Raised By This Place: Ritual Theater, Ecological Identity, and Spiritual Nurturing

Step into a retreat where theater becomes ritual, and nature becomes our teacher. Raised By This Place invites you to explore your inner landscape and your relationship with the living earth through embodied storytelling, creative expression, and ritual play. Together, we will reclaim theater as a sacred practice, where voice, movement, and imagination become gateways to healing, joy, and connection.

Drawing from the practices of Antonin Artaud, Augusto Boal, Indigenous creation stories, and children’s ways of knowing, this retreat guides participants to inhabit the qualities of presence, flow, pause, and play. Through collective rituals, improvisational theater, and role-playing, you will rediscover your body as a vessel of wisdom and the land as a source of resilience. Participants will also be invited to connect with their inner child, exploring how play and creativity nurture ecological and spiritual identity. 

Whether you are an artist, educator, seeker, or someone yearning for deeper connection, this retreat offers a space of belonging, an invitation to slow down, listen deeply, and embody your relationship to the earth.

Schedule

Friday, March 20

• 3 – 6 pm: Arrival and Check-in
• 6 – 7 pm: Dinner
• 7:30 – 9 pm: Welcome Program – Embodied Arrival & Intention Setting
  • Community Agreements 
  • Research Background 
  • Altar Creation

Saturday, March 21

• 7 – 8 am: Early Morning Program – Nature Walk & Listening to the Land 
  • Collecting natural elements 
• 8 – 9 am: Breakfast
• 9:30 am – 12 pm: Morning Program 
  • Drawing and Reflection about the nature walk
  • Creating jars as expressions of gratitude and belonging
  • Journaling
• 12:30-1:30 pm: Lunch
• 2-4:00 pm: Afternoon Program – Image Theater & Ecological Storytelling
  • Augusto Boal–inspired tableaux on personal and ecological themes
  • Group Reflection
• 4-6 pm: Free Time For Hiking, Relaxation, and Spa
• 6-7 pm: Dinner
• 7:30- 8:30 pm: Evening Program – Slam Poetry
  • Writing  Raised By This Place poems
  • Children’s poems immersion

Sunday, March 22

• 7-8 am: Early Morning Program – Embodied Listening in Nature
• 8-9 am: Breakfast (check out of rooms by 11 am)
• 9:30 am-12 pm: Morning Program – Collective Performance & Closing Ritual
  • Weaving together jars, drawings, journals,  theater images, and poems
  • Closing circle: gesture of gratitude & word of return
• 12:30-1:30 pm: Lunch & Departure

*Please note that this schedule is subject to change.