Consultation Process 

We work with community organizations, researchers, and arts groups to co-create community engagements that are culturally safe and supportive. We wish to set-up spaces for deep listening, dialogue, and community care. Our consultation process is based on the principles of relationality or good-relations, where we establish and develop a relationship with our community partners to understand the needs of the organization and topics they wish to explore in their community. 

We help create a community engagement plan that considers the needs of the multiple and complex factors to set up space to explore broad systemic issues and barriers that impact a community. In our consultation meetings, we explore specific cultural considerations, such as language, religious and spiritual needs, and accessibility needs to reduce barriers to engagement (such as choosing culturally accessible locations for engagements, offering childcare, transportation, language interpretation, etc.). We can also discuss video/audio recording needs for research or media purposes through our project partner Fallout Media. 

Our company members prepare by exploring the themes and topics in our rehearsal process and we offer opportunities for community organizers to engage in the process, offer feedback and opportunities to refine community engagement plans. The plan may include many preparation meetings for one or several community engagements, with debrief sessions to ensure we learn and refine the process.

Our past projects and current work have focused on anti-racism, discrimination, challenging Islamophobia, historical/intergenerational trauma, educational and health barriers for Indigenous peoples and African, Caribbean, Black (ACB) and People of Colour (POC) cultural communities. Through our work with many cultural communities, we have learned that our playback workshops and performances are engagements of community care, where we can collectively address systemic issues that create harm and that impact the community as a whole. Community care through playback theatre provides a collective and immediate response to the needs of a community, holding a space for sharing stories, deep listening and joyful encounters that bring a space for nurturing, belonging and a sense of healing.