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Full-Text Articles in Interpersonal and Small Group Communication

Suit My Heart: Staging Foster Youth Narratives That Hit Home, Michelle Hayford Dec 2016

Suit My Heart: Staging Foster Youth Narratives That Hit Home, Michelle Hayford

Michelle Hayford

While devising Suit My Heart, I relied upon my training in the ‘three A’s’ of performance studies conceived by my late mentor Dwight Conquergood as “artistry, analysis and activism” (2002: 152). With these ‘three A’s’ in mind, I set out to facilitate a devising process and create an artistic product that would positively serve all communities involved. The quality of the project would be determined not only by the efficacy of the play that we produced in the end, but by the personal growth of my students and the empowerment of our community partners throughout the process. Discovering the reach …


Changing Through Laughter With “Laughter For A Change”, Laurel J. Felt, Ed Greenberg Jul 2016

Changing Through Laughter With “Laughter For A Change”, Laurel J. Felt, Ed Greenberg

Occasional Paper Series

This paper describes systematic observation, research, and analysis of Laughter for a Change (L4C)’s 2011–2012 after-school improv workshop, revealing the program’s multiple impacts. Our data suggest that improvising creates a “safe space,” a supportive context in which participants feel empowered to take risks and play freely.