Theatre doesn’t always happen on stage. It unfolds all around us on a daily basis.
In 2015, we witnessed with horror the tragic death of Eric Garner at the hands of NYC police officers. Our city was forced to grapple with questions of history, procedure, and social responsibility, and Irondale saw an opportunity to contribute to the discussion through its unique lens of improvisation, actor training, and ensemble building.
Over the past 8 years, To Protect, Serve, and Understand (TPSU)™ has gained local and national acclaim for being an innovative training program designed to ease tension between police and community members. Each series of workshops lasts ten weeks. Seven officers and seven community members come together to break bread, play, sing and have difficult conversations. They learn how to communicate and how to listen. They learn to improvise, tell their own stories, and “step into each other’s shoes.” The workshops culminate in public performances that show what can come from mutual trust and empathetic understanding.
We are now recruiting civilians to join the next series of workshops from January-March 2024. Paid stipend included. Participants must be 18+.
Click here to register for an interview.
Watch a video about the series here:
To Protect, Serve, and Understand (TPSU)™ has gained local and national acclaim for being a ground-breaking training program and TPSU facilitators will travel to Belgium in the fall of 2023 to work with Ras El Hanout, a Brussels-based theatre ensemble.
They came to Irondale in 2022 for a three-hour workshop and now they want our help to create their own program, based on the TPSU model, that will facilitate open and honest discussion and strengthen the relationship between police officers and immigrant members of the community.
These exchange opportunities are being made possible with funding by the US State Department.
Your gift will support: the next big Ensemble production, our Youth Programs and To Protect, Serve and Understand - the groundbreaking program where police officers and civilians learn to communicate through theatre. And because we believe that art is so necessary to the life and health of a community, we are making all tickets to Irondale productions FREE in 2023.
Help Irondale celebrate its 40th Anniversary with a gift that ensures the future of our mission.
Please make a tax-deductible donation to Irondale today.
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