3 October. New York. Here for a 4 day conference ‘Can Performance Change the World?’ a big question to be addressed in 100 odd workshops. The Charity I have been volunteering and training with for the last two years in Cardiff, Theatre Versus Oppression (TVO) is presenting a session on ‘Empowering Performances Through Alternative Approaches’, alongside projects from 39 countries.

The walk to the All Stars venue through Times Square is entirely lit by giant digital screens shouting out all kinds of performances from Ted Danson’s latest series to two blokes with beards selling something, I have no idea what. Turning left down 42^nd St the massive billboard anticipating Spiderman’s Broadway debut, Leonardo posing in the window of Madame Tussauds; a couple of blocks on from the Chez Josephine restaurant in memory of the first international black icon Josephine Baker is the All Stars a space full of performance and rehearsal spaces open to the community – something we are so lacking in Cardiff – and apparently bought and paid for by the ‘community’ of supporters. I’m impressed – no arts council funding here – a place existing through pure passion and a desire for a space to play together.

I learnt so much over the 4 days – while Jennifer Hartley presented TVO’s work in Wales and Uganda where our applied theatre techniques are being used to address Domestic Abuse, I went to workshops that addressed performance in the sense that we are all performers in our own lives and the projects and methods of how and why we tell these stories.

I was inspired by Patch Adams who after a number of unsuccessful suicide attempts decided at 18, that if he was meant to live, he really needed a purpose. He decided it would be the creation of a free health service for all and that the key to good health was laughter and joy. He pledged to build a free hospital and to stop violence wherever he saw it by dressing as a clown. He’s 65 now, spends 300 days a year spreading joy and almost has his hospital.

What a difference a purpose in your life makes. Carolyn Dorfman’s dance company performed with such emotional links to the stories they told with their bodies, many were moved to tears and I wished I’d done her workshop. The Performance of Blackness took us from slavery to a black president in an eloquent, challenging series of performances which interweaved the story and plays of the struggle to establish a theatre that performed our lives making theatre available to everyone regardless of background.

I learnt about social therapy and watched a group of 10 people express very specific and intimate feelings in front of an audience. One woman was so moved by the Black performance workshop that she wept as she tried to articulate how it felt seeing her life played out in front of her. The discussion went from why she was upset, to thoughts of her mother’s red hair and how proud she would have been to see her sister on stage ‘Look at your sister, she’s so beautiful’.

Between sessions revisiting the site of Stonewall, into The White Horse, one of Dylan Thomas’ last performance spaces; tramping the streets in the company of a long time local resident steeped in stories of battles to keep alive the memory of so many influential performances from the past.

Can performance change the world? Undoubtedly and in so many ways we haven’t even thought about here. Far away from the big shows I found myself dwelling on day to day performances. The people brought to the theatre by the enthusiasm of the supporters of the All Stars Centre. Robin whose husband had just died and had found a place to explore who she was, the finance director who had never seen avant garde theatre before yet found himself thinking about it for days after.

My thought is for my own work – to challenge myself to be specific in my purpose. To tell stories in brave and authentic ways. To make sure every performance can change the world.