Times have been very hard of late. At the end of this post is an invitation to join us as we shape a vision for the next decade where artists and creativity will be central to healing our fracturing society. Because there is always hope when it is fueled by intentional action.

Ten years ago we launched The Global Theatre Project in Los Angeles with a star-studded event bringing attention to the situation in Belarus. We asked our American audience why we should care about censorship in democracy or an authoritarian ‘president’ in Eastern Europe who imprisons, tortures and kills his opponents in a small country few had heard of. We spent the evening learning and discussing why we should care, we signed petitions. Our relationship with Amnesty International began at this event and paved a direction of integrating multiple mission-specific organizations and individuals in our approach to engaging with the community throughout the decade.

Since that time we have worked with hundreds of artists on the east and west coasts of the USA, in England and Italy connecting them with thousands of community members and working in various languages on projects of varying size and scope. We worked as well with hundreds of university students who absorbed the experience of intercultural work, community engagement and activism and brought it forward into their lives and diverse career paths throughout the years.

We are proud of the work we have done, the community we have and are creating. We will take this moment to celebrate being often on the vanguard of connecting our neighbors to important social issues years ahead of them becoming central to the common concern. We have always been responsive to the moment, and used every opportunity to learn from our experience – both our failures and successes.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We arrive again at one of those moments. When we think about impact and what the next ten years will bring we have to look at whether our mission is aligned with the true need of the world we find ourselves in. Is it enough to bring attention to an issue, to even bring action to the problem, if the roots of our society are not strong enough to sustain that change in a real way?

Ten years after our inaugural event, our own country sees our democracy as weakened, the existence of facts questioned, and Belarus still lives under the oppressive, although growingly desperate, thumb of a dictator-president. Very little on all the issues we’ve brought attention to has changed. In all honesty every single issue has gotten worse.

Part of our intention was to awaken individuals and to build a community of theatre artists and community members who felt their connection to the world more sharply and who would have the tools to work with what they encountered. We achieved this, but it is not enough. Change can not take place without standing on the ground of true renewal of our relationships with our fellow human beings. And that is what our commitment is now to – theatre and art for the RENEWAL of our communities and our society.

Over the next ten years The GTP will be focusing our efforts on the expansion of Creative Corps. This initiative evolved out of our early work with university students in Florence toward its current embodiment of a growing cadre of artists trained in the Four Pillars approach to #Arts4SocialRenewal. We intend to inspire a movement of artists of all types and all experiences to infuse their world with the power of creative expression and engagement. To awaken our neighbors to the truth of our innate empathetic capacity, to the beauty of our world and each other.

You’ve read in this newsletter about our relationship with Community Renewal International. Our next decade will solidify that relationship through a partnership that will see Creative Corps and our work participate in a plan for a “New Village” model of community. One where the arts will be deeply incorporated into daily life, interdependent with other sectors of communal living. Creative Corps artists will have the opportunity to be trained both in our methodology and CRI’s system of caring – with the intention of re-imagining how we live together. In order to participate in saving our world.

Beginning this fall we will have a series of introductory virtual meetings available to anyone on this planet who wants to use their creative talent and passion to change the narrative of the human story. To stop the fracturing of our civilization instead of witnessing it. To create and share new TRUE stories of human interaction and capacity to counteract those which are currently terrifying all of us and our friends, family and neighbors.

If you are interested in learning more about this, and we hope you are, then please write me at info@theglobaltheatreproject.org to receive specific information about when our first introductory events will be. ALL are welcome.

For now I wish you well. Happy Tenth anniversary to you all. Your support and belief in our work allowed us to impact so many lives. As we move together through this next decade imagine with me your place in a world of beauty and joy! It’s time to build the Creative Village. One neighborhood at a time.

With love, hope and excitement for what’s to come,

Bari Hochwald-Cagnola
Founder and Artistic Director