Winter Summer Institute

WSI’s applied theatre-making process provides a space for exploration, interaction and collaboration with participants from vastly different cultures and backgrounds. We bring people together to question assumptions, engage in problem-solving dialogue, experiment with biases, improvise collective ideas and, most importantly, create fabulous theatre. Our goal is not only to share what we’ve learned and created, but to offer ways for others to devise aesthetically provocative, socially challenging theatre anywhere with anyone in almost any situation. We’ve been making theatre that makes a difference since 2006, when The Winter/Summer Institute was launched by eight colleagues from three different continents. Our collaborative work began in Lesotho, southern Africa in mid-July: winter in Lesotho and South Africa, summer in New York and the U.K. — a hemispheric divide that gave rise to our name. WSI’s first international residency was a response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, an experiment in theatre-making across cultures, languages, influences, ages and aesthetics. An experiment that included participants from the four originating countries as well as rural villagers from the mountains of Lesotho. We came together to find out if we could create performance that was high caliber, entertaining, provocative, funny and relevant. Since 2006, we have held two more residencies in Lesotho, in 2008 and 2011, as well as multiple residencies and workshops in NYC. To date, WSI has included students and faculty from: the National University of Lesotho; the State University of New York, Empire State College, New York City (US); the University of Sunderland (UK); and the University of the Witwatersrand (RSA).