutes at the end of class for the

Each action the videographer actors to watch part of the footage and then critique their performances. takes becomes a part of the instruction participants are 3rd Video Shoot getting from the Life Stories By now the theme has been established and the storyline is taking program. The effective shape. The instructor and videographer work with the participants to videographer must be able to work closely with Life Stories set up and shoot more fully developed scenes. participants and answer their At this point in the process, major changes to scenes should be dis- concerns and questions about couraged. For the purposes of maximizing your filming time, the group the process of making a film. should be encouraged to focus on making the most of what’s there, For example, participants may rather than worrying about what’s not. ask, “Why are we shooting The instructor should leave at least 15 minutes at the end of class for the from this angle?” Or they may actors to watch part of the footage and then critique their performances. not understand why shooting scenes out of sequence is necessary or appropriate. 4th Video Shoot The best videographer for the This is the last opportunity for filming, so the fourth shoot is the project is one who is prepared “pick-up” shoot for any scenes that need to be re-done or added. It is to patiently communicate both also an opportunity to record other material participants have gener- the “how” and the “why” of the video process. ated which may be used as a soundtrack or transition device, such as poems, raps and songs. Finally, the videographer and/or the instructor might choose to interview participants on camera about how they felt about the process, what they are proud of, whether and how they see themselves continu- ing with creative endeavors like this down the road, or what message they might want to send out to a potential viewer of the film.

Editing Editing is all about shaping the story into a compelling visual narrative. When editing a Life Stories film, you have two important tasks:

1. To reflect the essence of the participants’ work 2. To create film sequences that can be readily followed by a viewing audience

4:14 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard If you are working with seasoned videographers, you can expect they will know how to identify the best takes, to use titling and special effects to create transitions between disjointed pieces, and to add music to underscore important moments. Even so, you as instructor will want to review a rough cut and provide feedback about story arcs that could be clarified, transitions that could be tightened, and anything else you think would help translate the col- lective vision of your participants to a potential viewing audience. If you are doing your own editing, there are many resources that can help you. Most computers either come with or can be loaded with easy- to-use editing software (our favorites are Final Cut and iMovie) and online tutorials abound. When editing, think in terms of structure. What does the audience need in order to follow this story?

Titles:

• If the timeline isn’t clear, consider adding a simple title that says something like “One week later.” Ditto if it’s hard to understand the setting (“Back in the butcher shop…”). • If you are putting together a series of vignettes, work with your participants to name each one, and begin that piece with a title (“The End of Childhood”). • You will also want opening and closing credits. Be sure to take into account privacy considerations when listing your participants. (Full names? First names only?)

Transitions:

In addition to titling, transitions can be accomplished through: • Visual effects: Dissolves, fade outs, page peels, etc. • Music: Perhaps your participants recorded original music. You can also find plenty of low-cost or royalty-free music online developed specifically for this purpose. • Interview material: Strategically placed participant interviews can provide very effective transitions, helping the viewer understand what they have just watched, what they are about to watch, and why it matters.

Screening Once the post-production phase of the process is complete, you are ready to debut the product. Just as with live performance, you need

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 4 4:15 to give some thought to who will attend a screening. Should the first screening be participants-only, so they can respond to their own work before it reaches a wider audience? Should it include peers and staff from your partner organization? Should it be open to relatives, friends, or the wider public? Very small screenings can generally be done on TV or LCD screens via computer hook-up. Larger screenings will likely require a projector and a projection screen. Be clear about who is providing the equipment for the screening — for example, if you’re partnering with a senior center, they may well have a movie screen available; if you are in a homeless shelter, you may need to bring your own, or partner with a theatre or other venue where the screening equipment is part of the package.

After the Show The Life Stories process doesn’t end after the final curtain or when the closing credits run. Sharing the work can be such a profound experience for both participants and audience that it is always worthwhile to have a post-show “talk-back.” This is a chance for participants to speak as artists about the work they’ve created, and for the audience to respond to the work they saw. As with all other kinds of critical feedback, you will want to facilitate the question and answer session so that comments are constructively shared and received. Guide the discussion toward an examination of what in the work spoke to your audience, what inspired them, what made them feel connected to the artists who created the piece. Give your participants a chance to speak about why they created the work they did. Life Stories is likely to be a unique experience in the lives of your participants. Honor this by giving them some things to remember it by. Because theatre is an ephemeral art, you may want to create playbills that your participants can keep (and maybe even autograph for one another!). In our Life Stories film projects, we give each participant a copy of the pro- fessionally edited DVD as tangible evidence of the achievement. Partici- pants have included this DVD in college applications, job applications, and as audition material once they have left their respective facilities. You’ll probably also want to give participants a little time in your last session together to fill out an evaluation of the program. Evaluations can be invaluable as you refine your teaching of Life Stories, and they can also be helpful in the search for future funding. More on evaluations in Book 5.

4:16 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard The Life Stories Toolkit: BOOK 5 Managing Life Stories Assessing Capacity to Implement Life Stories

In this Book, we’ll look at what it takes to manage and sustain Life Stories programs — from raising funds before you start to evaluating programs once they’re finished.

Here are some elements that contribute to the long-term success of Life Stories programs: • A clear, well-articulated vision for how Life Stories fits within a larger organizational mission; • A realistic assessment of the personal or organizational strengths and weaknesses which may impact the program’s development; • A realistic assessment of the external opportunities for and threats to the program’s viability in the community; • Strong ties with the community, especially community-based organizations serving populations Life Stories might benefit; • An instructor or group of instructors with the right temperament and skills for the Life Stories environment, and a system for maintaining instructor excellence; • The ability to financially sustain the Life Stories program, whether through existing infrastructure funds or ad hoc fundraising activities; and

5:2 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard • The commitment to evaluate both the process of implementing the Life Stories program and the outcomes resulting from the program, and to make any adjustments indicated by the evaluations.

What Management Resources Will Be Needed? As we noted in the beginning of this Toolkit, individual teaching artists without a formal organizational affiliation can implement successful Life Stories programs as long as they have the appropriate curriculum tools (contained in this Toolkit), the ability to develop a successful working relationship with a partner who will deliver participants, and funding to cover the instructional and classroom expenses. If you are managing a Life Stories program through your own organization or creating a multi-faceted Life Stories program — coordinating multiple Life Stories experiences with different populations — there are additional administrative considerations (recruiting and evaluating faculty members, developing a sustainable funding stream, building a network of community partners, etc.). But, whether you are a lone teaching artist or a representative of an organization, you can expect to devote some administrative time to the following:

• Budgeting • Fundraising • Forging and formalizing relationships with community partners • Evaluating and maintaining the quality of the teaching and the impact of the program on its participants

What Financial Resources Will Be Needed? Depending upon the delivery mode of the Life Stories program (informal sharing, scripted theatre performance, or film production), the expenses for the program can range from $1,000 to approximately $5,000. For example, direct expenses for a 6-week informal sharing model, where all activities take place at the partner organization, might be as simple as this:

Instructor $900 ($60/hour for 15 hours)

Costumes and Props $100

Total Expenses $1000

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 5 5:3 A Word of Direct expenses for a 12-week live theatre performance might look like this Advice!

Instructor $1920 ($60/hour for 32 hours) Some organizations may be tempted to create a Costumes $300 Life Stories program as a vehicle to “chase” funding Theatre Space Rental $700 opportunities without having sustained passion for the Lighting/Sound Design $500 work or a full understanding of the commitment a Life Set/Props $400 Stories program requires. Predictably, such organizations Script Production $100 are not likely to produce successful programs. Life Marketing $300 Stories programs require focused and committed Stage Crew $280 creators and administrators; faculty members must be Total Expenses $4,500 cultivated and supported; and programs must be continually evaluated — more on that later in the Toolkit! Direct expenses for a 12-week film production process might come in a little higher, because you will probably engage a videographer in addition to your instructor:

Instructor $1,680 ($60/hour for 28 hours)

Videographer $1,600 (4 shoots, approximately 8 hours)

Video Editor $1,500

Costumes and Props $220

Total Expenses $5,000

You’ll note that we have included only “direct expenses” in the budgets above — meaning money that is spent actually implementing the program with the participants. If your Life Stories program is being developed through a larger organization with which you are affiliated, however, you should note that there are other relevant “indirect” expenses to consider: for instance, the office staff and equipment that make copying and printing of scripts possible, the staff time devoted to grant writing and other fundraising, etc. All of these costs should be taken into account when planning a Life Stories program, and budgets included in funding proposals should include indirect expenses as well as direct ones.

5:4 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Implementing Life Stories

Funding Sources Before you seek outside funding, you should explore whether a partner organization might want to pay to have you teach a Life Stories program at their facility. Some types of organizations — senior facilities, school- based programs, etc. — may have a budget for fee-for-service activities or recreational programming for their clients, and Life Stories could be a perfect fit. But in many cases you will be approaching an organization — a local shelter, for instance — where the entirety of its budget goes to feed- ing and providing housing for homeless people, so nothing is left over for supplemental programming. In these cases, you will need to find an outside funding stream to make Life Stories possible for this partner. As we noted in Book 2, one of the unique aspects of Life Stories is that it appeals to funders across sectors. While some arts programs will only receive funding from grantors supporting the arts, Life Stories can receive funding from those whose areas of focus include education, community revitalization, mental health, juvenile justice, substance recovery, eldercare programs, and much more. There are many resources that will help you identify potential funders, but perhaps the best is the Foundation Directory Online, https://fcon- line.foundationcenter.org, a vast database that will allow you to search foundations by the types of support they give (programmatic, general operating, capacity building, etc.), the program areas they support (arts, education, youth, etc.), the geographic region(s) they focus on, and much more. You might also look to your local arts council to see if they support community outreach programs. Finally, find out who is funding other community outreach arts programs in your area. A foundation that supports a visual arts program in the local prison might be a great match for the Life Stories film program you are creating for incarcerated youth. A corporation that underwrites a creative writing program for seniors might welcome a proposal for your Life Stories intergenerational theatre collaboration.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 5 5:5 Do I Have to Be When approaching a foundation, corporation, government entity or a Non-Profit? any other potential grantor, it is important to: • Clearly state the community need your Life Stories program will To receive funding from a address; foundation or government entity, you will need to work • Explain how you are uniquely placed to address this need (this is with a non-profit organization where you describe the Life Stories program and the success it has (often referred to as a achieved); 501(c)(3) organization in the tax code). Incorporating as a • Identify outcomes your program will achieve (using your Logic non-profit can be costly and Model work as a guide); and time consuming so, if you don’t already work within a non- • Describe how you will evaluate the impact of the program on its profit organization, you might participants and on the community. consider teaming up to submit a joint proposal with a service provider who works with the Most funders first ask for a Letter of Intent (LOI) to determine whether participants you hope to reach. your program is a fit for their funding priorities. These are brief and not For instance, if you have particularly difficult to create. We’ve provided a sample Life Stories LOI connected with an afterschool program that is interested in the Resource Guide at the back of this Toolkit. in offering Life Stories to If you are lucky enough to make the “cut,” you may be asked to sub- the disadvantaged youth it mit a full proposal. If that happens, the funder will provide you with serves, draft a proposal that very specific guidelines to follow. the afterschool program can submit to funders. Working with Service Providers: Creating MOUs Once you have identified your community partner, drafted a budget, and have a sense of where the funding is coming from, you will want to develop and negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU provides a clear description of the expectations and the responsibilities of both the teaching artist and the community partner during the delivery of the Life Stories program.

A good MOU will: • lay out the framework for the working relationship; • specify how communications between the organizations will be conducted; • state in clear terms the mutually agreed upon goal for the Life Stories program; and • delineate the rights and responsibilities of each of the parties.

The MOU ensures that organizations and teaching artists are “on the same page” and fully agree to the scope of their respective roles, reduc-

5:6 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard ing the possibility of misunderstandings about exactly what should be accomplished, by whom, and within what timeframe.

The MOU should minimally detail: • The scope of work that the organization and the instructor will deliver for the Life Stories program. The scope of work should detail: (1) the number of sessions; (2) the number of participants in the group (can be a “no less than” and “up to” number); (3) where the sessions will be held; (4) how long the sessions will be; and (5) the timeframe for conducting the Life Stories program. • The roles and responsibilities of the community partner to assist in the facilitation of the Life Stories program, including staff support, space, and supplies. • Any specific issues related to privacy and confidentiality (see box). • Method of communication between your organization and the community partner. • Itemized costs of delivering the Life Stories program and who will cover them.

A sample MOU is provided in the Resource Guide at the back of the Toolkit.

Ensuring the Quality of Life Stories Instruction Life Stories instructors must be able to fill multiple roles, from highly skilled teaching artist to sensitive crisis counselor to goal-oriented taskmaster. While many theatre artists may have the passion and technical know-how to be Life Stories instructors, those traits must be blended with skills in managing the often emotional, perhaps chaotic, and always shifting circumstances of the Life Stories environment. If you yourself are the instructor, it will be important to remind yourself to focus on these subtler skills as you progress through your Life Stories program. If you will be hiring an instructor, it’s important to know exactly what you’re looking for.

What Qualities Make an Excellent Life Stories Instructor?

Life Stories instructors should bring: • A passion for working with marginalized or disenfranchised populations (such as at-risk adults and youth; critically ill children

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 5 5:7 Privacy and and adults; the homeless; veterans; the elderly; the incarcerated; or Confidentiality people in recovery from substance abuse) • Strong skills in improvisation and teaching improvisational techniques There are many settings — medical, correctional, mental • Patience — especially in chaotic circumstances and environments health and more — where participants may not want • Awareness and sensitivity to the needs of the populations being to or may not be allowed to served, including potential medical and psychological needs appear on camera, perform in public, use their full names, • An understanding that Life Stories facilitation can (and does) bring etc. Understand that you may raw feelings and emotions to the surface, and the instructor may be working with a vulnerable need to assume the role of “comforter-in-chief” at any given time population and visibility is not always desirable for the • The ability to understand and be aware of boundaries, especially participants. when the Life Stories instructor may be treading into emotionally or The best guide for determining psychologically fragile areas, and knowing when to seek professional how public the exposure for support for a participant your participants can and should be is probably the staff • A willingness to focus on the “end product” in addition to the at your partner organization. process, and the skills to be a taskmaster who can bring closure to They may already have the project confidentiality agreements in place by which you will need to abide. Monitoring Instructors to Ensure Quality Delivering Life Stories challenges all of an instructor’s skills and tal- Even if you determine that performing or appearing ents — artistic, administrative, educational, interpersonal, and emo- on screen is allowable, tional. If you are coordinating the work of an instructor (or instruc- participants should still be given tors) other than yourself, instituting a system to monitor your faculty is the choice about whether they important both to ensure consistent quality of the delivery of Life Sto- wish to do so. By law, you do ries programs and to provide your instructors with much-needed sup- not need any special release form to have participants port. Looking out for potential instructor burn-out is critical — for the appear in a live performance, benefit of both the instructors and the Life Stories participants they’re but you may want to create working with. Life Stories program coordinators should: an informal participation agreement that makes clear Recognize the difficult task that instructors have as they listen to what the public performance • will be like (who will be there, and work with often heart-wrenching stories of recovery, survival, how much press there will be, and relapse. etc.) so that participants can make an informed decision • Routinely observe Life Stories instructors as they work, providing about whether they want that feedback to support and improve their skills. kind of exposure. • Be sensitive to the signs of burn-out. An instructor may be reluctant There are many instances, to admit that she is becoming fatigued or overwhelmed. Know however, when you are required to have a release, the signs when it is time to intervene, and be ready to offer the especially if you plan to use a instructor a way to step away from the program if necessary. (continued on next page)

5:8 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard • Be open to garnering feedback from your faculty. What’s working? Privacy and What needs improvement? Is the partner organization fulfilling Confidentiality their responsibilities? What support does the faculty need that

they’re not currently getting? (continued from opposite page) person’s image in photographs Continuous open and honest communication will invariably lead to or films. Rather than worry nurturing the best in your Life Stories faculty. about all the nuances of the law (for example, if you are using the image for informational purposes you may not need a release, but for commercial purposes you absolutely will), we highly recommend that you always use a standard Image Release that explains who owns the image, when/where it can be used, and by whom. See the Resource Guide for a sample Image Release. Note: If you are working with minors, the Image Release will need to be signed by a parent or guardian.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 5 5:9 Evaluating Your Life Stories Program

Why Evaluate?

Evaluation serves three important purposes: • Program assessment — verifying, documenting, and quantifying program activities and their effects; • Program improvement — finding out where a program may need improvement; and • Strategic management — providing information that can help an organization make decisions about how resources should be applied in the future to better serve its mission or goals.

A good evaluation process will allow you to: • Clarify program objectives • Assess your program’s appropriateness and effectiveness • Become aware of issues of cost-efficiency • Generate ideas for program improvements • Solidify support for continued financial investment

Every Life Stories program should be evaluated. The evaluation process can be as informal and simple as handing out a short questionnaire or as formal and involved as a multi-part consultant-driven interaction.

5:10 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Informal Evaluations At the completion of each Life Stories program, participants and program partners should be surveyed, either through interviews or through written documents, about whether the program met their expectations, what they gained from the experience, and what they would like to see changed. Ongoing evaluation will strengthen and guide the “best practices” of your program and, hopefully, minimize the impact of any potential missteps. Ask yourself what information you would most like to have from your participants and key players at your partner organization, and devise a few questions. Pass out a questionnaire or sit down individually with people to get their answers. Don’t forget to compile the results and ask yourself what you learned, and how you might want to use that information in future Life Stories programs.

Formal Evaluations If your Life Stories program should start to grow in size and scope, as it certainly may, you might want to consider a more extensive evaluation process that will provide more detailed and quantitative information. Such formal evaluations are often undertaken with the help of an evaluation consultant.

There are three basic types of formal evaluations to consider: • Process Evaluations, which investigate program implementation; • Outcome Evaluations, which investigate short-term localized results of the training; and • Impact Evaluations, which investigate longer-term changes produced in participants and the community as a result of the training

See the Resource Guide at the back of the Toolkit for more detailed descriptions of these three types of formal evaluations.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 5 5:11 Building a Multi- Faceted Life Stories Program

As we noted in Book 2, your first Life Stories program may be as simple as a monologue or storytelling workshop. Over time and with the success of your experiences with Life Stories, you may consider branching out — implementing more complex models or working with different populations. If you are part of a larger institution, you may want to look to your existing staff, whether counselors, artists, or educators, to tap into their unique experiences and passions as you consider expansion. Say you work for a theatre organization where you have successfully inaugurated a Life Stories program for children in foster care. If you discover that one of your fellow artists has had experience working with veterans, you may have found the perfect Life Stories program to focus on next. Once you have “experimented” with a few Life Stories programs and determined that the model has potential for other audiences and community partners, you may be ready to launch a full Life Stories initiative, recruiting instructors who have the skills and experience working with specific populations that you would like to reach. If you decide that creating a multi-faceted Life Stories program fits with your organization’s mission and strategic goals, this is a great time to revisit the Logic Model you created in Book 2 and to think more expansively about:

• What new audiences and populations would benefit from Life Stories? • What resources and expertise do you have that can be mobilized for a multi-faceted Life Stories initiative? • What more resources — human and fiscal — will you need? • How will you evaluate a more complex Life Stories program?

5:12 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard If you’re undertaking an ambitious Life Stories endeavor with many fac- Our Experience ets, be sure to remain true to the principles and techniques expounded Tells Us… throughout this Toolkit and be judicious as you scale up. The manage- rial issues covered earlier in Book 5 will be especially important. With We began our Life Stories the right resources, the right partners, and the right values, there’s no work with seniors because telling where your Life Stories program could go! someone on our staff had a background working in assisted living facilities (as a coordinator, not an artist). We branched out to a youth detention center the following year because another faculty member had been working in a prison ministry and wanted to combine his passion for theatre and his passion for rehabilitation. In both cases, we went with strengths of existing faculty members. As we developed as a theatre education organization, we realized that the work we were doing with adults and children in the general population was not qualitatively different from the work we were doing in Life Stories. In both cases, our students gave us feedback that participating in the dramatic arts was transforming their lives—and that’s how we arrived at a single mission statement for the organization: “Transforming lives through theatre education.”

— Deb Gottesman, Co-Founder, The Theatre Lab

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT BOOK 5 5:13 Celebrating Success

Finally, take the time to celebrate the successes of each Life Stories program — from the very first storytelling session, which may only have engaged a handful of participants, to the full-scale performance, which may have seemed an impossible dream. Applaud every step with encour- agement to push further. Acknowledge the process, often emotional and difficult, that everyone involved has experienced, and credit how far you all have come. Taking a bow is a theatrical tradition. You and all your partners and participants should take LOTS of them as you all celebrate your Life Stories!

5:14 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard

The Life Stories Toolkit Appendices Exercise Appendix

A:2 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard First Storytelling Exercises

Pass the Object This exercise comes from Life Stories Instructor Michael Rodgers

Purpose: To get participants comfortable sharing stories about themselves.

Facilitation Instructions: Instructor brings an object that may have strong associations for group members and passes it around the circle, asking each participant to tell a brief story that comes to mind when he or she holds the object. This exercise works best when the objects evoke memories of people, places, and events that the participants have not thought about in a while. Examples of evocative objects include: common children’s toys (e.g., jacks, yo-yos, jump ropes or, for younger groups, electronics that were once all the rage but are now no longer in fashion); retro house- hold or craft items (whisks, pin cushions, shoe horns, or lunch boxes); or objects that have a “fill in the blank” quality (a wrapped present, an empty picture frame, etc). When you choose your object(s), make sure you pick things that will be familiar to all group members. If you are unsure which objects might resonate with your group, you can also pass several objects around the circle in a bag and let your participants choose which one they would like to tell a story about.

Tips for Debriefing: Instructor can choose to process stories with a little discussion after each one or simply go around the circle and listen to all stories, facilitating conversation after the entire group has participated. In either case, when you give feedback or open stories up to discussion, it is important to offer positive and encouraging commentary — to model for everyone that there is no right or wrong way to share. Look for what was unique, specific, expressive, relatable, funny, daring — or anything else you feel is praiseworthy — and reflect that back to the storyteller. (“I liked how your story about your first yo-yo included details about how hard it was for you to master.”) If you decide to open it up to commentary from other participants, it’s a good idea to guide the discussion toward similarly positive comments. (“Tell us what you liked about Jason’s story” or “Which part of Shauna’s story spoke to you?” as opposed to “What did you think of that story?”)

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:3 Magic Box Purpose: To get participants comfortable using their imaginations to create and share stories.

Facilitation Instructions: This exercise is very similar to “Pass the Object” (described above) but in this case the object is imaginary. A “Magic Box” (either real or imaginary) is placed in the center of the group and, one by one, participants pantomime removing an imaginary object from the box. If a real box is used, there should still be no actual objects in the box. Participants use their sense memory to create the object. They should feel the object in their hands and use the object if applicable. The exact identity of the object can be shared or not shared, depending on the desire of each participant. The participant is then asked to tell a story based on that object. As always, stories from one’s life are encouraged and supported, but participants are also free to create a story centered on this object. They do not need to share at this point whether the story is true or imagined. The creating or imagining of a story often has the power to stir the subconscious, which can eventually lead to the telling of deeper and/or more buried Life Stories.

Tips for Debriefing: See instructions for “Pass the Object.”

Imaging to Music This exercise comes from Life Stories Instructor Oran Sandel

Purpose: To use the power of music to inspire the imagination and create stories.

Facilitation Instructions: Participants are asked to close their eyes. Instruc- tor tells them that they will hear music and says, “Just let the music do whatever it wants in your mind. Don’t make it do anything. If pictures come, fine. If a story comes, fine. No obligation, no expectation.” Instructor then plays a short selection of recorded music that is very evocative. When it ends, instructor asks the participants to open their eyes and download what they saw to the person next to them. They tell each other what they saw. If someone wants to, they can share what they saw with the group. This can be repeated two to three times with radically different music, in order to inspire different kinds of stories.

Tips for Debriefing: See instructions for “Pass the Object.” In addition, you may want to emphasize that each story is unique and valuable and ask participants to avoid comparing or judging one story over another.

A:4 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Trust and Connectivity Exercises

Mirror Exercise Purpose: To build trust between group members and heighten participant awareness of one another.

Facilitation Instructions: The instructor asks each group member to partner with someone whom they do not already know well and to sit opposite that person (on the floor or in a chair) in a “mirror-like” position. The instructor says something like, “I want you to imagine you are looking into a mirror right now — everything you do must be copied exactly by your partner, and vice versa.” The group may laugh at this idea, at which time the instructor might add: “It’s okay to laugh, as long as you are doing it in a mirror. What- ever you see your partner do, you must do also.” The instructor then asks participants to make eye contact, which they will keep for the remainder of the exercise. The instructor may want to emphasize that this is the most important part of the exercise. Again, laughter might ensue. The instructor can repeat “all you need to do is to relax, and look into each other’s eyes” or “it’s okay to laugh, but try to settle into the connection” until the group settles down. Then the instructor says: “See if you can establish the same breathing rhythm as your partner. You might need to exaggerate your breathing at first, but once you’ve found it, all you need to do is continue the eye contact and breathe together.” Once there are strong connections between partners, the instructor should tell participants that s/he will be assigning a Partner A and a Partner B. Pairs should continue to make eye contact with each other even as the instructor moves around the room to give these assignments. Once everyone has been assigned either an A or a B, the instructor should ask Partner A to begin a very slow-motion movement with his or her hand, which can be followed exactly by Partner B. The instructor can remind participants that they should continue to make eye contact even as they mirror the motions. If one person’s movements are way ahead of the other, the instructor should encourage the leader to slow down and take care of his partner and emphasize that nothing is more important than staying together. Once pairs are in sync, the instructor should ask them to switch leaders, and give the same reminders. As partners get increasingly profi- cient, the instructions can become more complex: “See if you can mirror the spirit of what’s coming at you … the facial expressions … the other person’s thoughts.”

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:5 The “switch leaders” command can be given several times over the course of 10 minutes or so (even in quick succession), and the instructor should encourage participants to keep the transitions as smooth as possible. Once the lead is seamlessly shifting back and forth, the instructor can introduce the idea of a mirror where there is no designated leader: “Now you are both leading. You’re both leading and following at the same time, and you are exactly together.” The instructor should allow enough time for each pair to master the “leaderless” mirror. To conclude the exercise, the instructor asks the pairs to take three big breaths, exactly together. Then they can break the connection and come back into a discussion circle.

Tips for Debriefing: Our experience is that participants will have A LOT to say after this exercise: from how intimate the eye contact felt to whether they preferred leading to following to how exciting it was when they were really in sync. We like to begin by asking general questions (“What was your experience of doing that like?”) and allow themes to emerge from the group. Once people have had a chance to express their feelings about the exercise, it can be fruitful to ask, “What do you think this has to do with acting?” Again, your participants will likely have excellent and useful commentary: whether they talk about “creating chemistry,” the value of working outside one’s own physical habit, what it means to give oneself over to another person and trust that something good will happen, or anything else that you might harken back to as you begin to dramatize stories through scene work in later sessions.

Group Sculptures This exercise comes from Robert Alexander and the Living Stage Theatre Com- pany, as described for us by Life Stories Instructor Quique Aviles

Purpose: To begin the process of group dramatic collaboration around themes relevant to the participants.

Facilitation Instructions: Instructor clears the room of all chairs, desks, and tables to have an empty space where people can run and have physical freedom. Push everything to the side, including the group. The teacher is at the opposite end from the group. The teacher begins by asking the group: “What Matters to You?” The most common themes that arise are: family, love, education, children, sex, money. Then elicit even more specific responses by asking: “What really matters to you as a person, as a human being? What pisses you

A:6 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard off? What makes you feel good?” Try to mine the two opposites of what bothers you and what soothes you. The teacher should listen to these things and pick five or six words or phrases. Then say “OK, I’m going to yell out a word – one of the words you shared. Then, I’m going to say go. When I say ‘go’ … You run across the room (one at a time), stop, turn to the ‘audience,’ and make a sculpture. Use your hands, arms, feet, legs, body, face to show physically, what that word means for you. Don’t think about it. Do whatever you feel.” You keep calling the same word with strength and projection: “Love … Go! Love … Go! Love … Go!” As you say “go” and each person goes, the only thing they must do is make physical contact with at least one person already on the floor. The group is watching each person’s interpretation of that word/theme. Once the group becomes comfortable with the exercise, hold five people in the front who do not become part of the sculpture. Then ask these five people to interpret the sculpture and create a story.

Tips for Debriefing: This exercise provides a wonderful jumping off point for discussions about what it means to build on each other’s ideas, to physicalize emotions, and even thoughts about how the viewer shapes the story. It is likely that participants will already have begun doing and saying things that they never thought they would feel comfortable doing in front of a group. Create an opportunity in your post-exercise discussion to celebrate their creativity. As you process the exercise, ask open-ended questions, like: “What did it feel like for you to do that?” and listen carefully to where your group takes the discussion. You can begin to discover who likes to play, who likes to create a narrative, who wants to make the stories personal. Knowing your participants’ strengths will help guide you as you think about what your final product might look like. Once you’ve introduced the basic rules of improv, you can try Part Two of the Group Sculpture Exercise: After the group has created a sculpture and observers have told a story about it, create a scene that can be dramatized by members of the group. You can repeat the first part of the sculpture activity several times to create different stories and scenes.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:7 Warm-Up Exercises

Name, Feeling, Movement The group forms a standing circle. Everyone takes a turn saying their name and creating a movement to go along with their name based on the way they are feeling at the moment. For example, if a person is feeling fatigued, he might say his name with a big yawn and stretch to the sky. If a person is feeling excited, she may say her name in a loud voice while jumping in the air with her arms spread wide. The group then responds by repeating each person’s name and movement back to them. This exercise serves as not only a vocal and physical warm-up, but also an emotional check-in. It allows each person to communicate to the group how s/he is feeling today in an informal and relaxed manner. The act of hearing one’s name, motion, and feeling mirrored back can be an extremely validating experience, leaving one feeling seen, listened to, and closer to the group at large.

Group Stop Everyone walks around the room without talking. At any time, someone can choose to freeze unexpectedly. Whenever someone senses that someone else has frozen, they freeze. Once everyone is frozen, everyone starts to walk around again. The goal is to see how quickly after the first person freezes the whole room can come to a standstill. This game can be made more challenging by having participants talk or make noise as they walk.

Physical Energizers The following are all great exercises from awakening minds and bodies and channeling nervous energy into productive performance energy.

Full Body Tense and Relax Participants are asked to stand in a relaxed, upright position. Then they receive the following instructions: “Take a deep breath in and exhale fully. Start by stretching your arms. When you begin to feel the tension in your muscles, take a deep breath in and hold this stretch for a count of five. Then relax your arms and exhale. Repeat the stretch-tense-relax cycle with the following parts of your body, breathing deeply all the while: shoulders, hands, lower back, buttocks, legs, and feet. Finally, shake out your whole body. Imagine that you are throwing out the tension that was trapped inside. Breathe deeply and relax.”

A:8 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Rag Doll Participants are asked to stand in a relaxed, upright position. Then they receive the following instructions: “Imagine that your head has become very heavy and let your chin drop to your chest. Now let the weight of your head carry you down toward the floor until you are hanging over just like a rag doll. Bend your knees. Release you neck. Sway from side to side. Slowly begin to roll up through your legs and your spine. Imagine you can stack your vertebrae one on top of the other and just roll on up. Pay attention to your posture now. Are you standing up straight without feeling rigid? If so, walk around the room keeping this straight-up posture. Get used to what this feels like.”

Hop Count Instructor leads participants through a hopping exercise, where they count out loud as they hop in the following sequence (note: only the numbers are spoken aloud): left foot: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, right foot 1-2-3- 4-5-6-7-8; left foot 1-2-3-4, right foot 1-2-3-4; left 1-2; right 1-2; left 1, right 1. After the countdown, everyone takes one last hop, raises arms and says “ha!” Exercise can be repeated “double time” when working with a particularly energetic group.

Silly Tongue Twisters The instructor conducts the group by clapping, starting very slowly and gradually speeding up, repeating the tongue twister over and over. Par- ticipants should be encouraged to over-enunciate and project. Two of our favorites: “Red leather, yellow leather.” “A big black bug bit a big black bear and the big black bear bled blood.”

Zip Zap Zop Everyone stands in a circle. One of the players points to another player and says “Zip!” That player points to another player in the circle and says “Zap!” That player points to another person and says “Zop!” It continues in this way, always in the order “zip zap zop zip zap zop ….” When someone makes a mistake (says “zip” when they should have said “zop,” for example), that person is “out” and goes to the outside of the circle to watch the rest of the game. Play continues until only two players are left, and they are declared the winners for the round. This game helps build group concentration, energizes everyone physically, and is lots of fun.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:9 Dump This exercise was adapted by Life Stories Instructor Thomas Workman from the teachings of Eric Morris.

This is a great exercise for helping people get into a healthy headspace as you begin to tackle Life Stories exercises. Participants individually go to the center or some other designated spot to “dump” whatever has been bothering them. It starts out with a word or vocal phrase that describes the irritating situation. The participant continues to “dump” more things, free associating, each time building in vocal intensity and emotional commitment. Some issues may have festering for years and some may be as recent as the bus ride home where someone rudely blared his music. Partic- ipants often surprise themselves, discovering and releasing “demons” they didn’t even know they were plagued by.

A:10 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Group Storytelling Exercises

Circle Stories (or Sentence-at-a-Time Stories) Purpose: To help the participants be “in the moment” and with each other. To listen, play with language and let go.

Facilitation Instructions: Participants sit in a circle. Facilitator or volunteer from group selects title of story (e.g., “The Last Chance” or “The Magic Door”). Participants go around circle and add one sentence at a time to the story, passing the narrative from person to person. Participants should be encouraged to make eye contact with the person who has spoken just before them as they receive the “pass” and with the person to whom they are giving the pass. The story can either end after everyone has spoken a sentence, or it can continue multiple times around the circle until it comes to a natural ending. The instructor should chal- lenge students to keep the energy flowing and just say whatever comes to mind, with as little self-editing as possible. This exercise can also be performed with participants adding only one word at a time.

Tips for Debriefing: Ask the group when they felt the storytelling worked best. Themes that emerge may include the value of spontaneity, the importance of listening, the need to build on the ideas of others rather than wrench the narrative in any particular direction.

“Once upon a time…” Purpose: • To increase narrative skills by the act of simple, improvised storytelling. • To enhance listening skills. • To illuminate the elements which make a good story, whether told verbally or written.

Facilitation Instructions: • Instructor asks for six volunteers. • Instructor hands them five numbered slips of folded paper, upon which are written:

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:11 1) Once upon a time… 2) Every day… 3) However, one day… 4) Because of that… 5) Until finally… 6) From that day onward… It is important that the players chosen are called upon in a sequence corresponding to the numbers on their slips of paper. Hence, player number one has #1 (Once upon a time), and so forth. • Instructor tells player number one to unfold and read his/her slip and then improvise the rest and keep going until told to stop. • Instructor calls “stop” after the first storyteller has established a beginning for the story. This can vary depending on many factors such as verbal skill of players, self-confidence, etc. The stop should be called before the player runs out of ideas and confidence. This also keeps the energy of the game high. • Number two player is instructed to read her/his slip and continue the story. The process continues through all six players, the sixth being instructed to end the story.

Tips for Debriefing: Once the story is completed, the whole process is then discussed and processed by the players and audience, so as to help the participants understand these elements of a good story:

• Clearly delineated and interesting characters • Action • Cause and effect • Reincorporating information*

*Note: “Reincorporating Information” is a main point of the storytelling technique delineated by master acting theorist Keith Johnstone (author of Impro). If one of the early speakers brings in a piece of information (for example, the little girl had freckles) a later speaker needs to bring back that information within the context of what we have heard since (for example, as she grew, the freckles didn’t go away). Johnstone refers to this as a promise made to the audience. They’re sitting there wondering what happened to the freckles because they only got men- tioned once. Beginning improvisers often drop these parts of the story because they’re not listening to each other, but rather grasping to make

A:12 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard up something new. To get them to understand that everything they need has been laid out already and they only have to go back for it and reincorporate it, is a major forward step in developing improvisatory competence. He says a good storyteller is like a man walking backwards; he knows where he’s been, but has no idea where he’s going.

Pairs Sculptures This exercise comes from Robert Alexander and the Living Stage Theatre Com- pany, as described for us by Life Stories Instructor Oran Sandel

Objectives: To use physical sensation, corporeal experience, and visual imaging to inspire characters and stories.

This is an extension of Group Sculptures (described above).

Facilitation Instructions: Participants are asked to spread out through the room, finding their own space with plenty of room to move. They are then asked to call out the names of feelings that are important to them. (Examples: Love, Anger, Sadness) They then create body sculptures for each of the feelings they suggested. With everyone working in his/her own space, the facilitator calls out the name of one of the suggested feelings and says, “Go!” Participants explode into a physical shape that shows how they feel about the word and instantly freeze. From the positions of their bodies, the participants then make up characters and scenarios. To guide them through this process, the facilitator asks these questions: “What could you have been doing before you were frozen?” Then, “Where could you be doing this activity?” Then, “Who could you be?” Participants are then asked to come to life as the characters, use the imaginary environment they have created, and have a monologue. Side coaching (simultaneous input from the instructor) is very important in this process because it allows the participant to maintain momentum instead of stopping, getting input and starting again. After doing individual sculptures, participants pick a partner. Once again, themes are given, and the partners create sculptures, but this time in physical contact with each other. From the position of their bodies, the participants make up characters, and this time they have to imagine who the partner could be and what they were doing together.

Tips for Debriefing:There are many ways to talk about this exercise — from what it felt like to engage physically to what participants liked about the characters or stories they created. Since this exercise is more

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:13 about doing than thinking, you might find that participants have surprised themselves by what they’ve imagined and created, either individually or in pairs. Celebrate the idea that we can create without knowing in advance how things will turn out.

“I Am From…” Poems This exercise was shared by Life Stories Instructor Oran Sandel, who learned it from Rebecca Rice of Living Stage

Purpose: To provide a structure and form for creating poetic imagery about one’s own life, thereby elevating and dignifying what can seem mundane. To begin to collaborate in the performance of original material.

Activity Description: Facilitator asks the participants to write on a piece of paper: • Five characteristics about the town they grew up in • Five values they were taught as children • Five kinds of food they loved while growing up • Five kinds of food they hated while growing up • What they were taught to fear • What they were taught to love • Significant people they loved • Any other thoughts they want to write down that flow from what they have already written.

Participants are then asked to compose statements that begin with “I am from…” using what they have written and adding anything else they want. They should be encouraged to play with rhythm and flow.

An example of a completed “I am from” Poem could be:

I am from love I am from Jeff and Helen Strauss, and Mrs. Burton’s English class, dysfunc- tional family and love of literature I am from “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” but I am also from “do unto others before they can do unto you” I am from hiding from bullies in the halls of Jefferson Junior High School

A:14 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard I am from contradictions and irony, bitterness and hate, sweetness and senti- mentality I am from black beans and rice and speaking Portuguese I am from bittersweet memories

So basically, participants take the elements on their lists and arrange them any way they want. When the participants are finished writing, the facilitator asks for half the group to sit in a semicircle and stands behind them while the other half observes. They place their poems in front of them. The facilitator then taps one or more participants, who read until they are touched again. (If the participants finish what they have written, they are to go back to the beginning and start again. ) The facilitator “orchestrates” the reading, creating solos, simultaneous speaking, sequencing, and so forth. When the facilitator conducts, it’s on him or her to shape how the content is flowing. A food theme might develop between two of the people in chairs that are being conducted, so you might choose to just have those two speak until that’s done. Or values might be prominent. Locations. Names. The conductor really makes it into performance, and usually the participants are surprised at the level of aesthetic quality of the performance. When the first group is finished, the second group performs.

Tips for Debriefing: In processing after the exercise, people usually notice the commonalities between people’s lives: shared values, etc. It’s a great way to build community through creation. Ask the group what they liked about what they have created. Consider asking, “If this was going to be part of the Final Sharing, what might you especially want to keep?” In between sessions, participants can be asked to take some of the elements from their “I am from” poems and sequence them into a two-minute story — adding new memories as they come.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:15 Feedback Exercise

The Critical Response Process This isn’t so much an exercise as a framework for encouraging group members to provide meaningful, constructive critiques to one another. Developed by renowned choreographer and teacher Liz Lerman (win- ner of the MacArthur Genius Award) it was created to protect chore- ographers from harsh criticism during the sensitive period of a dance’s early creation. The Critical Response Process takes place after a presentation of artistic work. Work can be short or long, large or small, and at any stage in its development. The facilitator leads the artist and responders through four steps:

1. Statements of Meaning: Responders state what was meaningful, evocative, interesting, exciting, striking in the work they have just witnessed.

2. Artist as Questioner: The artist asks questions about the work. After each question, the responders answer. Responders may express opinions if they are in direct response to the question asked and do not contain suggestions for changes.

3. Neutral Questions: Responders ask neutral questions about the work. The artist responds. Questions are neutral when they do not have an opinion couched in them. For example, if you are discussing the lighting of a scene, “Why was it so dark?” is not a neutral question. “What ideas guided your choices about lighting?” is.

4. Opinion Time: Responders state opinions, subject to permission from the artist. The usual form is “I have an opinion about ______, would you like to hear it?” The artist has the option to decline opinions for any reason.

A:16 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Improv Primer

The Rules of Improvisation as delineated by Life Stories Instructor Quique Aviles

1. Spontaneity Go with your impulses. Let your characters speak for themselves. Don’t think too much.

2. No Judgment There’s no right or wrong.

3. Discovery Make as many discoveries as you can. For example — Do you work? What do you do? Who is in your family? Do you have children? What are their names? Do you live in a house? Where?

4. Acceptance You accept anything given to you by your scene partner. (E.g., if your partner says “ever since your dad died you have never been the same,” you cannot say “my father is not dead.” On the contrary, you must go along with this new fact and build on it, for example, “Yeah, I know, it was so sudden. I never knew cancer was so quick and painful.”)

5. Forward Movement Once something has been said, it does not need to be repeated.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:17 Resource Guide

A:18 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Creating Your Logic Model (See page 2:10)

Goal: Begin by identifying the goal for your Life Stories program. The goal should clearly specify: (1) the target group you wish to reach with Life Stories (e.g., at-risk youth, veterans, seniors); (2) the skill that you hope to instill or enhance in your target group; and (3) the product or result that you hope to produce (e.g., a series of dialogues, a dramatic work, a short film). For example, a goal may be: “To empower police officers and youth in residential treatment to use the dramatic arts to create a series of short dramatic works depicting their mutual experience with violence.”

Once you have clearly identified your goal, you can begin to consider the following:

Resources: The human talent/expertise, the financial support, the partner organization, the participants, the space, the equipment and any other tangible elements you will need to implement your Life Stories program.

Outputs and Activities: This is list of what you will need to create and do to implement your Life Stories program. Outputs include such things as recruitment flyers; a curriculum; partnership with partner organizations; and, of course the final product of your program. Outputs are also what you expect your target group will accomplish (e.g., “short scripted monologues about the relationship between youth and police officers” or “participation in six Life Stories sessions”).

Short-Term Outcomes: The short-term outcomes are what you expect immediately after implementing Life Stories or within a short period of time (e.g., within one month of implementation). Again, short-term outcomes can address both what your target group should experience (e.g., “increased willingness of youth to engage with police; or increased understanding of artistic techniques”) and what your organization might expect (e.g., “awareness of organization’s outreach mission”). Accomplishing short- term outcomes should be celebrated!

Intermediate Outcomes: Intermediate outcomes are typically what you expect to accomplish within six to twelve months after implementing a Life Stories program. Again, these outcomes should apply to both the target group and the organization.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:19 Long-Term Outcomes: These outcomes reflect the long-term (beyond a year) and substantive changes that can occur within the target group who have participated in Life Stories as well as the organization implementing a Life Stories program.

Use the Logic Model Matrix below to create your own logic model. For an example of The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories Logic Model, see p. 2:10.

Long-‐Term Short-‐Term Intermediate Outputs/ Outcomes Outcomes Resources Ac/vi/es Outcomes What do you What do you What changes What changes What do you have and need to do and do you expect to do you expect to hope to see need to produce to see within 1-‐2 see within 6-‐12 beyond 12 implement achieve your months of months? months or over Life Stories? goal? conduc>ng Life the long-‐term? Stories? People Curriculum For the target Funding Number of LS Increased group For the target sessions knowledge and group Partnerships skills of target For the Space/ LS product group organiza/on For the organiza/on Loca/on Recruitment Increased Equipment materials awareness of drama/c arts Other Ac/vi/es that need to happen New

Other partnerships

A:20 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Sample Flyer (See page 2:14)

Communicate! Collaborate! Unleash Your Creativity!

The Theatre Lab presents

A unique drama class offered in partnership with Chapin Senior Services

Develop original works of dramatic art using your real-life experiences. Participants will develop material to perform live and on film.

no Instructor: Jerry Jacobs Location: Chapin Senior Home, 632 Walsh Street experience necessary Date/Time: Tuesdays, Oct 30 – Nov 27, 6pm – 7:30pm Cost: Absolutely Free! Enrollment in this class is limited. Sign up today! Transportation assistance available. Contact Sue Baines to enroll —202-XXX-XXXX

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:21 Sample Letter of Intent to a Foundation Funder (See page 5:6)

Dear ______:

The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts (TTL) respectfully requests $5,000 from the ______Foundation to support our free Life Stories education outreach programs. Through training in acting, storytelling, screenwriting and directing, we teach people from typically marginalized populations to create original dramatic works from their real-life experiences. Sessions run year-round (typically 8–12 weeks) and culminate in public performances and film screenings. All programs take place at partner sites.

Target Population, Issue to Address Life Stories reaches isolated immigrant students, expelled youth working toward a GED, young men in juvenile detention, youth who are sexual minorities, and critically ill children and their families. In 2013, the ethnic composition of youth in Life Stories programs was: 75% male, 62% African American, 18% Caucasian, 18% Latino, and 2% other. The vast majority of Life Stories youth live at or below the poverty line, and 78% reside in, or are in the custody of, the District of Columbia.

For young people living on society’s margins, the need for structured performing arts training is critical. According to the American Alliance for Theatre Education, in addition to having higher standardized test scores than their peers, students who participate in drama maintain better attendance records and stay generally more engaged in school than their non-arts counterparts—even in low-income areas. Through its Life Stories programs, The Theatre Lab brings the real-life benefits of dramatic expression to those whom the arts rarely reached.

The benefits from participating in Life Stories programs are often life-changing: increased self-esteem and awareness of creative potential, reduced sense of isolation as a result of being part of an artistic ensemble, improved communication skills, and the emotional satisfaction gained from re-envisioning past experiences. Life Stories outcomes are measured using written pre- and post-program assessment materials for participants, instructors, and site coordinators.

In 2014, Life Stories will serve 361 young people in detention centers, recovery facilities, afterschool programs, and medical treatment centers with 26 programs in six different partner sites.

Current Project Partners: While TTL provides the artistic component of the training, our partner facilities provide the support services, such as recruitment of participants and therapeutic counseling on issues that arise during the training program. Life Stories program partners include:

Organizational Background: The mission of TTL is to transform lives through theatre education. We are guided by the vision that the arts are an essential aspect of life, education, and community. There- fore, we make the artistic, personal, and academic benefits of high-quality dramatic arts instruction accessible to youth and adults in Washington, DC at all levels of experience and from all walks of life, focusing on bringing arts education to the people and places where it is least accessible or affordable.

A:22 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Note: Many foundations will have a specific format for Letters of Intent and Proposals. Always check the foundation website One sentence clearly stating the purpose of the request. first for any guidelines.

One-sentence description of what the program does. If no format is specified, feel free to write a one- to

Very brief description of how the program works. two-page letter that clearly states the purpose of the grant request, the target population it will benefit, the problem or need it will Include demographics. The more specific, the better. address, the scope of the project, how impact will be measured, your experi- Social need you will address or problem you will help solve. Back it up with research. ence delivering similar services, and who else will be working with you, along with a sampling of your recent accomplishments.

To the left is a sample Describes outcomes you expect to achieve and how will you measure them. letter The Theatre Lab created for a foundation interested in funding arts education projects for at-risk youth.

Clearly define scope of project.

Include description of each program partner and the population your program serves there; length of program; how many served at each site.

Include a clear Mission Statement.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:23 Founded in 1992, The Theatre Lab has served over 18,000 students, and is now the largest and most comprehensive theatre education center in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. In 2013, we served 2,014 participants, 43% of whom were youth.

Recent Accomplishments:

• Life Stories participants from N Street Village performed an original, sold-out performance, My Soul Look Back and Wonder: Life Stories from Women in Recovery, at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre in April 2012. This performance, and the journey that led to it, is the subject of “How I Got Over,” a feature length documentary by Academy Award-Nominated filmmaker Nicole Boxer, which premiered at the AFI DOCS festival in June 2014 and is slated for national distribution. • TTL hosted a delegation of performing artists from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, and others, as part of the US State Department’s “Peace Through Performing Arts” Program. • TTL is a recipient of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Innovation in the Arts. Its directors have received the prestigious Linowes Leadership Award from the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region for their efforts to improve the metropolitan community through accessible arts training. The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities has recognized The Theatre Lab as one of the 50 “top arts- and humanities-based programs in the country serving youth beyond school hours.”

An investment from ______Foundation would ensure that the Life Stories program continues to provide the benefits of positive self-expression to those who need it most. Thank you for your con- sideration of this request. Please contact me at (xxx-xxx-xxxx) if I can provide any further information.

Sincerely,

A:24 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Delineate scope or reach of the organization as a whole.

List top 3 organizational or Life Stories accomplishments. Include awards or other recognition of the impact of Life Stories programs.

Closing statement.

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:25 Sample Memorandum of Understanding (See page 5:6)

Life Stories at (PARTNER)

Program Goals: Through the development of an original dramatic work based on their own life experiences, Life Stories participants will use art as a lens through which to view past decisions and evaluate future choices. They will also receive theatre, film, and storytelling training designed to improve written and verbal communication skills, strengthen self-confidence, enhance ability to work with others, and develop potentially marketable artistic skills. The final product of Life Stories will be captured on film and the course will culminate with a public screening and/or performance of student work.

Schedule: Life Stories will meet times a week for weeks beginning and concluding . All classes will meet for hours, from to . A screening or sharing of participant work will be scheduled to take place no longer than two weeks after the last class.

Personnel: The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories program will be directed by ,

Director: The Life Stories program will be supervised by , Director of Outreach Programs, The Theatre Lab.

Responsibilities:

THE THEATRE LAB: The Theatre Lab will be responsible for all instruction, videography, film equipment and editing, and will supply copies of the finished video to each participant (if applicable).

(PARTNER): (PARTNER) will supply the room in which to hold the classes as well as a venue for a final screening and/or performance.

Additional sets, scenery and/or props may be created and supplied by youth from the (PARTNER) working with Theatre Lab staff.

(PARTNER) will be solely responsible for recruitment and retention of at least twelve and no more than twenty-four participants who are appropriate for the program. All participants must sign a participation agreement (see enclosed) and be willing and available to complete the -week program.

A:26 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard (PARTNER) staff, under the direct supervision of , will be responsible for providing therapeutic support for the Life Stories program by: helping to create a safe atmosphere in which to undertake the artistic endeavor; providing a (PARTNER) staff member to attend all Life Stories classes; and providing follow-up support and counseling as needed for participants exploring unpredictable emotional issues through their art.

(PARTNER) site supervisor will complete in a timely fashion pre- and post-program evaluation surveys developed by The Theatre Lab to assess student progress.

If all above conditions are satisfactorily met by (PARTNER) by (date) , The Theatre Lab will return to (PARTNER) with regular Life Stories programming in (future date) .

This memorandum constitutes an agreement between the parties and an acceptance of all responsibilities described herein.

Signatures

______for The Theatre Lab

Date:

______for (PARTNER)

Date:

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:27 Image Release (See box on page 5:8)

I, ______, hereby give (YOUR NAME OR NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION)1 absolute permission, with respect to the Life Stories video in which I am featured — • to use, reuse, broadcast, in whole or in part, for any purpose whatsoever, including promotion, advertising, trade, fundraising and recruitment;2 • to use my name and likeness in connection with the work of (YOUR NAME OR NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION); • to copyright (TITLE OF VIDEO) in the name of (YOUR NAME OR NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION)

I hereby release and discharge (YOUR NAME OR NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZA- TION) and (NAME OF PARTNER ORGANIZATION) from any and all claims and demands arising out of or in connection with the use of the video (TITLE OF VIDEO) including all claims for libel and slander.

This authorization and release shall also ensure to the benefit of the legal representa- tives, licensees and assignees of (YOUR NAME OR NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZA- TION) as well as the person(s) and or entity for which the video was produced.

I am over the age of 18. I have read the foregoing and fully understand and agree to the contents thereof.

Name: ______

Signature: ______Date: ______

If under the age of 18: Name of Parent or Legal Guardian: ______

Signature of Parent or Legal Guardian: ______Date: ______

1 Depending on your partnership arrangement, your partner organization may also be given the right to use or broadcast the Life Stories work. 2 This language allows for the broadest possible use of the video product. Depending on privacy and confidentiality concerns, you and/or your partner organization may choose to limit when, where and how the video product can be shown or distributed.

A:28 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Evaluation Models Hiring an (See page 5:11) evaluation Before you decide to conduct a formal evaluation of your Life Stories consultant programs, you will want to assess your internal capacity to undertake the endeavor. You may be fortunate to have a staff member or colleague When hiring a consultant, with research and evaluation expertise — in which case, he or she can you may want to consider the be very helpful designing a reasonable yet reliable evaluation strategy. following:

More likely, you will need to hire the expertise of a consultant to • Has the consultant had design and conduct your Life Stories evaluation. See box at right for experience with program tips on finding the right consultant for what you need. evaluations involving Your consultant will likely provide guidance as to the type of evalu- process, outcome, and impact measures and ation that might meet your needs, but knowing the basic models and methodologies? methodologies will help you determine the best way to get the information you want. • Does the consultant understand the issues and protocols related to privacy, The Process Evaluation confidentiality and human A process evaluation describes how your Life Stories program is being subjects research? implemented. A process evaluation might ask: • Does the consultant have experience working with and • What are the critical components and activities of the program? sensitivity to the community • What settings are best suited to the implementation of this Life partners and populations who will participate in the Stories program? evaluations? • To what extent does what is being implemented match what was • Is the consultant willing to originally designed? collaborate with you in the goals and design of the • Do program participants understand the program and its intended evaluation as well as the objectives, and are they able to participate fully in the required expected product from the components of the program? evaluation? • Are the consultant’s • What strengths can be built upon to improve the program? proposed timetable Conversely, are there gaps or deficiencies in the services or activities and costs within your being provided that need to be addressed? parameters?

A process evaluation usually does not seek to provide evidence that a Life Stories program is “effective,” although it may provide insight to why a particular program is or is not working the way it was initially conceptualized and designed.

The Outcome Evaluation An outcome evaluation investigates whether changes have occurred for the people participating in a program. It quantifies the magnitude (how big) and direction (positive or negative) of those changes and the circumstances associated with them. An outcome evaluation also seeks to

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:29 Working with tie these changes to specific elements of the program. This is a way of an Evaluation testing whether the logic model or rationale for the program is valid. Consultant An outcome evaluation essentially asks, “What is my program accomplishing in the short term?” and “Am I meeting my objectives?” Once you have selected When an outcome evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of a your evaluator(s) and your program in achieving its intended outcomes, it not only argues for con- evaluation design, be sure to tinued investment in the program but can provide justification for rep- make the most of your results. lication elsewhere. Consider how the findings might: Outcome evaluation questions might include: • Improve your strategies (for example, recruitment and • What effect is the program having on its stakeholders or training of your instructors; participants (e.g., changes in knowledge, attitudes, or behavior)? outreach and engagement with community partners; • What unexpected outcomes, if any, have resulted from the program? marketing your Life Stories program) • What can be modified to make the program more effective? • Guide your next steps • Is there any evidence showing why funders should continue to (for example, expanding your program to new support this program? populations; creating new delivery methods); and

• Showcase your successes The Impact Evaluation (providing convincing data An impact evaluation answers the questions, “Is my Life Stories pro- for potential funders and gram producing long-term changes?” and/or “Is the Life Stories pro- supporters of your Life gram meeting our long-term goals?” Stories program) Impact and outcome evaluation are often confused. The key difference is that • An outcome evaluation documents short-term or immediate outcomes. For example, an outcome evaluation might examine the extent to which Life Stories increases, among participants, knowledge of basic acting skills; knowledge of effective verbal communication skills; or understanding of the benefits of using writing as a form of self-expression. • An impact evaluation is focused on long-term, more global changes. An impact evaluation might focus on whether Life Stories participants have sustained an interest in the arts; increased their sense of mastery and accomplishments; or gained resilience to deal with everyday challenges.

A:30 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard Impact evaluations usually ask questions like: • What effect is Life Stories having on our long-term goals (e.g., establishing our organization as a significant theatrical or therapeutic entity in our community/state or nationally?) • What effect did the Life Stories activities have on our partners and participants? • Were there any negative outcomes? Are they the result of implementation failure or some aspect of the Life Stories curriculum itself? • What degree of confidence is there that the outcomes can be attributed directly to the Life Stories program?

LIFE STORIES TOOLKIT APPENDICES A:31 Further Reading The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories program owes much to visionary theatre movements that began in the latter half of the 20th century, particularly Playback Theatre, originally developed by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas, and Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Many of the writ- ings from these traditions contain excellent exercises that can be easily adapted for the Life Stories classroom.

Playback Theatre Works • Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre – Jonathan Fox, 1986 • Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre – Jo Salas, 1993 • Zoomy Zoomy: Improv Games and Exercises for Groups – Hannah Fox, 2010

Works of Augusto Boal • Theatre of the Oppressed – Augusto Boal, 1979 • Games for Actors and Non-Actors – Augusto Boal, 1992; Second Edition 2002

More Great Resources for Improvisational Theatre Exercises • Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher’s Handbook – Viola Spolin, 1986 • Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre – Keith Johnstone, 1987 • Impro for Storytellers – Keith Johnstone, 1999 • No Acting Please: A Revolutionary Approach to Acting and Living – Eric Morris with Joan Hotchkis, 1995 • Improv for Actors – Dan Diggles, 2004

Further Watching

• Life Stories Videos from The Theatre Lab’s Programs: Short videos from The Theatre Lab’s programs with seniors, incarcerated youth, homeless women, latino teens, and more. www.youtube.com/LifeStoriesTTL • How I Got Over, a documentary by Nicole Boxer about 15 homeless women in substance recovery who created and performed an original dramatic work at The John F. Kennedy Center through The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories Program. More info: www.higodoc.com

A:32 Everyone has a story to tell and a voice that deserves to be heard