In this participatory workshop that centered connection through storytelling, festival guests shared their stories and listened to one another.

“It’s through our connection with each other, it’s through getting to show and trust our own minds that we can actually have the solutions to the pressing problems we face —and only by breaking open any kind of places where we feel alone or in isolation…[it’s like] a collective brain. [We will be] able to use theater based exercises that one would use in a rehearsal room…the Story Circle comes from many different traditions and the one I’m familiar with is John O’Neal and Junebug Productions based in Louisiana….using the story circle to gather people to share what is on their mind and hearts and it was a way to build power.” – Yadav

Anu Yadav is a playwright and actress based in Los Angeles. She wrote the solo plays ‘CAPERS and MEENA’S DREAM which toured nationally, as well as a children’s adaptation of the Mark Twain classic, THE PRINCESS AND THE PAUPER: A BOLLYWOOD TALE. She co-founded the storytelling project CLASSLINES and wrote the short plays “Threads of Memory” commissioned by Hypokrit Theatre Company, “Wrestling with Choice” and “Dinnertime” for Advocates for Youth, and “The Poor People’s Plays” series for the Black Women Playwrights’ project 12-Line Wonder. Her work was featured in the documentaries CHOCOLATE CITY and WALK WITH ME, as well as media outlets such as The Washington Post, The Crisis and MTV. She recently hosted “Getting into Step: A Movement Podcast for the Long Haul” produced by the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice. She was the inaugural 2019-2020 Creative Strategist Artist-in-Residence at the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, funded by the Department of Arts and Culture. She produced “Healing Through Story: A Toolkit on Grassroots Approaches”, a guide on arts-based methods for community-building. She is a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, Actor’s Equity Association, Alternate ROOTS, the Dramatists Guild, Network of Ensemble Theaters and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and holds an M.F.A. in Performance from University of Maryland, College Park. She is a 2021-2022 University of Southern California Annenberg Innovation Lab Civic Media Fellow.

Anuyadav.com