Theatre & Housing Workshops

How has the housing crisis touched you?

This is one of the many questions we’ll explore in our weekly workshop series, where we’ll discuss the ever-pervasive housing crisis happening in Ithaca—through theatre. For five weeks, Civic Ensemble will unpack what it means to call a place home, what determines someone’s access to a house, and how fostering community helps shape a home.

Join us!

If you’ve ever had any anxiety around your personal housing circumstances, join us for our weekly workshop series where we’ll explore navigating housing and resources in Tompkins County. Whether that’s loss of stability, major life event change, loss of physical home and space, lack of safety and/or uncertainty about the future of your housing. We welcome you to share your personal stories and experiences navigating the systems that exist around housing.

For five weeks, you’ll participate in theatre activities and discussions. No theatre experience is needed.

You are encouraged to attend all sessions.

Dates: February 9, February 16, February 23, March 2, March 9

Time: 3-4:30 pm

Location: First Presbyterian Church, 315 N. Cayuga St., Ithaca, NY, 14850

Why are we doing this?

As a community-engaged theatre company, we create original plays and theatrical opportunities rooted in our local community that explore our communities' questions, challenges, and dreams. We do so by creating “Community-based plays,” which are original plays about a theme or question relevant to our local community. Previous plays have explored themes such as health & healing, the climate crisis, policing, education, and parenting. Sometimes, these plays are written by a playwright, and sometimes, they are devised/created by a group of community members. We use processes such as improvisation, story circles, and writing activities to help build the play. By participating in this workshop series, we hope to gain insights that will lead to the development of the next full community-based play.
What sorts of “theatre activities” will we do?

We’ll play theatre games, do improvisation, create pieces of theatre, write scenes for monologues, etc.
I’ve never done theatre before. Can I still attend?

Yes, we welcome everyone and their unique experiences! No theatre experience is needed just an open mind.
Will food be served?

We are not serving full meals. However, light snacks and refreshments will be made available.
Who do I contact for more information?

Contact our Director of Artistic Producing, Gabriella, at 607-622-0303 or gabriella@civicensemble.org. You can also reach us at www.civicensemble.org and @civicensemble on Instagram and Facebook. First Presbyterian Church has on site parking and free street parking on Sundays. Also, the site is ADA accessible. If you need ADA accommodations, please reach out to Gabriella in advance of the workshops.