FREE Yoga & Poetry Lessons at Talking It Out

The Talking It Out Virtual Arts Festival is currently offering FREE lessons this Winter & Spring as part of the rollout of our Educational Workshop Series, featuring Yoga workshops led by Program Manager Maria fe Picar available now on Sundays at 1pm EST & Poetry workshops led by Daenah Campbell (aka Dae the Poet) beginning February 26th on Sundays at 4pm EST, with additional workshops to be announced in the coming weeks.

Visit www.linktr.ee/talkingitoutfest to access the Zoom registration links for these workshops and follow @talkingitoutfest on Instagram and Facebook for more updates.

Now in its third season, the Talking It Out Virtual Arts Festival’s current leadership slate consists of Producing Artistic Director Anthony J. Piccione, Associate Artistic Director Ryan Thornhill, Program Manager Maria fe Picar & Literary Manager Angelo Lorenzo.

Founded in 2020 by Mr. Piccione during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the original Talking It Out performance was presented live at the Dramatists Guild Foundation's Music Hall on March 10th, 2019. At the time of the initial readings, Michael D'Antoni wrote a rave review of the event for Five-Star Arts Journals, describing it as having “nothing less than pure, unadulterated, genuine, unpretentious focus on the agonies and anguish of mental illness, while also celebrating the triumphs and accomplishments over those living with, or those living with someone who suffers from mental health issues.“

Originally intended to be a one-time event of minimalistic staged reading of short plays, the event has since been revived as an ongoing festival of plays - as well as an expanding line-up of additional arts programming - presented online via Zoom. Hi! Drama praised the inaugural November 2020 Zoom performance for having “drawn from a wide range of ages and genders” and for “detailing the pain and distress encountered not only by those suffering from the various disorders but also those who support them”, while Young-Howze Theatre Journal praised the festival in a review earlier this season as “proof that digital theatre works.” Each of the plays is presented by an ensemble of actors from different corners of the world, highlighting various issues related to mental illness - ranging from anxiety, depression, neurodivergency, PTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, and more.