Documents 

The following essay is intended to accompany my final project in the Process Work Diploma/Master of Arts program; a creative arts venture with both educational and social action components, entitled, “The Circus Project.” The Circus Project, now a registered nonprofit, was designed as an experimental training ground for the creation of an innovative methodology for working with at?risk1 and homeless youth, based on the integration of circus, theatre, and Process Oriented Psychology. The intention of the project was to demonstrate how techniques in Process Oriented Psychology could be applied to circus and theatre arts in various aspects of the creation process within the population of homeless and at?risk teens and young adults. It was hoped that the integration of circus arts and Process Work would empower disadvantaged youth in a variety of ways, while offering an emerging methodology which leaders in the
fields of theatre and circus arts could successfully utilize to create new and invigorating forms of artistic expression. In addition to offering a description of my personal background, the project, and a discussion of its relevancy to Process Work, this essay seeks to assert the significant benefits Process Work is capable of contributing to the crafting of meaningful and skilled art that impowers both the participants and the wider audiences for which they perform.
A project of this magnitude could not be embarked upon without the financial,
organizational, and emotional support of a number of people. While any attempt to publicly acknowledge the myriad of volunteers, collaborators and funders is bound to be incomplete, there are a few key players whom I feel compelled to mention, without whom, The Circus Project would not have blossomed into fruition. [author summary]