Monsters of Collapse Workshop

“The old world is dying, a new world struggles to be born now is the time of monsters” -Antonio Gramsci

 

A participatory social theatre workshop using Theatre of the Oppressed and Peace Design to analyze systems of harm and rehearse collective resistance.

Name it.

See the system

Change it!

 

What is a Monsters of Collapse Workshop?

A hands-on experience to help your group:

  • understand the system behind your issue

  • co-analyze in an embodied way

  • map who and what sustains it

  • connect lived experience to systemic patterns

  • test interventions in real time

 
 

How it works

1. Ground in your issue
Start with a real challenge.

2. Name the monsters
Identify the systems beneath the surface.

3. Embodied power analysis
Explore who is impacted and who benefits.

4. Map who and what sustains it
Uncover forces, institutions, and narratives.

5. Rehearse intervention
Test disruption and response.

6. Co-create resisters (4-hr)
Design what can transform the system.

Not a lecture - a space to experience, analyze, and redesign together.

FOR YOU when

  • Your issue needs deeper analysis—not just faster action

  • You want participatory power analysis and co-design

  • You need to understand who and what sustains it

  • Your team is stuck reacting instead of strategizing

  • You’re working across complex, intersecting systems, coalitions, or networks.

  • You are invested in creating new narratives about power and justice.

Ideal for movements, organizers, educators, artists, and community leaders.

WHY IT WORKS

Most groups don’t lack urgency—they lack shared analysis.

This workshop helps you answer:

  • What are we actually up against?

  • What keeps it in place?

  • Where do we have leverage?

  • What can we shift—together?

Research shows that when learning is embodied and participatory, people don’t just understand the system—they feel it, see it, and can act on it.

OUTCOMES

What you’ll walk away with

  • clearer system + power analysis

  • insight into who and what sustains it

  • strengthened group cohesion and collective vision

  • shared language + alignment

  • new ways to communicate the issue

  • early strategies for action

 

2-Hour Workshop
Theatre + analysis

  • name the systems (“monsters”)

  • embodied power analysis

  • explore impacts + dynamics

  • test early responses

Best for: alignment + fast insight

 

 4-Hour Workshop
Analysis + resisters

  • everything in a 2-hour format

  • co-create “resisters”

  • prototype strategies

  • deepen collective action

Best for: strategy + action design

 

Custom Workshop (2–6 hours)
Adapted to your group, goals, and context.

Best for: emergence

 

RESEARCH

This workshop contributes to our ongoing participatory research inquiry on how to support social movements through experiential co-design.

We explore:

  • How groups build shared analysis

  • What deepens understanding of power

  • How embodied processes strengthen strategy

  • How movements move from fragmentation → action

Each workshop strengthens a growing body of movement-based learning.