Theatre—and other art forms—do not exist for the purposes of putting on a show or selling tickets.  They exist for connection.  Regardless of who is in the audience, every individual brings something with them.  Their own experiences allow them to connect; and every individual connects in a different way.  Many elements of artistic work have a unique capacity to engage people in thinking and talking about civic or social concerns or simply with each other to build trust or find common ground. That is the power of the arts.

 

The goal of this toolkit is to allow each theatre to tailor conversations about empathy around a given performance and empower the attendees to create conversations of their own.  As we say at The Humanity Theatre Project, it all starts with empathy.