Theatre of Witness

Teya Sepinuck is the founder and director of Theatre of Witness. For the past 26 years, she has been creating and producing Theatre of Witness projects with prisoners and their families, survivors and perpetrators of abuse, refugees, immigrants, elders, and those who have lived through war. In 1991, Teya founded 'TOVA – Artistic Projects for Social Change' through which she created and produced more than 40 original Theatre of Witness works. She has been the recipient of the Philadelphia Human Rights Award for Arts and Culture, a Local Hero Award from the Bank of America, as well as the Cultural Arts Award from Women's Way and the Mayor's Commission on Women. Her work has taken her to Poland and Northern Ireland, where she is currently engaged in her second two-year residency at the Playhouse in Derry/Londonderry, creating works with ex-combatants, members of security forces, survivors, witnesses, and those living with the intergenerational legacy of the 'Troubles.'

1. Prelude: Setting the Scene. 2. Introduction: About Theatre of Witness and this Book. 3. Growing Old is About the Growing: Aging. 4. I Make Myself at Home Wherever I am: Homelessness. 5. Death is an Everyday Thing: Refugees and Immigrants. 6. These Hands: Women and Girls. 7. Living with Life: Prisoners. 8. Standing at the Doorway: Runaway Girls in Poland. 9. My Neighborhood is a Cemetery: Inner-City Violence. 10. Steal the Stars and the Moon: Polish Prisoners. 11. Sucking Water from Mud: Domestic Abuse. 12. Did You Understand What You Were Dying For? War. 13. I'm the Daughter of a Criminal: Families of Prisoners. 14. Beauty Born from Ugliness: Fathers on the Front Lines – Northern Ireland. 15. Your People are My People: Unheard Women's Stories – Northern Ireland. 16. Coda. Guiding Principles.