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studio for creative human interaction

WorldEnsemble (WE) collaborates with organizations and businesses to design trainings, consultations and projects on the leading edge of creativity and innovation.

WE grows out of a five-year experiment in “creating community through performance across borders local and global” called the Community Theatre Internationale. Conceived and directed by Kate Gardner, this undertaking launched ten days after 9/11 in New York City. Its first project, A Happening, lasted eight months and brought together hundreds of people throughout New York City to play across the lines of racial, social and economic segregation. From 2003 to 2005, the theatre partnered with Kenyan health educators and a Peruvian community theatre to produce BrooKenya!, an intercontinental grassroots soap opera. 150 residents in Brooklyn and New York City; Kisumu, Kenya; and Villa el Salvador, Lima, Peru, wrote, acted and produced over 100 filmed scenes inspired by their lives and imaginations. The production was seen by tens of thousands around the world at screenings and festivals and on television and the Internet. Many attended participatory events and workshops in Canada, Netherlands, Mexico, Kenya, Peru and the United States.

WE was founded to extend the powerful tools of creative collaboration to the wider community.  



Kate Gardner, founder and principal

Kate Gardner is founder and principal of WorldEnsemble. Creative consultant, artist, and advocate, she has conducted projects and trainings in the United States, Africa, Latin America and Europe.

Founding the Community Theatre Internationale ten days after 9/11 in New York City, Ms. Gardner produced and directed A Happening and BrooKenya!, an intercontinental grassroots soap opera involving 150 residents in Brooklyn, USA; Kisumu, Kenya; and Lima, Peru.

Ms. Gardner has taught and presented at Brandeis University, International Center for Tolerance Education; First Latin American Conference on Education-Entertainment for Social Change; International Peace Researchers Association; International Community-Based Theatre Festival; and Youth Channel. She is a contributor to an anthology on theatre and peacebuilding (in process) and helped develop interdiisciplinary workshops for theatre artists, peacebulding practitioners, policymakers, and sustainable development workers sponsored by Co-Existence International at Brandeis University.

From 1993 to 2000, Ms. Gardner consulted for Fortune 100 companies and major law firms serving as senior associate at Intersource International, a private financial investigative firm. From 2000 to 2004, she was managing partner at Tillett Lighting Design Inc. A community organizer for many years, she worked to create a more inclusive social context, including opening up blue-collar trades to women and men of color; organizing grassroots support for democratization initiatives in domestic and foreign policy; and producing performance programs with inner city youth.

Ms. Gardner studied with Richard Pinter of the Neighborhood Playhouse and Jasper Deeter of the Hedgerow Theater and has a bachelor’s degree in cultural studies from Empire State College.
WorldEnsemble
755 Washington Ave. #409, Brooklyn, New York 11238 USA    1-718-707-1109        inquiry@worldensemble.com