Free Street Certificate Series: Devising

Join Free Street for one (or two) 4 hour institute sessions, focused on devising.

Free Street’s training process is designed to meet you where you are. Whether you have a lot of experience as an artist or you are still wondering if you can do it (you can!), we believe theater, storytelling, and community building are skills that benefit everyone, in all kinds of contexts! Free Street’s unique facilitation style is focused on joy, justice, and amplifying our collective abilities.

If you would like to attend both sessions please choose the “both session” ticket on the March 21st date.

Participants must enroll by March 9th.

Session focuses: A director centered approach to devising content & structure through Free Street’s ensemble process. Higlights: community engaged methods of crafting theatrical performance, defining your central question, call to action.

About Free Street: Founded in 1969, Free Street’s history and future is dedicated to using theatre as a tool in a larger social justice strategy. We use stories & data to create original plays through a community based process. Free Street is a femme-led arts and culture organization that centers original performance work by Black, Brown, and Immigrant communities; queer artists; youth artists; and work that is committed to the thriving and well-being of people on the South and West Sides of the city. We believe in the theater as a space to uplift joy and justice, especially racial, economic, and environmental justice in Chicago.

Meet Your Facilitators:

Coya Paz is an award-winning author, director, and public speaker – her TED Talk has over a million views. She teaches full-time in The Theatre School at DePaul University and is the co-author (with Chloe Johnston) of Ensemble-Made Chicago: A Guide to Devised Theater.

Katrina Dion is Free Street’s Producing Artistic Director, who has directed over 15 works at Free Street and supported production on over 40 shows. At The Theatre School at DePaul University she teaches directing and production, and most notable is the winner of the 2023 Chicago Reader “Best of” award for “Best Stage Director”.

Cost:

The $65 (or $120 for both sessions) per attendee will cover instructor time, helps support scholarships for others. If you are in need of a scholarship please follow the below instructions:

email info@freestreet.org subject: Institute Scholarship Request

Please detail what scholarship amount would make attending this institute possible, why you hope to participate in the institute, and if you feel comfortable, why you need financial assistance.

Please note, we may not be able to fufill every scholarship request. If we can provide a scholarship you will be sent a code to use while completing sign up on Eventbrite.