Existential Playground is an ongoing virtual event dedicated to playfully experimenting with the essential questions of our existence. Each playground creates an immersive container meant to catalyze questions around a given theme. For roughly 2-3 hours, we will live questions, try on questions (like outfits), breath in the space around the questions, and watch as more and more questions percolate. Deep play is the fodder for our questions – the play of our senses, feelings, thoughts, bodies, hearts, brains, relationalities, interiorities, voices, memories, edges, and shadows. Existential Playground is hosted by The Deep Play Institute in collaboration with The School of Making Thinking.

EXISTENTIAL PLAYGROUND #1 Parts
​Saturday Nov 21, 3-6:30pm EST

We are all made up of parts (i.e. different roles, selves, or inner voices). A critic, a lover, a despairer, a self-negater, a cheerleader, an aesthete, etc. Many relational practices (Internal Family Systems Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Process Work, Psychodrama, etc) attempt to work with these parts, to illuminate them, to help them collaborate, to speak, to see what lies beneath them. Our first existential playground we will be devoted to playing with our parts. After a short parts mapping introductory exercise, a handful of facilitators will offer workshops for us to participate in – as our parts. As we play, some of the questions that will most likely frame our playground are: What are my parts? What are your parts? Do they get along? Should they get along? How should they get along? What does that getting along look like? Is “getting along” an authentic mode of relating? What if they don't want to get along? Do some of my parts deserve to be pushed down or silenced? Do all parts deserve a voice? What if a part is violent or hurtful? Is there another part beneath it that is non-violent or not-hurtful? Does the core of all our parts want peace and love? Or is there no “core” to our parts? Or are these “cores” more messy, uncertain, and a mix of good and bad? Is there a part that bridges all these parts? Is there a self that integrates the parts? Is that “integrator” also a part? Is it parts all the way down?

Early Bird Tickets (until Nov 10th) are $30. Contact The Deep Play Institute for sliding scale options if needed. Tickets can be purchased here. Our event will be located on Zoom, and a ticket gives you access to the entirety of the event. Participants will need to choose 2 of 4 workshops (1 per session).

SCHEDULE

Saturday Nov 21, 3:00-6:30pm EST

3:00 PM Gathering

3:05 PM Parts Meditation

3:30 - 4:30 Session 1
BODY Parts and Tension as an Expression of the Self – Gabrielle Revlock
or
Voice Dialogues: talking between selves – Ilana Simons

4:35 - 5:00 Intermission / Parts Party Break

5:00 - 6:00 Session 2
Inviting our monsters to dance Inviting Our Monsters to Dance – Anna Costa e Silva
or
An Exchange of Masks: Finding Ourselves in Others – Melanie Cohn

6:05 - 6:30 Closing Reflections & Questions

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Voice Dialogues: talking between selves
Ilana Simons
Session 1

This workshop is an experiential dive into Voice Dialogue, a therapeutic practice that comes out of the Jungian tradition, in which therapist and client explore the various personalities that live inside us. The idea is that when we grow up into a certain family or culture, certain aspects of our personality get firmly developed, and others get less attended to, or disowned. Growing up in one family structure, you might develop your “Achiever” to a high degree; and in turn, your “Receiver," or the side that can ask for help, gets less attention. But these various sides always live inside us. In Voice Dialogue, a client gets the space to speak from just one of those personalities or energies—without apology, without placing it in context, without explaining. Having used this technique in private practice for a number of years, I know the power of that release. To speak from one side of personality without having to frame it is to honor it and release it. When we are done speaking from that one energy, we move back to the place of the center, which in Voice Dialogue is called Aware Ego. Aware Ego is the wisest form of ME from which we host dialogue among our various selves. In Voice Dialogue, self-acceptance is never the notion that we should uproot or suppress a side of ourself. Each side arose for a certain purpose, and brings a strength. Self-acceptance, or self-love, is when we are receptive to each of our various characters and host useful dialogue or coordination between them.

In this one-hour workshop, I will start with an explanation of the Voice Dialogue technique. I am a psychologist who uses the method in my private practice, which I have had for 10 years. We will experience a few dyads in the group – I will conduct voice dialogue with a few participants, and the group will collectively make observations and add insight. We will then each find one energy inside that calls us – a character of action – and come back to the larger group in character. You will work from just one energy within you, playing that energy out with the group. It’s a tea party in partial self. In the end, we will discuss how living in that energy relieved some pressure, or allowed us to see new aspects of ourselves.

Bio: I am a clinical psychologist who has worked in private practice for 10 years, in NYC, LA and now in Santa FE, NM. I work principally with artists, and Voice Dialogue is a central way in which I practice. I have PhD’s in both literature and psychology and have taught with The School of Making Thinking before, teaching a course in the Video Poem at Abron’s Art Center in 2015. I have also taught literature and writing at New York University, The New School, and the 92nd St Y. I am a filmmaker too, and my films have screened at The Cannes Film Festival, Hyperallergic.com, Poets & Writers website, Animation Block Party, and in Alain de Botton’s School of Life series. I write a blog for Psychology Today and originated Tin House magazine’s online site for video poems, Tin House Reels. I wrote and performed the one-woman show All Together Now at the New York Fringe Festival and am the author of A Life of One’s Own: A Guide to Better Living through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf (Penguin)

BODY Parts and Tension as an Expression of the Self
Gabrielle Revlock
​Session 1

We will begin by warming up the body, section at a time, through a guided and flowing improvisation. As we do so, we will observe the thoughts and feelings that arise. Which of your parts is present in this moment? And what causes another to enter, or not? We will then dive into a few ways we might organize the body. Inspired by Body-Mind Centering neurocellular patterns, we will explore homologous, homolateral, and contralateral movements. Do these movement patterns resonate with specific parts of the self? How might developmental patterns reflect the complexity or primitive nature of our parts? Might knowing these patterns bring greater physical expressiveness to our various parts? Finally, we will introduce our parts to Jacques Lecoq’s Seven Levels of Tension: Exhausted, Laid Back, Neutral, Alert, Suspense, Passionate and Tragic. What can we discover about the depth of our parts by allowing them to inhabit these tension states? Which states resonate while others challenge our assumptions about how our parts engage with the world? What are each of your parts’ default state of tension? Is there a relationship between muscle tension and identity? If we pay attention to how tension is distributed throughout the body, what might we notice and what might that signify? Our exploration will move us in ways familiar and foreign, opening participants to endless play and possibility. This movement focused workshop will include solo, partner and group reflection through writing and conversation.

Bio: I am a body-based artist whose work often depicts complicated but relatable interpersonal relationships using pedestrian movement vocabulary, abstracted by degrees. I’ve toured to Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Hungary, India, Russia, and been presented at notable US venues including New York Live Arts, The Flea, American Dance Festival, Gibney, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, JACK and FringeArts. My work has been supported by grants from the Puffin Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, American Dance Abroad, US Department of State and the Independence Foundation. In 2018 I was named ‘Newcomer of the Year’ by tanz, the German journal of ballet, dance, and performance. In 2019 I was an Institute Fellow with the experimental theater company, Target Margin. As a dancer, I’ve performed for Lucinda Childs, Jumatatu Poe, Susan Rethorst, Christopher Williams, Vicky Shick, Bill Young and Jane Comfort. In my role as teacher/facilitator I am on faculty with Movement Research and am a facilitator of the Brooklyn Contact Jam. Other places I’ve taught include: American Dance Festival, Gibney, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Greene Towne School, Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, Abrons Arts Center, The Barnes Foundation, Rowan University, NYU, Drexel University and Vassar College. In 2014 I created CardioCreativity a holistic dance fitness class with Nicole Bindler. It was featured on ABC news and received rave reviews from students for it's fun and community-oriented approach to fitness. I am also the creator of Restorative Contact, a mindful touch-based movement and empathy practice, which is a 5-star Airbnb Experience.

An Exchange of Masks: Finding Ourselves in Others
Melanie Cohn
Session 2

This experiential workshop creates a space to explore parts of ourselves that may not be our predominant way of being. The workshop is based on games from the arsenal of the Theatre of the Oppressed created by Augusto Boal, adapted for the distance technology of Zoom. Exercises will allow participants to fully feel their predominant way of being in the world and then will offer a space to"try on" physical characters modeled by others. In this way, we will begin to recognize hidden parts of ourselves. Participants will then have the opportunity to reflect and compare these states, exploring the strengths and vulnerabilities of various parts. In order to come to a space to work together, participants are asked to be prepared to turn their cameras on for active interaction within the group.

Bio

Melanie Cohn is a visual artist and the executive director of the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey where she has led the organization in growing its community programs--including the establishment of an art therapy program with New Jersey Veterans Affairs. Previously, she led Staten Island Arts, deepening its programs in art & healing, education, and folk art. She received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts & her BFA from Missouri State University.

Inviting our monsters to dance Inviting Our Monsters to Dance
Anna Costa e Silva
Session 2

The roles and parts we play are usually connected to past experiences and traumas; they are forms to protect ourselves from coming back to difficult emotional places. Behind each mask, there lies a monster who is afraid to be faced and discovered. Monsters are our fears, the parts of us that we deny and that impede us to move forward, restraining our movement to the same forms. “Inviting our monsters to dance” is workshop in which we will get in contact with our shadows and fears in a playful way. Through one on one connection, this workshop will exercise an empathic feel towards our monsters, our parts and one another. Drawing, fictionalizing and dancing will be our paths to lighter and ludic ways of looking at our masks. This is a profound work that happens in a playful manner.

Bio

Anna Costa e Silva is an artist, director and professor from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Owner of an MFA in Visual Arts from the School of Visual Arts, NYC, she works in the intersections between visual arts, performance, social practice and healing. She has won awards such as Terremoto Ubisoft Grant, American Austrian Foundation Prize, FOCO ArtRio, was a PIPA Prize nominee and a finalist for Marcantonio Vilaça Award 2019. Among her solo shows are “Asymptotes” at Caixa Cultural, “I offer company” at Superfície Gallery, “Eter” at Centro Cultural São Paulo and “Purpura”, a mobile performative experience in public places in Rio de Janeiro. She also participated in group shows at institutions such as BienalSur (Buenos Aires), Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius) and Art In Odd Places (NY). Anna has been trained in Transcendental Meditation, Mindfulness, Aura Reading, Reiki and is currently participating on a 3 year formation in Reichian therapy. Since 2019, she teaches ArtLife Practices at Parque Lage visual arts school, an interdisciplinary course that mixes art, life and healing. As a director, she directed the 24 episode TV documentary series “Gaze” about contemporary artists for Arte 1 channel. Anna is represented by Superfície Gallery and has works in public and private collections, including MAR – The Museum of Art, Rio de Janeiro.
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