Training and Educational Plays

Originally created in partnership with IBEW Local 3, Working Theater’s training plays educate and engage working people at training programs and labor conferences across the five boroughs. Our training and educational plays bring working people together around the issues shaping their lives and workplaces, using storytelling to open up dialogue and build understanding.

Working Theater is currently partnering with Pathways2Apprenticeship, a service organization providing access to union apprenticeships in the building trades, to offer readings of short plays about sexual harassment and diversity in the workplace, at their programs across New York. Mongo written by Ed Cardona, Jr. and Enough is Enough written by Joe Roland have been performed and become a staple to Pathways2Apprenticeship training classes for new members.

In 2023, we partnered with the IBEW Women’s Conference to present The Scream Inside, a new play by Lynn Rosen that explored the experiences of women working on male-dominated job sites. Through the stories of women navigating workplace culture, discrimination, isolation, and the pressure to prove themselves, the play created a space for audiences to confront the barriers women continue to face in the skilled trades and to imagine what a more equitable workplace can look like.

In 2019, Working Theater presented newly commissioned skits to IBEW Local 3 at their labor management conference and to the United Federation of Teachers’ Future Focus youth conference. As part of Future Focus, our training plays engaged students around the opportunities labor unions can present for them after graduation in an effort to inspire a whole new generation of labor workers and organizers.

If you’d like to learn about presenting Working Theater’s training and educational plays to your union or group, or to commission a specific piece for your organization, please contact info@theworkingtheater.org