Tell Me a Story: Using Story Circles and Applied Theatre to Foster Community, Connection, Empathy and Self-Expression, 2021

""You can see in people's bodies their...resistance at the beginning of a story circle. By the end, their bodies have released something." -Robbie McCauley "In times of crisis, "educators are 'second responders'—helping make sense of things as we go along and after." -Bob Colby This project explores how story circles and applied theatre exercises can be used to foster connection and community between a group of participants previously unknown to one another, and offer opportunities for personal expression around themes of connection, community and empathy. Additionally, the project examines how, in a virtual environment during a global pandemic, participants can experience connection to each other through storytelling and applied theatre exercises, despite being isolated in their own physical spaces. Lastly, the project examines if and how compassion may arise from sharing stories, and how this compassion we discover might make any difference in how we feel about the personal stories we tell. The paper includes an overview of the author's background in applied theatre and story circles, a rationale of using these modalities in community settings, methods of and reflections on the implementation of the workshop curriculum, and the potential for this work moving forward." -- Abstract