Each playground creates an immersive container meant to catalyze questions around a given structure or theme. Deep play is the fodder for this questioning – the play of our senses, feelings, thoughts, bodies, hearts, brains, relationalities, interiorities, voices, memories, edges, and shadows. Existential Playgrounds are free! This is an opportunity to come together and play without financial exchanges — a time to gather, connect, play deeply, and converse. This is also a great opportunity for people to explore what The Deep Play Institute is about, to get to know us, and feel into what we do, and how we do it. Think of it like recess!
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Existential playground #8 KABUKI CIRCLING | MONDAY JUNE 6, 6:00PM EST
Kabuki Circling is an extended Circling practice inspired by the Japanese theatre form. We will dive into this practice together, which involves every participant taking on a role which they play to help deepen the conversation. Some examples include: The Empath, The Truth Seeker, The Romantic. Kabuki Circling was invented by Mike Blas of the Austin Love Juggernaut, under the name “Terminator”, and was revised by Sara Ness and Chad Phillips. No prior experience in Circling is necessary. Timing: We will gather, do some warmups together, and dive into the playground. This will last 1 hour. Then we will have 15-30 minutes for conversation afterwards. Participants are welcome to depart early if you can only allocate 1 hour. However, all participants must arrive no later than 5 minutes after the hour, and we will not be allowing late arrivals. Safety: All Deep Play Institute events contain 4 basic agreements. We will briefly go over these agreements at the beginning of each Existential Playground, but please familiarize yourself before arriving. Honor Self: I agree to honor myself. This entails setting my own boundaries, and not participating in any activity that crosses my threshold of consent. Honor Other: I agree to honor other. This entails respecting the other person to set their own boundaries, and not pushing anyone to cross over a boundary that they set. Explore My Edge: I agree to explore my edge. This entails assessing where I am in a given moment (between emotional risk and safety) and taking a step in the direction of emotional risk, with the understanding that this brings growth and transformation. Confidentiality. I agree to not share any name-identifying information from the program I attend with anyone outside of it. |
Existential playground #7 CIRCLING | WEDNESDAY MAY 4, 12:00PM EST
Circling is a relational meditation practice that aims to bring a group into connection and authenticity. The form will be introduced, and we will enter into the practice using a guided set of conversation rules. Once we’ve learnt the rules, we will improvise with the form, centering our attention on the group as a whole, and then one volunteer. No prior experience in Circling is necessary. Timing: We will gather, do some warmups together, and dive into the playground. This will last 1 hour. Then we will have 15-30 minutes for conversation afterwards. Participants are welcome to depart early if you can only allocate 1 hour. However, all participants must arrive no later than 5 minutes after the hour, and we will not be allowing late arrivals. Safety: All Deep Play Institute events contain 4 basic agreements. We will briefly go over these agreements at the beginning of each Existential Playground, but please familiarize yourself before arriving. Honor Self: I agree to honor myself. This entails setting my own boundaries, and not participating in any activity that crosses my threshold of consent. Honor Other: I agree to honor other. This entails respecting the other person to set their own boundaries, and not pushing anyone to cross over a boundary that they set. Explore My Edge: I agree to explore my edge. This entails assessing where I am in a given moment (between emotional risk and safety) and taking a step in the direction of emotional risk, with the understanding that this brings growth and transformation. Confidentiality. I agree to not share any name-identifying information from the program I attend with anyone outside of it. |
Existential playground #6 DAY DREAMING | THURSDAY APRIL 7, 5:00pm EST
This Existential Playground is devoted to a practice that we have been playing with called Day Dreaming or Visioning. It is really quite simple. You close your eyes, collectively allow dreams, images and events to unfold, and use verbal speech to describe the experience. That is the basic form which we will play via a set of different variations, some examples being: An organic form with a large group. One person leads, another person follows. The image-world is seeded with something emotionally salient. There are pauses to evaluate. One intentionally construct a scene (a past conflict?) to see how it unfolds differently. The practice tends to be one of deep subconscious revelation and exploration and is really fun to do in pairs, with a larger group, or just alone. Timing: We will gather, do some warmups together, play with subtext together and in groups. This will last 1 hour. Then we will have 15-30 minutes for conversation afterwards. Participants are welcome to depart early if you can only allocate 1 hour. However, all participants must arrive no later than 5 minutes after the hour, and we will not be allowing late arrivals. Safety: All Deep Play Institute events contain 4 basic agreements. We will briefly go over these agreements at the beginning of each Existential Playground, but please familiarize yourself before arriving. Honor Self: I agree to honor myself. This entails setting my own boundaries, and not participating in any activity that crosses my threshold of consent. Honor Other: I agree to honor other. This entails respecting the other person to set their own boundaries, and not pushing anyone to cross over a boundary that they set. Explore My Edge: I agree to explore my edge. This entails assessing where I am in a given moment (between emotional risk and safety) and taking a step in the direction of emotional risk, with the understanding that this brings growth and transformation. Confidentiality. I agree to not share any name-identifying information from the program I attend with anyone outside of it. |
Existential playground #5 Subtexts | friday march 18, 12:30pm EST
“Oh hello! Nice to meet you! Where are you from? Do you come here often? Oh yea, what's the weather like there?” How many times have we heard lines like this? But what is really being said when we say what we say? What are the hidden subtexts that lie hidden beneath our conversation? And can we modify these subtexts to change how we speak together? In this existential playground we will examine conversational subtexts, unearthing them from their tender underground layers, and then begin to play with them. Can we operate our conversational lives by living in the subtext? Can we converse through and in these under-layers? Can we re-define the parameters of our subtexts in a game of conversation? We’ll try all of this, and see what ensues. Come join in for some weird, awkward, lovely, interesting conversational fun! Timing: We will gather, do some warmups together, play with subtext together and in groups. This will last 1 hour. Then we will have 15-30 minutes for conversation afterwards. Participants are welcome to depart early if you can only allocate 1 hour. However, all participants must arrive no later than 5 minutes after the hour, and we will not be allowing late arrivals. Safety: All Deep Play Institute events contain 4 basic agreements. We will briefly go over these agreements at the beginning of each Existential Playground, but please familiarize yourself before arriving. Honor Self: I agree to honor myself. This entails setting my own boundaries, and not participating in any activity that crosses my threshold of consent. Honor Other: I agree to honor other. This entails respecting the other person to set their own boundaries, and not pushing anyone to cross over a boundary that they set. Explore My Edge: I agree to explore my edge. This entails assessing where I am in a given moment (between emotional risk and safety) and taking a step in the direction of emotional risk, with the understanding that this brings growth and transformation. Confidentiality. I agree to not share any name-identifying information from the program I attend with anyone outside of it. |