Global Play Brigade

OUR MISSION: We use play across borders to build community and connection, creating new possibilities for social change.

The Global Play Brigade (GPB) is a volunteer community of play and performance activists, improvisers, clowns, musicians, educators and therapists who have come together in response to the global pandemic and the distressing, inequitable state of our world. We aim to bring people together across borders — to play, create, connect and grow — creating new pathways for social change!

Global Play Brigade was established in June of 2020. It started as a gathering of 60 performance activists, improvisers, educators, musicians, actors, playwrights, scholars, clowns, therapists and coaches across the world who began to meet over Zoom to explore how to organize support and help for our fellow human beings as we weathered the Covid-19 crisis together.

Three years later, what started as an experiment has evolved into a formidable global platform for “brigadiers” from over 87 countries and counting, with a mission to build community, create connections, and new possibilities for social change through the transformative power of play. As of this writing, we have provided over 460 free play and emotional support sessions to 12,000 people via Zoom and WhatsApp. Currently we have four regions staffed by volunteer leaders across AsiaPacific, Africa, Latin America, North America. Through these regional hubs, GPB continues its exploration of making play accessible to people around the world. In addition, it provides an environment for co-creation and cross-cultural support in times of crisis.

Some examples of our impact and who we serve:

• Playing with gender roles and ways to go beyond societal identities in Latin America
• Young people in Nigeria playing with the tough subject of having to grow up too quickly because of poverty, police brutality and war
• The emotional distress of healthcare workers in India due to conflicting government policies and inadequate medical facilities.
• Mental health, education and social connection in Brazil.

Storytelling with the elderly, youth and people in emotional distress in the US, UK and India.