Now celebrating its 16th season of serving the community, the Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble offers a free five-week class on its world-renowned social-change theater techniques starting Oct. 11.

Facilitated by Mandala Center for Change codirectors Marc Weinblatt, Poetic Justice founder, and Zhaleh Almaee Weinblatt, the class is designed to introduce people to applied, interactive theater games and exercises, and to serve as an informal “audition” process for anyone interested in joining the Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble for the 2016-17 season.

Participants can expect to learn fun, valuable tools for social change, meet like-minded people, perform with current troupe members and get a behind-the-scenes experience of the ensemble's approach to theater-based social justice work.

Classes are held 3:15-6:15 p.m. on five Tuesdays from Oct. 11 through Nov. 8 at a location in uptown Port Townsend. Call Marc Weinblatt in advance at 344-3435 to sign up and commit to the full five weeks.

The focus of Poetic Justice is to stimulate healthy community dialogue and invite positive action toward the creation of a more just and joyous world for all people. Collectively run, it specializes in the internationally acclaimed interactive performance and workshop techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre, among others.

In the improvisational performances, audience members are not passive spectators but active “spect-actors” invited onstage to explore solutions to their own questions and struggles.

A dedicated multi-ethnic, multigenerational (from teens to elders) ensemble, Poetic Justice serves a wide range of issues in our local community – especially those surrounding marginalization.

This fall, the ensemble particularly looks to cast teens and people of color. All are welcome. The 2016-17 season rehearsals continue on Tuesday afternoons through mid-June (standard holidays off), plus an all-day retreat on Saturday, Nov. 19.

For more information, visit mandalaforchange.com.