Oral History Projects


Oral History in Performance from the Local to the Global

Theater artist Tikka Sears works with teachers to introduce interviewing skills and ethics to workshop participants. Participants then interview members of the community.  Topics can be based on a theme chosen in collaboration with each group. Participants will then transcribe the interview and create a 1st person narrative monologue from their interviewee.  Participants will then collaboratively write a short play based on their collective interviews.  Basic theater principles of staging, gesture, tableaux and embodiment will be introduced. Each group will then have time to plan, rehearse and perform their play.  A reflective community conversation will conclude the workshop.

For K-12 Classroom Teachers: EALR’s implemented 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.3, 3.2. and 4.1-4.5).

In addition to the workshop sessions, there will be a 30-minute collaborative planning session beforehand with the workshop organizer to explore ways in which the stories can complement the existing organization, classroom or company.

  • Interview Skills: Question Development, Conducting Interviews
  • Interview Transcription and Monologue Development
  • Playwriting and Character Exploration
  • Play Rehearsal & Performance
  • Concluding Community Reflection

Can be arranged over the course of a weekend, several weeks or over the course of a few months.

Past workshop participants have included:

  • Professional Theater Artists and Educators
  • Community Organizations
  • University of Washington undergraduate and graduate students
  • Franklin High School 9th grade classrooms
  • Wilkes Elementary School on Bainbridge Island-Fourth Grade classrooms and teachers