The Broken Shoulders Project

The Broken Shoulders Project is...The Dramatic Alternative to Life's Challenges

Broken Shoulders tells the stories of real people triumphing over the effects of their trauma, using table reading of an original and dynamic play. Discussion of the event and the choice made by the individual then follows, with emphasis on the personal connection to the story and events.

We Tell Stories

In 20- to 30-minute-long original plays, the Broken Shoulders Project tells stories of true people making the choice to change.

We tell these stories in powerful table-readings of works written especially for the company, dramatizing the single heroic moment when a Mother Jones, Fyodor Dostoevsky, or Dorothea Dix overcame the effects of his or her traumas and became the leaders we celebrate today.

That Inspire the Wounded

We place these stories in times often radically different from our own, from 1400 BC to 1981, while presenting situations astonishingly similar to what is being experienced now.

We show the conflict, we enact the first moments of resolution, and then we discuss the impact on and the hope engendered in readers and audience alike.

To Heal Themselves