Building Civic Empathy: The Storytelling Game

In 1978, Gerard Stropnicky co-founded Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble where he worked as an actor, director, writer and administrator for the next 35 years, and where he began his life-long pioneering investigation in the power of community voice in place-based work. In Pennsylvania, Appalachia, the deep South, New Orleans, and Uganda, he’s written and directed original site-specific productions where diverse community casts employ local story to celebrate, challenge, and address their issues. He co-founded the Network of Ensemble Theaters, and is a 2010 USA Fellow. He is the 2010 Temple Grandin Award winner for service to the autism community.

When engaging communities across sector, across discipline, across intersections of economics, race, class, sex, gender, age, faith, ability, education, language, geography, and more, a single question always arises: How do we truly listen to each other? The Storytelling Game releases the wonder and responsibility that comes from holding another’s story in your hands and heart. Designed for colleges and universities, this active workshop offers an understanding of the keys that release the power in community story, and includes a contextual overview to session leader Gerard Stropnicky’s decades of experience creating place-based, change-making work.