NO SUMMARY: Tap In, Tap Out: On Dangerous Storytelling

Golden Thread Productions presented NO SUMMARY: Tap In, Tap Out: On Dangerous Storytelling livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 18 April 2022 at 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

Golden Thread invites Kholoud Nasser, a theatre artist and trauma-informed therapist to host a conversation with Drowning in Cairo’s Intimacy Coordinator Maya Herbsman and Fight Director Carla Pantoja. When violence, abuse and intimate content are part of the storytelling, how can we ensure safety and protection in the rehearsal room and the performance space? Maya and Carla will discuss their creative process and their role in safely driving the story forward. The artists will offer us insights into the protocols of touch and contact between actors and how such protocols affirm trust and creativity.

Moderator
Kholoud Nasser is a Lebanese theatre artist, licensed psychotherapist and drama therapist residing in the Bay Area. As a theatre artist, they have experienced working as an actor, writer, director, producer, puppeteer and mime throughout sixteen years in Lebanon and in theatre festivals internationally. After moving to the USA, they performed with the Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble for a few years touring in the bay, Philadelphia, and LA while focusing mainly on the new transitions to psychotherapy, drama therapy as well as to a new way of living in a different culture. As a psychotherapist, Kholoud’s expertise revolves mainly around trauma, grief and loss, surviving violence, immigration, transitions, diversity and BIPOC LGBTQ+ issues and more. Kholoud offered psychotherapy services to Arab domestic violence survivors at the Asian Women’s Shelter and currently works at the Living Arts Counseling Center.

Panelists
Maya Herbsman is a Middle Eastern Ohlone Land based intimacy director, director, arts administrator, and educator. Maya has been the first intimacy professional at theaters across Northern California including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Golden Thread Productions, Z Space, Cutting Ball Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, and more. Her work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, J Magazine, and HowlRound. She is currently on faculty at Berkeley Repertory Theater, American Conservatory Theater (ACT), Urban School of San Francisco, and is a recurring guest lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.

Carla Pantoja is an Associate Instructor and Level 3 Actor Combatant through Dueling Arts International. As fight director, she worked with SF Shakespeare Festival, SF Mime Troupe, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, Teatro Visión, Cal Shakes, and the Magic Theater among others. She is a Resident Artist with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and serves as Secretary for Dueling Arts International Governing Body. Carla is a member of Making Good Trouble, a Bay Area Anti Racist training cohort. Carla was in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival acting company for the "lost season" of 2020 and will return to OSF as a Fight Director for the current 2022 season.