By Amy Poulson, Teatro del Pueblo

Teatro del Pueblo’s artistic director, Al Justiniano, recently presented a workshop for teachers as part of a Department of Education-funded project called FACETS (Focus on Arts, Culture and Excellence for Teachers and Students). This project provides professional development opportunities for all K-12 arts teachers in Minneapolis Public Schools (dance, theater, music, and visual arts).  These sessions are designed for teachers to improve their comprehension and awareness of their diverse students’ cultural contexts. The teachers attending this session were theater and dance teachers.

Al’s workshop provided teachers with a brief background on a prevalent theatrical movement focusing on social change in Latin America, followed by a series of useful physical theatrical exercises that integrate social elements of the Theatre of the Oppressed.

The teachers were exposed to cognitive and kinetic theatrical exercises dealing with the immigrant perspective as a means to gain deeper understanding of the immigrant experience.