Dynamize! An evening with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
Date/Time: Thursday, October 8, 2026, 6pm - 8pm
Location: Judson Memorial Church, Assembly Hall, 239 Thompson Street, New York, NY 10012
Tickets are FREE (please donate $15+ to our fall fundraiser)
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Join Theatre of the Oppressed NYC for the premiere screening of TONYC IS, and discussion with theatre practitioners in NYC exploring cultural activism. Food and refreshments will be provided!
TONYC IS is a short documentary featuring actors and facilitators from our Forum Theatre Troupes, made by TONYC through our own participatory budgeting.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion focused on NYC cultural activism in different contexts. Author and board member Jan Cohen-Cruz will moderate, with TONYC jokers Liz Morgan & Marcela Artunduaga, Pablo Hernandez Basulto, Director of of Civic Artistic Programs at the Public Theatre; Beto O’Byrne of Radical Evolution, and Chris Vine, director of the Masters in Applied Theatre at Hunter College.
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About our featured artists:
Jan Cohen-Cruz: Jan earned her PhD at NYU Performance Studies and taught in NYU Drama for 28 years, founding their applied theater minor. She brought Augusto Boal to the US (1980s) and co-edited two books about his work with Mady Schutzman. Jan edited Radical Street Performance; wrote Engaging Performance: Theater as Call & Response; Local Acts: Community Based Performance in the US; Remapping Performance; and co-authored Meeting the Moment with Rad Pereira. Jan was director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (2007–2012) and director of field research for A Blade of Grass. Recent books include See Me: Prison Theater Workshops and Love (2024; also podcast) and Performing Emancipatory Rites of Passage (2026) co-edited with Kevin Bott. www.jancohencruz.com
Marcela Artunduaga is a Queens-based Theater Artist originally from Colombia. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Dramatic Arts from Universidad del Valle and a Master of Arts in Applied Theater from CUNY SPS. She has been involved in theater since 2010, first in Cali, her native town, and, recently, in New York City. She has been involved in theater since 2010, first in Cali, her native town, and, recently, in New York City. Marcela’s work is founded on the belief in community-based theater, where participants are the center of the encounters. She strongly aims for a creative method that allows space for critical thinking, imagination, movement and an ongoing reflection throughout the process. Marcela is a TONYC Worker-Member.
Pablo Hernandez Basulto (he/him) is an emerging leader in the theater and social engagement field. Born and raised in Mexico, Pablo started his career creating socially engaged projects at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, including developing audience engagement with Anna Deavere Smith; later Pablo worked with People’s Palace Projects and the Augusto Boal Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, collaborating with With One Voice, an international network of choirs composed of people experiencing houselessness. Since then, he has invested extensive work in the evolution of Public Works at The Public Theater as the Director of Civic Artistic Programs and first Staff Board representative of the historic theater. He holds a BA in theater from Northeastern University.
Liz Morgan (she/her) has worked with TONYC since 2015. She is an award-winning theatre artist based best known for her poem "Why I was Late Today…" (Huffington Post). As a teaching artist, Liz has worked with MCC Theater, Opening Act, The Other Side and The People's Theatre. In 2022, she co-authored The Wildcard Workbook, a practical guide for devising forum theatre. Liz is an alum of Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Theatre of Change program with Columbia Law through which she developed Life Liberty & the Pursuit of Happily Ever After, a Cinderella-inspired one-act meant to inspire advocacy around immigrant rights. She is a founding member of the Radical Evolution Street Theatre Crew. Liz was a member of the A.R.T./NY Body Autonomy Leadership Council and TCG’s 2021 Rising Leaders of Color cohort. Liz currently works for the Brotherhood Sister Sol as their Professional Development Facilitator & Coach. Liz studied theatre and dance abroad at the London Dramatic Academy, the Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed in India and the Yeredon Center for Malian Arts and holds both a B.A. and M.F.A. from Brown University.
Beto O’Byrne hails from East Texas and is the co-founder of Radical Evolution, a multi-ethnic, multi-disciplinary producing collective based in Brooklyn, NY. The author of 20 plays, screenplays, and original tv pilots, his works have been produced and developed in New York City, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Louisville, Portland, and San Antonio. He was the 2017 playwright-in-residence at the Stella Adler School of Acting and a 2050 Playwriting Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, and his works have received residencies at the New Ohio Theatre, Pregones Theater, Sol Project, Tofte Lake Arts Center, Kitchen Dog Theater, and more. In addition to his work in the theatre, Beto is a musician and the creator of A Revolutionary Chorus, a punk choral project, and the creative visionary and lead writer of the World of Kir fantasy series. Beto teaches classes and workshops on creative writing, theatre, and activist/political performing arts theory and practices at universities, colleges, and community spaces across the country. MFA, Dramatic Writing: University of Southern California. www.betoobyrne.com ** RSVP for For the Streets! - A Festival of Political Performance on Saturday, Oct 17.
Chris Vine built and launched the Applied Theatre program at CUNY with longtime collaborator Helen White. The program, the first of its kind in the USA, launched in 2008. Its holistic approach to theory and practice is embodied in the extensive individual and combined professional theatre, facilitation, and teaching practices of its distinguished faculty. Chris has over 40 years of professional experience. He is a founding member of Perspectives Theatre Company (UK), the former Artistic Director of Greenwich Young People's Theatre (London), and the Creative Arts Team (New York). His work has extended worldwide. His specialties include theatre-in-education (TIE), process drama, and Theatre of the Oppressed. He is co-editor of the keystone 3rd edition of Learning Through Theatre: The Changing Face of Theatre in Education (Routledge 2013). In 2019, Chris received the Campton Bell Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.
COVID Policy: In order to keep our community safe, we recommend attendees wear masks, unless they have received a negative COVID test result within 24 hours of the event.
Questions? Contact Sulu LeoNimm · nimm@tonyc.nyc