A TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY

A Verbatim project is a participatory encounter (team building activity/retreat, workshop, residency) in which a group of people, a business/organization or a larger community creates and performs an original work of music theatre about their own lives and experiences. Working with small groups for a day or more, or facilitating larger projects lasting up to a year, The Verbatim Project builds "social capital", teamwork and leads to a stronger sense of community.

verbatim (vêr-bay-tim)
A musical theatre piece whose text comes directly, word-for-word, from gathered dialogue. A program in which such a piece is created and performed by members of a community.

1111Starting from the familiar, the immediate and the everyday, Verbatim begins the team building activity by facilitating an awareness of the important values that your organization shares. These key principles underpin the organization and motivate the people who make it run, the individuals who lead it, and those whom the organization serves.
1111The process is active and the voices of the participants are heard concerning their daily lives, their experiences, their hopes and fears. The final production uses musical theatre as the method of expression. The participants, oftentimes without previous stage experience, are empowered to create and play out their roles on stage...

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"This project pushed people with diverse views together to work as a team. We connected on cultural and human levels. We built respect for each other and an ability to support others in their differences. It created bonds beyond opinion."
Pamela Gleeson
re: Peterborough Verbatim

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PAST VERBATIM PROJECTS

• The Village Store Verbatim, New Hampshire (1991)
• St. Thomas Verbatim, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, Minnesota (1994-1995)
• Do They Just Sing All Day? - American Boychoir School, Princeton, New Jersey (1995)
• Hotel Nelson, New Hampshire (1997)
• Tales of Worthington, Minnesota (1999)
• Bridge of Dreams, - Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium, Harts, West Virginia (2000)
• Harrisville Weavings, New Hampshire (2001)
• Verbatim of Oxford Hills, Maine (2001)
• The New Hampshire Character for the NH Charitable Foundation Fortieth Anniversary Celebration, (2002)
• Three-day corporate retreat for Residential Resources, Inc. - New Hampshire (2003)
• Rumplestiltskin and the Battle of East Milkweed, a Continentaol harmony project through the American Composers Forum - Montpelier, Vermont (2003)
• Fall Mountain Verbatim, New Hampshire (2004)
• Peterborough Verbatim, New Hampshire (2004)

"The Verbatim Project is democracy in action. It brought to mind the old adage - 'sometimes you need to be reminded of what you already know'."
Walter Peterson
re: Peterborough Verbatim

The creative process involves small groups that create short scenes, songs and narratives which are woven together to produce a performance work that represents the most important aspects of the organization or community. The Verbatim experience offers a playful, lighthearted perspective, even when expressing participants' feelings that may be tender, painful and profound.

WHAT ARE WE PLAYING AT?
Tricinium was founded in the mid 1980's as a consortium of young composers in Boston, Massachusetts. When Larry moved to the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire in 1986, Tricinium came along. Since then it has supported Larry's work with communities, organizations and individual artists.

Larry thinks of Tricinium's artistic work as inhabiting the seams of culture: between learned and traditional cultures, between music and theater, between solitary creation and unmediated group participation. The cardinal rule of Tricinium's projects is participation by people of all ages- with or without any prior experience- and a commitment to having fun. Larry often describes his role as a kind of interpreter, listening (hard!) to diverse constituencies, helping them to find common ground in participatory experience.

"The theme linking all of our work at Tricinium is a focus on place and genuine community engagement. We lead and create unique theatrical events with communities and groups which rely on the power of the arts to nurture civic and organizational life."

Now Tricinium's focus is almost exclusively the Verbatim Projects.

Learn more about: Creative team building ideas - Create a Verbatim Project

Contact Tricinium to develop a non-profit, civic or corporate team building activity.