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Scholar-in-Residence

Scholar-in-Residence 2000
Scholar-in-Residence 2001
A Sample of bibliodrama
Bibliodrama Workshop

Dr. Peter A. Pitzele

Peter A. Pitzele, Ph.D. is an adjunct faculty member of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary, both in New York. Peter is a writer, teacher, and chairman of the advisory board of the Institute for Contemporary Midrash. He has developed a form of improvisational theater for the teaching of biblical narrative called Bibliodrama, has written Our Fathers’ Wells: A Personal Encounter with the Myths of Genesis, published by HarperCollins: San Francisco, 1995, and now in paperback, and is the author of Scripture Windows: Toward a Practice of Bibliodrama, published by Torah Aura: Los Angeles, and runner up for Best Book in Jewish Education, l998. He is currently working on a book on "Peter."

Pioneer of Bibliodrama

The Bible contains figures, scenes, and images that live in us in a deeper and more spiritual way than we are often able to grasp by the usual methods of study and reading. When our ways of relating to sacred texts are too distant or intellectual, then the rich spiritual and psychological relevance of these stories remains untapped and unexplored.

Midrash is a form of biblical interpretation and creative commentary; it is the time-honored process by which the Bible is brought to bear on our present lives. Midrash has taken on a new vitality for contemporary men and women who recognize it as a means by which to regain a sense of the pertinence of the biblical tradition.

Bibliodrama is a form of modern midrash. It offers a way for a community to read together and imagine anew the biblical stories we have known since childhood. It is a unique method of text-study and midrash-making that yields a direct engagement with the depth and relevance of biblical narrative. By its use of an active and dramatic imagination bibliodrama allows us to enter the inner worlds of biblical characters. We can find ourselves in them and them in us. Through a process that is gentle and playful bibliodrama can help us feel again the timeless and timely quality of these abiding fables of spiritual identity.

Other Topics:

Using bibliodrama from the pulpit & using bibliodrama in the classroom (This would be a didactic, practicum. An attempt to provide those who want it with some tools for beginning to bring midrash-bibliodrama into their ministries.)

Learning to write bibliodramatic midrash.

Using bibliodrama in counseling (biblio-therapy).

Bibliodrama as a form of Storytelling: Working with Children and multi-generational groups.

Recommendations:

"His guidance of students and faculty through the emotional layers of the text was of great importance to those who were there" (Rabbi Gordon Tucker).

"An extraordinary method of teasing out new meanings from stories you think you know all too well. Important for Jews and Christians in dialogue with their own traditions and with one another." (Rev. Chris Leighton, Executive Director of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies).

"I’ll never read the Bible the same way again" (Alicia Ostriker, poet and author).

Current Positions:

Consultant-at-Large to Four Winds Hospital, Katonah, NY
Honorary Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Institute for Contemporary Midrash.
Senior Faculty Member, Bibliodrama Training Institute.
Adjunct Faculty Member, Department of Pastoral Psychiatry, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York.
Adjunct Faculty Member: Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Training Consultant to Clinical Pastoral Education Programs, national and regional levels.

Professional History:

Director of Psychodrama Services, Four Winds Hospital (l982-1997).
Resident Director of Training, Moreno Institute, Beacon, New York l980-82).
Founder and Director of Friends of the Mountain School, New Paltz, (New York, l978-1980).
Associate Professor of Literature, Brooklyn College (l972-1978).
Assistant Professor of Literature, Harvard University (1969-1972).

Education:

TEP (Trainer, Educator, Practitioner) in Psychodrama and Group Psychotherapy; certified l984, American Board of Examiners.
Ph.D. in English and American Literature, Harvard University, l969.
MA in English Literature, Balliol College, Oxford, l964.
BA in History and Literature, magna cum laude, Harvard University, l963.

Publications:

"Classical Psychodrama" in The Journal of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, l988.
"Adolescents Inside Out" in Psychodrama: Inspiration and Technique, Routledge, London, l990.
"Psychodrama and the Bible: Mirror and Window of Soul" in The Journal of Religious Education, Volume 86. Number 4, Fall, l991.
Our Fathers' Wells: A Personal Encounter With the Myths of Genesis, Harper Collins: San Francisco, March, l995.
Scripture Windows: Toward a Practice of Bibliodrama, Torah Aura: Los Angeles, l998.

Recent and Ongoing Presentations:

Rabbinical Assembly (1985-present).
Scholar-in-Residencies (references on request).
American Society of Group Psychotherapy & Psychodrama (l984-present).
Keynote Speaker: Association of Clinical Pastoral Education and the College of Chaplains, 1998.