Performing the World 2020, Creating a Heart in a Havenless World, was cancelled due to COVID-19. That same year, from July 25-August 30, 2020 we held our first Performing the World Happening(s). Learn more below!
Performing the World Happening(s) 2020
Weekends, July 25-August 30
Performing the World (PTW) is a biannual conference and a global community of hundreds of “performance activists” from all over the globe who are exploring the power of performance and play to re-imagine and re-create the world. The PTW community creatively engages social problems, educates, heals and activates others, to bring new social-cultural-psychological and political possibilities into existence.
The global pandemic has forced us to postpone Performing the World 2020. However, the East Side Institute and the All Stars Project are innovators and improvisors and we know that the world needs play, performance and development more than ever. So, we’ve created a way to bring online some of the incredible energy, talent and passion that the PTW 2020 call for proposals generated.
This summer, the East Side Institute is producing “Performing the World 2020 Happening(s)” virtually. Every Weekend between July 25 and August 30, we’ll be presenting 90-minute sessions of PTW via Zoom.
Performing the World 2020 Happening(s) will include:
Priscila Chu presenting on her performance work to bring together the warring factions in Hong King and Peter Harris on similar work with Palestinian and Israeli students in Haifa.
Rita Ezenwa-Okoro of Nigeria and Laura Chacón Echeverría of Costa Rica on their developmental performance work with impoverished and marginalized youth.
Mana Mukaiyachi of Japan will perform a dance drama and Steven Licardi of the United States will perform a spoken word show, both exploring the creative process of “Performing Our Mental Health.”
David Diamond the founder of Theatre for Living in Canada, Mohammad Waseem, director of the Interactive Resource Center in Pakistan, and Daniel Maposa, founder artistic director of the Savannah Trust in Zimbabwe, all pioneering performance activists, will share work in a conversation moderated by Dan Friedman, artistic director of the Castillo Theatre in New York.
Dr. Omar Ali, dean of Lloyd International Honors College at University of North Carolina-Greensboro, will lead eight faculty, students and staff from the college in a discussion and demonstration of the play, improv and performance they have brought to higher education over the last five years.
From the Amazon, Dan Baron-Cohen and Manoela Souza will lead an interactive workshop with youth from their Rivers of Meeting program and lead a conversation about the ecological and political situation in Brazil –and the world.
Carlos López of Magicians Without Borders will show how and why they organize and teach magic to youth in poor communities and young people from the slums of Bogotá will delight the world with a magic show.
Cathy Salit and others will report on the work of the newly formed Global Play Brigade, which is using the internet to bring play, performance and improvisation to people all over the world in the grip of the pandemic.