PDX Performance Troupe Weekend Immersion

Come join The PDX Deep Play Performance Troupe and take part in an immersive deep dive into our December 2024 piece Thresholding. This is a chance to fully transition from audience-witness into participant, as we guide you through the improvisational structures and deep play methodologies of our piece (Saturday), and then give you an opportunity to perform with us (Sunday).

Participants should arrive well rested and well fed as both days contain a durational component. On Saturday we will begin promptly at 12:30pm with an opening circle, agreements, and then some warmup games. The main activity of our day on Saturday will be teaching a long-form deep play improvisational structure that will be performed together on Sunday in a durational performance. On Sunday please arrive at 12pm for one hour of setup and warmup. And then 1-5pm will be our durational performance. Participants do not need to be “active” in the piece the entire time, but staying in the performance space for the entire time is required. For both days it is recommended that everyone bring snacks, water bottle, and a journal. Participants are welcome to only attend the Saturday workshop component.

Additionally, this weekend immersion functions as an initiatory experience for anyone interested in becoming a full-fledged member of the PDX Deep Play Performance Troupe. After the weekend immersion we will reach out to participants interested in joining to have a final audition before potentially joining the troupe. Of course participants may choose to attend the weekend who have no interest in joining the troupe as a full-fledged member.

Please read below about Thresholding (our December 2024 piece that this workshop/performance is based upon) to get a better sense of what the weekend will be like.

Unfolding at the intersection of ritual, play, and inquiry, Thresholding is a performative exploration of liminality—the dynamic borderlands between order and chaos, art and therapy, sense and nonsense, performer and audience. At its core, the piece weaves together a series of structured improvisational games and ceremonies designed to engage the mysteries of presence, transformation, and collective imagination. This debut performance by the Deep Play Institute’s PDX Performance Troupe draws on psychodramatic techniques, surrealist language games, rule-based improvisational systems, conversation scores, and vocal experiments. The troupe operates as a living laboratory for "deep play," inhabiting the fluid space between safety and risk, individuality and collectivity, buoyancy and heaviness, centeredness and marginality.

–🌾— PRACTICALS DETAILS —🌾–
​
Price: Price is tiered based on an sliding scales of income/subsistence and ranges from $50-100

Sliding Scale: Please

try to reasonably and honestly select the price that reflects your

economic situation. If you are unable to find a price that is suitable

for you, please get in touch [thedeepplayinstitute@gmail.com]. We are committed to covering our basic costs, while also making this possible for everyone who needs it.

Location: Our Saturday workshop will be at FLOCK 2516 NW 29th Ave. Our Sunday durational performance will be at Performance Works NorthWest. 4625 SE 67th Ave.

Timing:

Our workshop will begin promptly at 12:30pm on Saturday. Participants

are encourage to arrive 15 minutes early, as we will begin promptly at

12:30 and we will be unable to accommodate late arrivals. On Sunday, we

will arrive at 12pm for 1-hour of warmups before the durational

performance which will begin promptly at 1pm and go for 4 hours.

Maximum Participants: 15

Covid Policy:

We will follow CDC protocol regarding covid isolation and engagement.

If any participant has symptoms of covid (i.e. cold symptoms), we ask

you to please take a home-test and if you test positive you cannot

attend the workshop. If you test negative, and you are sick, we ask you

to still wear a mask (as tests can deliver false negatives). For

everyone else, masks are optional.

Cancellation Policy:

Refunds are available up to 30 days before the event - minus a $20

processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for

the event. Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place

under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree

family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring

hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the

local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according

to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.

Out of Town Participants:

The Deep Play Institute is not able to provide accommodations for

out-of-town participants. DPI is also not able to refund any travel or

housing costs in the unlikely event of cancellation.

About the Deep Play Institute The

Deep Play Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to exploring

life’s deepest questions through transformative play. DPI’s facilitators

– therapists, artists, coaches, and philosophers – aim to use play to

bring people into an experiential questioning of what it means to exist.

Each program that DPI runs is a unique container, creatively

constructed and inspired by practices that include: Gestalt therapy,

Process Work, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Tavistock

Group Relations, Relational Psychoanalysis, Authentic Relating,

Nonviolent Communication, Circling, coaching, performance art, contact

improvisation, experimental theater, LARPs, surrealism, existential

games, and various schools of meditation.