Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (CITE)

Diversity and inclusion training that facilitates dialogue.

What CITE does

CITE programs create safety around highly charged workplace issues, facilitating honest dialogue, self-awareness and organizational learning on four levels: personal, interpersonal, group and institutional/community.

CITE has the unique ability to take concepts of diversity and inclusion and make them real and personal for participant groups. Interactive theatre and facilitated dialogue from multiple points of view create a climate for participants that builds inclusion, fosters collaboration and gives participants knowledge and tools to take back to their own work environments.

All CITE scenarios are multi-dimensional, revealing not only the dynamics of particular diversity issues, but also the dynamics of humaninteraction around the issues.

How a CITE session works

Scripted scene:

Each scripted scene performance depicts a complex and challenging interaction in a workplace characterized by diversity.

Improvisatory question and answer period (Q&A):

Each improvised Q&A between the audience and the actors-in-character serves to reveal the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and the motivations behind their actions. It also serves to evoke audience empathy and identification with each of the characters. The complexity of the interaction unfolds during the Q&A.

Facilitated discussion:

Each facilitated discussion with the audience addresses, to some degree, the importance of:

  • Self-awareness and self-inquiry as tools for employees at all levels;
  • Awareness of how our thoughts, emotions, and assumptions influence our perceptions, which in turn influence our behaviors;
  • Listening to understand rather than find fault or place blame;
  • Attending to both intention and impact when addressing problematic communication and behavior;
  • Thinking outside “my own perspective”, and opening to multiple points of view;
  • Approaching problem-solving in a manner that maintains the dignity of everyone in a problematic situation.