The Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble is holding auditions to add several members to its core troupe. Group auditions will be held Thursday, November 6th @ 3:30 PM. at a Port Townsend location TBA. Call Marc @ 344-3435 in advance to sign up for the audition as well as for details including directions to audition location. Acting experience is useful but not necessary to be part of Poetic Justice.

Requirements are:
• a passion for social justice.
• the readiness for honest self-reflection in a group context.
• the ability to make a consistent weekly commitment to rehearsals every Thursday 3-6 PM, from November thru mid-June 2009 plus a weekend intensive retreat November 15-16. (Standard holidays off.)

The Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble is a community service project of the Port Townsend based, Mandala Center for Change. Now in our 7th season, this long-term troupe's focus is on stimulating community dialogue and inviting positive action around burning social issues. In our improvisational performances, audience members are not spectators but spect-actors -- invited onstage to explore solutions to their own questions and struggles. A deeply dedicated multi-generational (currently ages 15-80), multi-cultural team, Poetic Justice seeks people who, from their own life experience, cover the range and diversity of the local community we are working to serve – especially around issues of marginalization. This fall, we are particularly seeking and are committed to casting young people and People of Color. We are also are seeking people with playwriting and musical skills. We hold weekly 3-hour rehearsals (Thursdays 3-6 PM) in Uptown PT. Our work together is physical, emotional, and a lot of fun. And it has the potential to change lives as well as the society around us.

Past season’s highlights included public performance/dialogues around substance abuse, poverty, disability, gender and sexual orientation, Eco-activism, the Iraq war, and nuclear munitions at Indian Island. We also have done more extensive projects such as “Paradise or Prison?” -- an interactive Forum Theatre play about how the community can better support its young people and “The Wisdom Keepers” with performances in local senior residences. This season, plans include developing and performing several interactive Forum Theatre plays to springboard dialogue on particularly hot local issues.

Collectively run, the Ensemble specializes in the acclaimed performance and workshop techniques, Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre among others. Theatre of the Oppressed, as created by Brazilian visionary, Augusto Boal, is a form of popular community based education which uses theater as a tool for transformation. Originally developed out of Boal’s work with peasant and worker populations, it is now used all over the world for social and political activism, conflict resolution, community building, therapy, and government legislation. Playback Theatre, as developed by American, Jonathan Fox, very simply and exquisitely honors personal story.

Founded in 1999, the Mandala Center is a multi-disciplinary education organization dedicated to community dialogue, social justice and personal transformation. Through experiential workshops, performances, and other creative events, the Mandala Center invites people to be more awake and alive as well as empowered to take action toward a more just and joyous world for all people. The Center is also an internationally respected hub for the training and grassroots practice of Theatre of the Oppressed.

To sign up for auditions or for more information on Poetic Justice and/or the Mandala Center, contact:
Marc Weinblatt
Mandala Center for Change
360-344-3435
marc@mandalaforchange.com