Rehearsals for Life

RFL Members 2011-2012

Imagine …

…  a theatre troupe dedicated to creating innovative and meaningful learning opportunities for university faculty, staff, and students

… faculty practicing how to respond thoughtfully and effectively to scenarios they are likely to encounter in today’s complex, multicultural classrooms.

… students using their creativity to further issues of diversity, equity and access on campus and enhancing their own conflict resolution skills.

Imagine Rehearsals for Life

Rehearsals for Life (RfL) is a theatre ensemble made up of graduate students from a variety of departments that utilizes applied theatre to inspire dialogue and provide experiential learning experiences around issues of diversity, equity and access across campus and beyond.
Through interactive scenarios, participants in RfL workshops explore what it means for people to live and work at a time when cross-cultural interactions are increasing and expectations are changing.

RfL addresses the fact that while professors, students and GTFs may embrace multiculturalism, their actual experience and skill-level for dealing with conflicts and discussions of these topics may not be all that they would like them to be. Drawing on the talents of graduate student actors from diverse academic disciplines and personal backgrounds, RfL develops dynamic presentations for audiences of 5 to 500 to stimulate dialogue, enhance effectiveness, and build community on the UO campus.  It is a project of CoDaC, the Graduate School and the Office of the Dean of Students.

The performances range from improv riffs on pre-determined topics to scripts developed to address a specific ‘real world’ situation – all designed to assist the audience members to better deal with issues as they come up (and, perhaps to prevent future challenges…)
And – it is a whole lotta fun to see and participate in….

For more information, contact Abigail Leeder aleeder@uoregon.edu 541- 346-1198.

Rehearsals for Life Application

YouTube Video of Rehearsals for Life at the Graduate Research Forum 2011

The UO Channel of Rehearsals for Life at the Graduate Research Forum 2011

YouYube Video of Rehearsals for Life at the Graduate Student Orientation 2010

Student Affairs Newsletter on Rehearsals for Life

Calendar of Events

Past Workshops

What’s the role of an ally?

CoDaC join the graduate student theater troupe “Rehearsals for Life” to host a discussion about how we, as bystanders, can facilitate difficult conversations that often don’t happen around issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, religion, or age differences. The scenarios are designed to give people a chance to practice interrupting ethnocentric, homophobic and racist statements in both high and low stakes environments

When we hear statements that bother us but don’t know what to do or say, we often walk away feeling bad that we didn’t do something. Join us for this workshop in which we will explore multiple ways to respond and increase our abilities to be allies to others who are experiencing bias or discriminatory comments. If you have ever been the target of, or witnessed, discrimination (intentional or not), this is an important workshop for you. Come take part in the conversation

Oregon Students of Color Conference Workshop – Putting Action to Words Through Theater

In this workshop we will invite participants to examine the roles that they play in the world and the impact of oppression on individual and collective experience. Originally developed by Brazilian visionary, Augusto Boal, out of his work with peasant and worker populations, “Theatre of the Oppressed” is now used all over the world for social and political activism, conflict resolution, community building, therapy, and government legislation. This workshop will introduce participants to the concepts and tools of Theatre of the Oppressed and explore the power of theatre for social change. Rehearsals for Life members will first demonstrate the activities and then facilitate the activities as participants interact with each other. The activities will encourage participants to illustrate their experiences and understanding of internalized oppression through movement and collaboration. We hope that through these explorations, participants will be able to put thoughts and feelings into a more concrete and powerful form. Participants will also be empowered to propose solutions to internalized oppression and practice putting those solutions to action. Small group and large group discussions will be led by Rehearsals for Life members. The purpose of the workshop is to offer a different forum for dialogue and action planning for social change.

Graduate Research Forum 2011

In this workshop we will incorporate aspects of Augusto Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed” as well as personal performance to empower participants to examine the roles and status they have in the world and how to use them to impact the greater community. Through these explorations, participants will be able to put thoughts and feelings into more concrete and powerful actions.