Creating new theater with an open workshop rehearsal process in Philadelphia, PA.
To hear about upcoming workshops, send an email to sarah@opentheaterworkshop.org to join the list.
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What is the Open Theater Workshop?
Based in Center City Philadelphia, the Open Theater Workshop is a collaborative theater company carving out alternative paths of creation.
We invite artists of all disciplines and interested community members to participate, regardless of prior experience or theater training.
We host educational and exploratory workshops based on the themes and content of our upcoming productions.
We seek new methods of working that put community-building at the front of our process.
As we work towards refining our process through practice, we will be guided by these three core values:
Play deeply.
We learn our earliest lessons through play, but as we grow into older children (“adults”), many of us are cut off from creative play as a channel for discovery and development. But we still need to play, and as our lives become more complex we find that we need to play ever more seriously and more deeply. By playing deeply through theater, we can investigate human questions, from the biggest to the smallest, in order to learn, change, and develop in community.
Work publicly.
Our work should be grounded in authentic community, both our communities of artists and the broader local community. We want even those who are not working on a production in a traditional capacity (“actor”, “designer”, etc.) to attend our open workshops and be involved in our exploration throughout the creative process. In order to facilitate this relationship when we are creating a production, we will find ways to share our work publicly while in process.
Hold the door open.
Theater is an ancient human art form, and theater-making in the broad sense is part of our shared cultural heritage. Participation in theater should be open to all, regardless of their professional training or experience. We will continue to invite all interested individuals to participate in our open workshops, holding the door open for a new, perhaps unexpected collaborator to join us at any time.
