Brielle Silvestri

Following up on our workshop in 2019, my father, Dr. Ken Silvestri and I created and facilitated a 3-hour virtual workshop for family therapists called 'Continuing the Conversation; Revisiting Systems Thinking.' Together, we explored what it means to work with a systemic mind-set.

Theatre in Tandem is thrilled to be presenting at AATE this July on our work using theatre techniques to enrich adult learning.

10 months after officially launching, Theatre in Tandem has partnered with five colleges and universities to facilitate experiential learning sessions and fieldwork experience through applied theatre. We have been asked back and worked into the budget for an ongoing partnership by three of those partner organizations.

Six theatre makers came together in March of 2020 to work on a play for young audiences that was meant to be performed in person in July of 2020. But as the world entered a pandemic and kept quickly changing, we started the search for a new story. Through discussions, improvisations, and play, the theme of community and connection arose, and we found ourselves as neighbors in a Zoom building. You can check out the trailer HERE.

As we devised this play together over 4 months, the creative team experienced community and connection through time and space. Our international team was located in Beirut, New York and Canóvanas. The process kept us going during these challenging times. We shared our Zoom building with other neighbors throughout the U.S. and all around the world in September of 2020. We had young people join us from India, the Philippines, Lebanon, and Spain, to name only a few locations.

In August of 2020, I launched an experiential learning applied theatre company along with my thesis partners, David Melchionne-Martinez and Colleen Horan with the aim of bringing applied theatre into adult education. Through a variety of theatrical techniques we practice problem-solving, critical thinking, observation and questioning skills, and explore professional ethics. Our framework supports students in interrogating and reflecting on their learning, culture, identity, power dynamics, and more in relation to their future profession.

On November 18th, 2019 along with my father, Dr. Ken Silvestri, I created and facilitated a 5-hour workshop for family therapists called 'Revisiting Systemic Thinking.' Together, we explored what it means to work with a systemic mind-set.

As part of my graduate studies, we traveled to the University of Rwanda where we shared theatre activities with student-teachers and explored how the techniques could be used in classrooms.

In 2018, my team of fellow facilitators presented our original forum theatre piece, first created to share with students at the University of Rwanda. The piece centered on the experience of the character of a domestic helper. Forum theatre is an Augusto Boal technique used in Theatre of the Oppressed.

Along with my team of fellow actor-educators, we created an original Spanish-English interactive theatre piece for kindergarten students in Brooklyn. Centered around their curriculum topic of the life cycle of butterflies, the piece explored the impact of littering on our environment.

Along with my fellow actor-educators, we created an original forum theatre piece entitled Marie's Crisis that looked at the social justice issues faced by a domestic worker.

Index cards from participants of an original process drama. The cards addressed the question, what are you willing to take a stand for?