VENT2011

In the 1500s, someone actually had to write a book on manners including instructions not to, "foul the staircases, corridors, or closets with urine or other filth." Shafner will explain what happened to the good old days, and how over time the potty has trained us.

Shawn Shafner is a theatre-maker, educator, and creator of The People's Own Organic Power Project, a fiscally-sponsored project of Fractured Atlas that uses art, education and humor to heal the shame that makes potty talk taboo, promoting critical conversations about sustainable sanitation for the person planet and world community. His NYC credits include performances at Madison Square Garden, Theater Row, Joe's Pub, New World Stages, The Club at La Mama, and Classic Stage Company. Shawn spent most of 2008 touring nationally as Pablo in Nickelodeon's The Backyardigans Live!, and has been creating original ritual theater with Storahtelling since 2005. He is the recipient of a 2005 Spielberg Fellowship, and has served as Artist in Residence at 4 different summer camps throughout Wisoncisin. Shawn holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and has trained in Russia at the St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy, the Institute for Contemporary Art in London, and the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Italy.  His activites with The POOP Project since April ’10 have included humorous lectures at the Brooklyn Lyceum’s Adult Education series, moderating panels at the city’s largest wastewater treatment plant in Greenpoint, a ten day interactive installation on 38th and 9th through Chashama, and producing/hosting the city’s only 2010 World Toilet Day event, Nov. 19.

thePOOPproject.org