The Origin of Social Presencing Theater

Apr 19, 2017

“A new social art form I call Social Presencing Theater that stages media events and productions to connect different communities and their transformational stories by blending social action research, theater, contemplative practices, intentional silence, generative dialogue, and open space.” Theory U: Leading From the Future as it Emerges, by C. Otto Scharmer, pp 452

About Social Presencing Theater

Otto Scharmer says in a letter dated Dec 22, 2008, “The question comes up how to communicate the essence of these projects in a way that transforms and heightens the quality of collective awareness and action, which is why we have started to experiment with a new synthesis between theater, embodied presence, dialogue, stillness and presencing. its called Social Presencing Theater.

Social Presencing Theater is one arm of the Presencing Institute. It is an emerging art form that explores the creative potential of Theory U and presencing. The word theater comes from the Greek thea, which means “the act of seeing.” The word, theater, can be defined as a “place of enactment of significant events or actions.” Social Presencing Theater emerges from the community to enable that community to collectively see itself and enact it’s emerging future.

Process

This is a fluid and emerging process. No doubt it will continue to change and develop as different people become involved and different client situations present themselves. The first step has been to identify clients or communities and to interview members of that organization or group. Over a 3-5 day period, using the embodied presence techniques from Art of Making a True Move and an interviewing method based upon the work of Tectonic theater project, Arawana Hayashi, Greg Pierotti and colleagues create a performance of no more than 20 minutes.

The performance can also include members of the client system. The entire client community then gathers for a two hour Social Presencing Theater event that begins with the performance. The performance creates a field shift or a gap in the habitual way the social system regards itself. It enhances that client ‘s capacity to see its own qualities, patterns and potential. The community sees itself embodied and enacted in a respectful way. The performance is followed by reflection and dialogue using World Café or other social technologies, out of which seed of action for the future can emerge.

To see Arawana and Otto Scharmer speak on the origins of Social Presencing Theater, watch the trailer for their extended conversation below. The full series of conversations can be found on the "look" section of the Resources page.