Theater as Tool for Moral Reasoning: How to intentionally create inclusive communities through the power of theater with a focus on capacity building and spiritual empowerment.

With the objective to bridge the divide, to raise consciousness, and break down the roots of racism and bigotry we will discuss opportunities for using theater as tool for healing within a spiritual perspective. Exploring the power of theater as a tool for moral reasoning, we will discuss the Children's Theater Company's approach to creating a theatrical experience that not only bears witness to humanities’ past, but that through an authentic interaction with audiences, we can create a profound community of listeners and change agents. We will review audience engagement tools and how audience-driven post-show workshops, within safe spaces, can reveal how dialogue and empathy are inextricably linked.

The Children’s Theater Company has a social-justice imperative at its core. By developing musicals that cultivate an understanding of the personal, cultural and spiritual forces that shape society, CTC’s original musicals explore the theater’s power to impact diversity, to develop empathy and compassion for the human condition, and to allow us to learn from lives we’ve never lived. The Children’s Theater Company is rooted in the belief that through the magic of theater youth can become the voices of positive change and agents of healing in their communities.