Play with Purpose:
Relational and Performative Practices in Everyday Life

February 5-10, 2011

SEMINAR AT SEA - Event Takes Place on a Cruise Ship Leaving from Galveston, TX.

                                                        The Carnival Ecstasy Cruise Ship

Play - Learn - Innovate - Perform..key themes for this upcoming event. In all our relations we must improvise. When we do it well, there is joy, harmony, and vitality. Rational planning is replaced by skills akin to creative play. Developing and enhancing these resources is the aim of this event.

What better setting for such explorations than an ocean cruise! Come and create practices for effective improvisation in a wide range of contexts - including psychotherapy, organizational development, education, community building, and personal life. We will explore the ways in which theater, music, humor, movement, art, storytelling and other play/full activities can inspire and transform our relationships. Under the canopy of social constructionist theory, we will engage in multiple activities designed to enhance both conceptual consciousness and relational skill. "Playshop" sessions will give participants a rich opportunity to put performative ideas into practice.

This exciting gathering is co-sponsored by the Houston Galveston Institute and the Taos Institute. We will be meeting on a Carnival cruise ship, setting sail from Galveston, Texas and making stops at Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico. The cruise will take place from February 5 - 10, 2011. We are calling this a "seminar at sea." Seminar at sea sessions will take place on board the ship and in Progreso; the day in Cozumel is a free day.

The venue and theme lend themselves to reflexive exploration and performance of relational practices in a wide range of contexts. Join us as we venture the high seas of play, improvisation, performance and humor to expand our personal and professional lives.