Firstly and most importantly, I want to make sure everyone knows that you don’t have to do any of the activities you don’t want to, but I encourage you to give things a try and see if you might like it.
We are all here to support each other, not judge! After all, everyone involved in the workshop has their own experiences with disability (and prejudice!) so this is a space we can safely share those experiences with each other.
We will start with some gentle introduction games to get to know each other a little bit. For those who don’t like surprises, these will be the two introduction games:
Game 1: we will introduce ourselves with our name, an “outside” fact (something a lot of people could guess if they met you, and an “inside" fact (something unexpected that they wouldn’t know unless you shared). This could be something you like, hate, a secret skill, anything at all!
Game 2: we’ll warm up a little with a game called Pass the Stim – each person can show the group something small you do that makes you feel good, and we’ll all give it a try. It might be a noise, a movement, a visual stim, something textural – just one of those odd little things we all do to help us feel regulated.
After the games we’ll talk briefly and come up with some agreements so we can work well with each other, and everyone feels safe and respected.
For our first task after the intro, we’ll use prompts to help pick a very short story from our lives – just one or two sentences.
Then, we’ll look at different ways of telling those stories. We’ll play with things like setting, scale, emotions, tone and truthfulness to find a way of telling the story you like.
Next, we will look at theatrical techniques like movement, lighting, colour, and more.
Finally, we’ll look at music, and how we can relate our story to a song, soundscape, or silence for maximum effect.