Photo: Aidan Un
Theater of the Oppressed
For over two decades, Kayhan has worked with educational institutions, community organizations, and international agencies to develop Theater of the Oppressed -based approaches to civic engagement and social change and to train non-actors in using the tools in their own work and context. Drawing from the tradition of Theater of the Oppressed, she helps organizations and communities develop their creative capacity for leadership, healing, and social transformation.
Her approach honors all forms of expression and ways of knowing, creating environments where vulnerability becomes strength and where unconditional acceptance nurtures creative flow. Kayhan facilitates workshops and trainings, supporting social and activist organizations, schools, universities, places of worship, international development and aid organizations, and cultural institutions in growing leaders and healing from hurts.
Since 2003, she has been a member of The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB), the oldest Theater of the Oppressed training and education group in North America.
She offers storytelling laboratories, daylong or half-day workshops, as well as intensive training.
Learn more in Offerings.
"The Theater of the Oppressed undergirds all of my work—it is as much a philosophical and political orientation for my work as it is a set of methods and practices for making theater a radically inclusive tool for us to connect, organize, teach, and entertain each other. In this approach, theater is emphasized not as a spectacle but rather as a language designed to foster critical thinking, to see reality through each other’s lived stories, and to examine and undo physical and mental patterns that keep us leashed to the status quo." —Kayhan Irani