Street Sense Media: Writing and Performing Workshop

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Starting in May of 2013, Leslie Jacobson began running a theatre workshop with members of Street Sense (now called Street Sense Media), the homeless advocacy non-profit located here in Washington, DC. With student assistants and her  composer/writer colleague, Roy Barber, they created performance material through writing prompts and improvisations, which resulted in plays that were performed at religious, community, and educational venues throughout the DMV. These performances often included post-performance discussions. Jacobson made sure that the performers were paid a stipend, (contributing funding herself) and that a meal was included, either before or after the performance. These plays give the participants a dignifed outlet for their creativity and their humanity, and give the audiences a window into the lives of people often ignored by others.

The Street Sense Theatre Workshop

Guiding Principles: Human beings are hungry for story – it is the way we understand each other; the way we transfer experience. It is the way we give shape to the seemingly random events of our daily lives, and ascribe meaning to them; and through it we can practice the very human art of empathizing with another person.

We can read stories, listen to them, make them up in our imaginations – or we can go to the theatre to see them unfold “live and in person.” Theatre creates the perfect environment for us to open ourselves – body, mind, and spirit – to the stories of others. It is a safe space, where we can experience challenge and difficulty without imminent threat to our own lives. And whatever we are exposed to – pain or joy – connects each of us to another human being in profound ways. At its most effective, it moves and inspires us, perhaps to bring relief to another’s suffering, to see the “stranger” in new ways – or simply to live our lives with more compassion, understanding, and humanity.

This process of storytelling requires only two elements: the teller – in the case of Street Sense, the Theatre Workshop writer/actors; and the listener, or audience members. A rehearsal is transformed when the audience comes to the theatre. With the audience bearing witness, the performance changes for the actors, as well. It becomes a communion between audience and actors. This communion can inspire the audience to make positive societal change.

Mission: The mission of the Street Sense Theatre Workshop is to give voice to the experiences, passions, and hopes of the participants, by transforming their life stories, poems, songs, and scenes into performances shared with a variety of audiences – e.g. other Street Sense participants; educational institutions; community organizations; religious organizations; donors; etc. These performances are designed to move the audiences to some kind of positive, productive action to end homelessness in our community.

In order to do this most effectively, the workshop develops the performance skills of the participants, as well as their writing skills. To that end, we are exploring already written material, such as the works of Shakespeare, as well as the participants’ own original work written and improvised.

The Performances: The performances generally last 45 minutes, followed by a question & answer session with the audience. The plays are episodic, consisting of songs, scenes, monologues, and poems. They can be tailored to specific age groups, and can be shorter in length, if necessary.