Finding Her Voice: Founder Lori Pitts’ Journey to Theatre, Advocacy, and Change

As Lori Pitts, our founder and Artistic Director, steps away for her sabbatical and season of rest and rejuvenation, we wanted to share a deeper glimpse into her story. Learn what brought her to this work and what sustains her in it.

Lori loved play from an early age. She and her siblings enjoyed playing make believe, and as she got older, her middle school speech and drama class became a safe space for that love. By 9th grade, she was all in at her local community theatre’s teen program. But as she transitioned to college, she decided to step away from theatre. Having grown up in a town largely segregated by race and wealth, she understood the importance of uplifting the voices most often ignored in our society. Even at a young age, she had a passion for helping people, and theatre felt too frivolous. She started studying to be a pediatrician, squeezing in theatre classes between biology and chemistry as often as she could. 

But in her sophomore year, one class altered her perspective and course of study forever. Lori took a Theatre for Social Change class, where she learned about Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), and more importantly, how theatre could be used as a powerful tool for social justice. The thing she loved most could also accomplish her deepest desire! By junior year, she had settled in as a theatre major, piecing together as close to a TO degree as possible, one theatre, social justice, and accessibility class at a time.

According to Lori, “I’m not sure if I already had TO-based beliefs and this gave me the words for it, or if I’ve shaped my beliefs entirely on finding Theatre of the Oppressed because it just feels so innate and natural to who I am.”

A guest speaker in Lori’s Theatre for Social Change class helped her turn her passion and field of study into more. Norma Bowles, founder of Fringe Benefits Theatre Company (FBTC) in Los Angeles, spoke to Lori’s class about her use of Theatre of the Oppressed with LGBTQ+ youth who had run away or been kicked out of their homes. After graduating, Lori reached out to Norma to ask if she could join her in LA to learn how to use Theatre of the Oppressed in a practical setting. Lori spent a whole summer with FBTC, diving deep into TO and how to facilitate. She then spent a year interning for Actor’s Theatre of Louisville in their education department before making the move to Washington DC. She was excited to use her passion for TO and facilitation skills in such a theatre and social justice minded city. But as she settled in, she realized TO was not leveraged as heavily in the DC theatre scene as in other parts of the country. She knew she’d have to pave her own way, and slowly but surely that way became clear.

She started to brainstorm - what communities were the most misunderstood? Who could benefit most from Theatre of the Oppressed? Over a couple of years, people impacted by incarceration grew heavy on her heart. The intersection of racial and economic injustice that targeted that group of people while removing them from the sight of the public weighed on her. It took 2 years of emails, calls, and hard work, but she finally made it into her first facility in 2018 for what she assumed would be a small, one off workshop. But the facility asked her to work with all of the men in their reentry program so she had to hire more facilitators. To hire more facilitators, she had to fundraise. First Trinity Lutheran Church agreed to be her fiscal sponsor; holding the funds and making it so any donations to her work were tax deductible. The workshop went beautifully and Voices Unbarred was born. Suddenly, after years of discovering her own path, Lori had a non-profit, and a working model for how to use TO in carceral spaces.

Since her time of formal education, Lori’s learned a lot on her feet. She’s spent many years  building relationships with people impacted by incarceration, facilitating TO programs in multiple prisons across the DMV, and observing the effects of these harmful systems for herself. She learned what it takes to advocate effectively, and what and who it is that we’re advocating for. 

Lori shared a quote from one of our Community Advocates who had commented that, “For people who have experienced incarceration, advocacy isn’t a choice. It’s essential for survival.” Through Voices Unbarred and TO workshops, people who have experienced incarceration sit at the forefront of change; learning tools for effective advocacy, and ways to creatively reimagine the criminal legal system.

Eight years later, Lori continues to be fueled by the incredible people she works with each day. The energy she sees people who have experienced incarceration bring to this work, even after everything they’ve survived, is inspiring. Their hope in changing this system, after experiencing its brokenness so deeply, is something we can all draw from. Lori is excited to continue offering Theatre of the Oppressed tools and elevating this medium to facilitate critical conversations and encourage others to be part of the change we all need.