That’s play maven and longtime Institute colleague and educator Tony Perone (4th from l.) and Institute pedagogy director and play-pal Carrie Lobman (6th from l.) in the pointy-green elf hats — taking a bow after a performance at annual conference of The Association for the Study of Play .
Among the leadership at TASP, Carrie (who also serves as Second Vice President), Tony and Institute alumna and educator Barbara O’Neill are helping to build enthusiasm for revolutionary play and performance activism. Carrie has been tapped to play the role of convener for the 2016 conference that will be held in New Jersey.
Tony and Carrie led a workshop on Performance Activism, which included (appropriately enough) conducting a poll of participants which asked their opinions on: What is a performance activist? and, Are you an activist? Then it was time to create a performance piece: One group created a street theatre scene that challenged the ways adults talk to children. Another group devised an “agitprop” scene that portrayed how people relate to non-English speakers as dumb.
Carrie also presented a first-look at findings from her ethnographic research study of the All Stars Project of New Jersey, entitled, Performing on a Wider Stage: Developing Inner City Youth Through Play and Performance.
Barbara presented her work Improvisational Play Interventions: Supporting Children’s Play in Inclusive Classrooms, which offered a social-therapeutic approach to helping preschoolers with special needs.
Tony also presented his research on Mexican-American Adults’ Experiences with and Suggestions for Imaginative Play in Formal Learning Environments Across the Lifespan.
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