Documentary Film about The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories Program to Premiere at AFI DOCS This June

As a further extension of the program, The Theatre Lab will host its inaugural Life Stories Institute this fall

Washington, D.C.  (May 22, 2014) – The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts’ award-winning Life Stories program is the subject of a documentary film, How I Got Over, which will premiere at AFI DOCS documentary festival on June 21 and 22 in Washington, D.C. The film, produced and directed by Nicole Boxer (producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Invisible War) chronicles the journey of 15 formerly homeless women in substance abuse recovery at N Street Village as they participated in The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories Program and turned their collective life experiences into an original theatrical production. The play was performed by the women at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in April 2012.

Learn more and purchase tickets to AFI DOCS at www.afi.com/afidocs.

The Life Stories Program helps individuals in typically marginalized populations work through and talk about – often for the first time – their life experiences and turn those stories into a film or play. For the women at N Street Village, their experiences included traumatic stories dealing with rape, addiction, relapse, and abandonment.

“The Life Stories Program empowers participants to take control and become the storytellers of their lives,” said The Theatre Lab co-director Deb Gottesman. “They are no longer victims of circumstance but creative artists, with the power to change the endings of their stories.”

Since 2000, The Theatre Lab has taught the Life Stories Program in Washington, D.C. to thousands of individuals ages 11 to 103 including incarcerated youth, families of critically ill children, seniors living in assisted living facilities, and more. This October, The Theatre Lab will host the inaugural Life Stories Institute to train and certify theatre artists, educators and social service providers to become Life Stories instructors, with the ability to start their own program in their communities.

“How I Got Over depicts the critical nature of The Theatre Lab’s partnerships with organizations like N Street Village. When we merge social services and the dramatic arts, we get through to people. We connect. We change lives,” added Gottesman. “We know the need for the Life Stories Program stretches well beyond our geographic reach. We’re excited to put our unique curriculum in the hands of other practitioners so that more people, from around the country, can benefit from Life Stories.”

The Life Stories Institute will take place October 16 to 19, 2014 at The Theatre Lab and is limited to 16 attendees. For more information and to apply, visit The Theatre Lab’s website at www.theatrelab.org. Applications will open June 2.

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