From: Barbara Fritts-Worby

Thanks to a Holliston Cultural Council grant, Diverse Holliston – in partnership with our independent bookstore Aesop’s Fable is bringing True Story Theater to town for back-to-back Zoom events addressing issues of identity, inclusion, and exclusion in Holliston.  The events, a playback performance and an active bystander workshop, are for adults and families with young people 13+. The events will be held on Zoom, on successive Sundays, May 16 and May 23, from 12:30 to 3:00 pm.

The May 16 True Story Theater will be a playback theater performance, that is, audience members share stories of their own experiences of identity in Holliston, and True Story’s performers ‘play back’ the story, helping audience members and the teller-witness understand and integrate the deeper issues of identity at stake in our community. The performance helps develop real empathy across differences and helps build a more inclusive community. 

The May 23 event is an Active Bystander Workshop, a training which gives participants the knowledge and in-the-moment skills they need to intervene effectively in situations of bias and bigotry we encounter in Holliston. The content of this training will be built on the specific issues of identity that emerge from the May 16 performance and will be supported by in-depth materials on the nature of identity, and detailed bystander workbooks that True Story has developed through years of experience. 

The goal of these workshops is to help us build a more inclusive, compassionate and empathic Holliston.  The Eventbrite link to register: https://exploringidentityholliston.eventbrite.com