I work as a Forum theatre practitioner, and TO/TFL training provider in Melbourne, Australia. Currently, I am working on several different projects which include a focus on: environmental  justice, mental health, and substance abuse, amongst  youth at risk. In my work, which I will speak about, theatre has given rise to the individuals to share their experiences, stories around human rights abuses in safe and creative ways. Stories that are then shared with the larger community, the audience, as a means to generate conversation, enable new insights to emerge. These insights can be used to advocate for  policy, legislative changes.  During the workshop process members of the community will come together use theatrical tools, and  techniques to investigate their concerns. Participants research their struggles, obstacles and barriers to participation, access to rights through theatre methods. The collective research enables the breakdown of a sense of alienation, builds group bonds, trust, communion.. eventually enabling the translation, the depiction of personal experiences of oppression, as located within a governing systemic reality. This collective shared wisdom, once accessed, is channeled  to create plays. For instance, in a project on women and economic security, where we had 22 women from diverse ages, abilities, and culture background, who shared the experience of living life on a low income, caring for others, we used theatre to address women's struggle with the money system. Plays were created to depict how poverty impacts, albeit  differently, on their lives.

Through their investigation they generated understandings that became the bases for the plays they offered to audiences. Three plays, one about housing security, domestic violence (economic dependency) and health and employment. All the stories (plays) involved women parenting children. They ended in a moment of crises. At that point audiences were asked to intervene, to name what they saw were the critical struggles, and to identify what strategies they might implement if in the same situation. They did this, through coming up and replacing characters whose struggles they understood to try and create dignity, security.

The outcomes of the conversations and 'dramatic' interventions were written up in a report and tabled as social policy initiatives. They are to be presented to the Office of the Status of Women, amongst one of the governmental bodies the work was targeted at. The women involved in the project will be presenting the outcomes of the report.

I hope to write more, about other projects but this is a start as I am flying out the door. Thanks NEW TACTICS for this inspiring space, opportunity. 

Hello everybody,

So great to see these thoughts brewing away!  Thank you all for your contributions so far.

I want to talk about witnessing, in the sense of viewing things as they are, and addressing, in the sense of doing something about a situation.

I think it is really important to remember that the first step in a process of making drama about a human rights issue is to understand that issue well.  This takes time and patience. It is tempting to rush ahead and try to make change happen, but I think this should be resisted in  favor of really getting to the  story first.

Here is an anecdote to illustrate what I mean:

Last night I saw a performance of a Forum Theatre play in London that was made to engage with homeless people. It was performed in a day centre near Kings Cross station.  After the performance, the Joker (that's the  person moderating the performance) had a terribly difficult time getting the audience at the centre to engage in a fruitful discussion about the play (though, she did it in the end, the hero).  The play wasn't relevant enough.  It was well-written, but didn't get to the personal stories and  lives of those who were watching.  So... they didn't engage very much, and the goal of 'addressing the issue' wasn't reached.  The mistake, as I see it, was that they didn't honor and respect the issues they were dealing with enough to really find the story they needed to tell.

I made this mistake before when I was working in Sudan in a theatre project aimed at building peace. I did not spend time listening to my participants, but rather, preached peace and reconciliation and plunged headlong into an adapted version of Romeo and Juliet (so ambitious!).  At a certain point, my actors mutinied.  We were rehearsing a scene of the play that involved a public conflict between two groups, and they stopped and told me they could not go on.  It was too real.  It was rubbing the real conflict in their face, in a dictatorial manner, before giving them a chance to tell their story.  I had to scrap that play, in the end, and we went for something much softer, a comedy sketch show.  It was a far cry from directly confronting the conflict,  but it was a good reflection of what the society was ready for at that point  in time.

What I'm  trying to say is, make space and time for people to tell their stories, and the action will emerge.  Witness the issue before trying to address it.  Sometimes just hearing a story told is enough to take care of what needs taking care of... 

This view favors longer workshop periods, attentiveness to the experiences that people  are going through in the process of making a play, and a priority given  to  process over product. 

The word transformation is used a lot in  these dialogues.  Its a good word, because its a bit vague and can mean a lot of things.   It is an intangible, and that's a good thing.  There's lots to say about  it, but one thing is, you can't force  it.  Just watch the story emerge.

okay, that's it for me now!  more later!

As a Palestinian, born under Israeli occupation, in a refugee camp where there are very limited possibilities for self-expression. The general stereotypes are that Palestinians are only capable of throwing stones or burning car tires, or that they are born with genes of hatred or violence, or terrorism. They are considered not as victims of occupation but as the oppressor and the public enemy. Deprived from their rights and lands, its them who should do the compromises, and not the occupier. The Palestinian cause was transformed as well into humanitarian cause, treating people as needy of assistance and charity and not as people who need political and legal support and dignity. In the same time, on the Palestinian side, the continuous occupation has lead to more extreme actions which lead to use of armed struggle and exploding oneself to kill others to make their voice heard.

On one side, we don't want our people and children to be numbers on lists of martyrs and handicapped for the rest of their lives, or perish in Israeli jails, and in the same time we don't want them to think that the only way to resists is through violence, because with all the justice of our cause, one people use violence, they lose part of their humanity.

I founded Alrowwad theatre in Aida refugee camp, which has no playgrounds or green spaces, which is surrounded by huge Israeli colonies, watch and snipers tours, and the illegal 8 meters high wall of separation from the East, North and part of the Western sides of the camp, and which is still subject of Israeli incursions until today. I focused on the use of arts in general and started with Theatre in particular which remains the main program of work to allow beautiful self expression to break the stereotypes and show another image of this beauty and humanity of our children and people, the folklore and culture.

The program was very successful. We invented the "Beautiful Resistance" against the ugliness of occupation and its violence, a nonviolent mean of self expression and defense of our humanity and refusal to be put in a corner where we respond to violence by violence, because we want to keep this humanity in us.

I have worked with university students, schools, kindergardens and adults. We have made international tours to create bridges and relations on international level, in Sweden, Denmark, Egypt, USA, France and Belgium. The idea is that theatre is a change maker on individual level and audience level. It is also a direct relation between the actor and audience, where possibilities of exchange and discussion could take place after the shows.

For Palestinian children, when they see people applauding them, and encourage them to continue in this way, that this kind of non-violent and beautiful resistance   delivers the message and represent another image of their country. then of course it does encourage them to continue doing theatre and be involved even in training others.

AbdelFattah Abusrour, PhD Ashoka Fellow Director of Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center ____________________________________________ Alrowwad is an Independent Center for artistic, cultural, and theatre training for

Forum theatre (in Pakistan we use the term interactive theatre) it provided us an opportunity to discuss analyze and try to find out practical solution of a problem by engaging spectators. Forum theatre is not a agitprop theatre rather it present the perspective of both protagonist and antagonist and raised the question for the spectators to address them as spect-actor” in forum theatre we present anti model and asked the spectators response about the decision made on stage and motivate them to change it . This provides a safe space for the performers and spectators to engage in a dialogue without being defensive.

If I look back there are few stories those gave me a lot of strength and energy to continue my work in the field of human rights. Five years ago a play was improvised with Sandal theatre group on the issue of power loom workers (textile industry to make yarn and cloths) in Faislabad. There were around half a million workers and none of them were registered with social security department, because all of them were informal labor no trade unions. The workers those were registered to social security department can get free medical services, education services for their children and get monetary benefit in case of accidents, death etc. The play was developed on this them while discussing why those workers did not have social security cards, linking with Government promises for welfare of workers, government officials attitude and employer fears  (if they registered the workers they have to pay more taxes)  etc. Theatre was performed in front of workers and leaders of different trade unions. There was very interesting dialogue was generated and many question were asked.  Trade union leaders decided to take this issue rather for more increase in wages.

From that point they started their struggle, processions, hunger strike, press conferences doing seminars to engage civil society and media. Some of them were arrested, few of them injured but they continue their struggle. As the result of the movement initiated through this year Federal Government have been forced for policy legislation  to provide social security cards to power loom workers and till today more than six thousand  workers got the cards and hopefully all of them will get the cards in this year.

There is an important thing to remind theatre can high light the issue, raised questions but we can bring the changes through organized struggle (political process). There must be an organization who is taking the lead on the issue you must have local organizations those were struggling for their rights. Theatre can supplement their efforts, helping them to communicate to a larger audience and helping them to create a collective image for which they struggle to achieve. We are documenting the case studies with next ten days it will be available on our website www.irc.org

Hi Everyone   My name is Kowsar Gowhari and I live in US. I am carefully following the discussions and I am really enjoying them since I am new to the field. Some of you did not mention your names and places. I appreciate if you share your name and email address with the rest of community members if you want to!   Especially, I really found the email about one of the member's experience in London and Sudan useful and I appreciate if you send me your contact info so I can ask you more question about your works.   my email is : kowsarjamshidiyahoo [dot] com   Thank you so much.   Cheers,   Kowsar Gowhari

I am still in the process of discovering how I can most effectively use puppetry to work within my community, and to support activists and organizations. So I thought I would share stories during this dialogue of how I’ve seen others use puppetry powerfully; the stories that have served as models for my own work. So I’ll start with:

BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER:

(www.breadandpuppet.org)

Bread and Puppet, based out of Glover, Vermont since the early 1970’s, is a radical puppet company that creates puppet parades, dances, circuses and outdoor pageants that explore social justice themes. I spend every summer with them and one of the most striking elements every year is participating in various Fourth of July parades. (The 4th of July is the USA’s Independence Day... a fiercely patriotic holiday with fireworks and parades based around general “our country is awesome” themes.)

Every year very conservative towns invite Bread and Puppet to parade with them despite their very radical messages. And every year Bread and Puppet participates with puppets (both fun and somber) that criticize the U.S. government and its policies. One year the end of our parade consisted of a line of Iraqi women (masked puppeteers) carrying dead naked bodies (puppet corpses) and a sign with the most recent number of dead U.S. soldiers and estimated dead Iraqis. That is not at all in the spirit of a typical 4th of July parade; instead of celebrating the heroics and might of the USA, Bread and Puppet questions and challenges it. But along with the somber puppets, there are stilters, a lively brass band, and always something to celebrate... like chickens with signs to represent local stores (we would change the names of the stores to fit each town) defeating a giant Walmart executive. Every year we’re the life of each parade and every following year we’re invited back.

The power of puppetry is that it can say whatever it wants to... an audience member can be charmed or wowed or laughed into listening to the most radical of values. And as a performer, I have found that it feels infinitely safer saying radical or personal things through a mask or a puppet. You’re not putting yourself in the line of fire because it’s the puppet who is saying or doing the stuff that feels risky.

In an earlier posting, Max talked about working with a Sudanese community who found it too painful to perform themes that hit close to home. I’m wondering if puppets might be an effective way to theatrically present painful stories or themes... if puppets might feel like a safer medium for exploring those topics. I don’t do that work so I have no experience in this area, but it does make me wonder.

Dear Friends

Please watch this short video about "theater of the oppressed project" we had in Iran. It was great and I really like to share it with you.

Best,

Kowsar Gowhari

http://vimeo.com/2037062

Can small can be smarter and understandable? – depends? Hi everyone. Thank you very much for these inspiring thoughts being shared here. This comment is inspired by Max's point. I am however, sharing a subjective concern I have from the Southern part of Africa… I just thought I could throw in something relating to definition of terms, and I wondered to what extend do they enable or hinder our work or practice. Well I am writing this because I realize the topic is on theatre, and yet some of the processes would require us to clarify what kind. So noting some of the discussions here, I have sort of come to like applied drama and theatre (Well I am a Drama For Life scholar and if you check www.dramaforlife.or.za you will understand my bias), anyway… In applied, I think there is a lot of collective risk taking in that both the actors and audience or ‘spect-actors’ to borrow from Boal would be challenged to reflect on their plight. I think this approach is particularly relevant for Southern Africa, where clarity on the different genre is either collapsed or implemented without full understanding of the principles. I have an experience in Lesotho where stories would be ‘packaged’ for everyone, and my contention is that this does not really work. I turn to think that there needs to be a shift from wanting to cover so many hundred and what what people, but in enabling moments for people to reflect on their own plight. At the core of what I would really like to say is that if we can clearly understand the different roles and processes, there would be less demands on certain processes whose demands and approaches are inappropriate, knowing whether we are engaging in a process or product. What do people think about ensuring understanding of the principles of our work, before borrowing, collapsing models, so that we can be judged on the merits of what we intended to do in the first place? Sometimes I look at a project review and I think, if the objectives were these, then this project has achieved the quality and not so much the quantity needed. I do realize that there is pressure for reach, reach, reach, but I think we need to take a step back and lay the tapestry of diverse approaches clearly for those that we would like to work with. Especially those who may support our initiatives. Due to HIV/Aids, the pressure may be too much, and thus undermine the power of theatre processes or products. Depending on clarity?

Motho ke motho ka batho

Hi all,

I'm currently in the midst of a great community arts festival in Salatiga Indonesia - Festival Mata Air , http://web.mac.com/komunitastuk/TUK_Site/Home.html a festival that is using the arts to promote environmental awareness and change particularly in regards to water issues (and is the reason i haven't been able to get on this site so much this week, as i'm sure you can all understand!).  And i thought i would share with you all what last nights performance was, as it brought back to me exactly the power that performance/puppetry can do.

Last night, in the middle of rice fields, in a small urban kampung (neighbourhood) in the middle of salatiga, was a performance from Wayang Kampung Sebelah from Solo, central Java a fantastic contemporary  wayang kulit, shadow puppet group that mixes traditional wayang kulit with contemporary issues, characters, as well as dandut, a contemporary Indonesia popular pop music, that is a lot of fun.  The show was about a community were a corporation wants to privatize their natural spring, (a very common issue in this area), which in the end the community fights and decides not to allow.

So pretty typical story but the way that it was put across had people in stitches, a clever mix of wit, wicked music and hilarious puppet characters enable the story that was extremely close to the bone, and would in a normal situation be quite controversial, be very digestible!  But what was really amazing was the audience.  The show was long (luckily only 3 hours as opposed to the formal wayang kulit tradition of 12hours!) starting quite late, but the audience stayed right till the end, and this was not just your normal one 'type' of audience but was a mixture of the political leaders of the district, members of the community old and young, street punks that had come from all over the region for the next days punk concert as well as quite a lot of internationals.  And during this time we had the juxtaposition of the extremely elite political leaders in their VIP seats laughing whole heartily to the humor and wit (which was simultaneously, in many ways  making fun of and undermining their own roles in society) while the punk contingent were dancing crazily to the same storey and music and the community was watching with total enthusiasm, all enjoying each others company, identifying with the storey, enjoying the entertainment while also sensing the edge that the storey has.  Many people commented later on just how impressed they were with how such an entertaining show was able to get to the core of such a political issue, in a way that human performance could not have done.

So yes, last night was a lot of fun!

I want to share a story of a small project that came to me recently.

I was visiting a centre for mental health patients in London, in connection  to some of my work with homeless people, and had the opportunity to meet a woman living there who is a voice hearer, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.  She showed me some  writing that she'd been doing, and asked if I could help her  do something with it.

The writing was literally a record of what the  voices in her head were saying over a certain  period.  She did not act like an author, but rather as someone who'd just written down what she had heard.  The text was  chaotic and scary.  It was like white noise on the television, with every now and then a concrete image jumping out.  Much of it was about the Royal Family and Princess Diana, with whom the author feels a particular connection.

The first 'book' I was shown was roughly the length of eight monologues.  A week ago Sunday, we performed a rehearsed reading of this book, with six actors, at a venue in London called The  Foundry, with an invited audience.  The writer was there, and after the performance, she had a discussion with the  audience about her experiences with mental health and  breakdown, and where her writing came from.

I'm happy to say that people were really happy to have been present for this - it was a really good example of positive witnessing.  I'm also happy to say that the writer's confidence and health has soared since we started working with her, and in the last six months I've witnessed a real change in her confidence and ease.

Just telling your story, that's all it takes sometimes. 

Such an inspiration I have gained form various experiences. Thanks. Would also like to share about...

Linking Lesotho (in Southern Africa, completely surrounded by South Africa - but independent state) through theatre...

I am also associated with the Winter/Summer Institute in Theatre for Development. Ok briefly - in 2006, the National University of Lesotho (NUL)’s Faculty of Humanities hosted the first biennial, multi-national collaborative initiative, the Winter/Summer Institute (WSI) in Theatre for Development[1] - www.maketheatre.org. WSI’s primary collaborative creative work takes place in an intensive three week residency in June/July.  The project grew out of discussions between theatre practitioners and academics from the participating institutions, along with community development activists.  All initiators shared a commitment to collaborative, improvisational-driven work, with a focus on enhancing the theatre making capacity of students and staff while engaging in innovative ways of addressing issues of HIV/Aids through drama and theatre.  For the participating institutions, it is winter in the South and summer in the North; hence the name.  

In June/July this year a new play; Its Just You And Me, My Wife and Your Boyfriend/Ke ’Na le Uena, Mosali oa ka Le Mohlankana oa Hau Feela, was developed and performed at Roma, Maseru and Malealea Lesotho.. The play explored tensions associated with choices, chances and changes amidst power, denial, stigma and HIV/Aids. Having established a unique blend of theatre elements and tapping of participant’s talents and creativity, the WSI in Theatre for Development was able to allow audience to thread the story beyond the performance, thus shift the sometimes ephemeral theatre experience to challenge them to think beyond their own frame of what is and what could be. Exceptional about the play was its ability to present children’s milieu amidst the pandemic and an endeavor to explain the rapid spread of HIV in Southern Africa.

Sharp, succinct and sometimes poignant scenes evolved from the village that served as a backdrop to a theatre genre that transcends the divide likely to be created by conventional theatre forms. Actors took on multiple roles to capture a story of once a good quality of life but now distorted due to HIV/Aids. A story informed by recent research such as Helen Epstein’s concurrency theory and presentations by local practitioners such as Dr. Molotsi Monyamane and international partners such as Mèdicins San Frontières (MSF) as well as personal testimonies of living with Aids. A story comforting and discomforting, entwined by music richly endowed with the WSI’s cultural diversity under the directorship of Alta Van As of the university of Witwatersrand, South Africa

It is still astonishing however, how HIV/Aids still brings to the surface the misconception, taboos and dichotomy of ideologies despite massive campaigns of education that Lesotho and other countries has embarked on. In the play, the uncle scene was particularly found disturbing as the vulnerability of orphaned children was laid bare. “The laughter is of nervousness, we have girl children and the scene where the uncle rapes the child is just too close to reality”. Said one audience member during post performance facilitation. This for me is one never-to-forget experience about the power of theatre as a tool for social change.

[1] Participating universities were NUL, the University of Witwatersrand/School of Education (Republic of South Africa), the University of Sunderland (United Kingdom) and Empire State College, State University of New York (SUNY) [United States of America]. Due to practical restructuring issues in its theatre department, the University of Sunderland did not participate in 2008.  

Motho ke motho ka batho

Hello all

I’m really enjoying the discussions that are unfolding. Thank you to everyone that’s contributing and to NT for all the work you do to create a space for such dialogues.

Along the theme of how theatre can be used as a powerful tool in human rights work one area (of many!) that I am interested in exploring and developing is facilitating workshops using Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) processes with people actively engaged in social change work. I’m wondering if people are more likely to stay engaged to social change work if they have an opportunity to reflect on the work they do, be heard, dialogue, learn with others who share their desire for social change in a creative environment.

Primarily I envisage it would create a space for people to debrief and reflect on the , social change work (ie campaigns) that they are engaged in, and to explore what they feel maximizes and minimizes their desire for work for and create social change. A space possibly to question and dream wildly about how their work in the world might look. In doing so the participants could be sharing their experiences and learnings to support each other and ‘rehearse’ how their future work could be. This may be a way to peer-educate and keep people motivated to continue with their action (social change work).

Do people know of any people that are using Theatre of the Oppressed processes to work with such communities to support their social change work?

If so it would be great to hear about them and/or any stories that people have.

Warmly. Pru

www.thechangeagency.org

I know we’re supposed to be talking about our own theater experiences, but I feel that most of my work is building directly off of the work of others and I just don’t find my own stuff nearly as interesting just yet as the work of those I’m learning from. So here I’d like to highlight a couple of powerful examples of theater that use cultural traditions as their foundation. Drawing from their own cultural roots was effective and profound and I frequently look to these two examples as models:

Domestic Workers Purimspiel

A Purimspiel happens on the Jewish holiday of Purim. It is the annual retelling of the story of Esther, the Jewish wife of a king who intervened in state business to foil a plot to kill the Jews in her kingdom.  An awesome organization, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), organizes progressive Jews around local social justice issues in New York City. When they were working with Domestic Workers United to support their campaign to pass a Bill of Rights that would protect domestic workers, they used the holiday Purim and the traditional Purimspiel to raise awareness of the issue. They worked together with Domestic Workers United to create an alternative Purimspiel that told the story of Purim from the point of view of the workers in the castle. The play had music, puppets, crazy costumes, and was created and performed by a coalition of JFREJ members and domestic workers. It was a huge success, was performed many times and was even toured to other cities.

WombWorks/Nu World Theater www.wombwork.com

Womb Works is amazing. I saw them perform in Baltimore (where they are based) and they completely changed my view about my role in activism. They aim to “preserve and re-empower families and communities through the creative arts, music, dance, and theater expressions.” Their show had at least 50 African American youth of all ages saying, through poetry and dance and chorus work, the fiercest, most deeply true, most honest and direct things addressing racism and unbalance in their lives and connecting it to institutional racism and the Iraq war and other larger policy-level issues. Moving from a more contemporary style of performance, they ended the show with totally energetic and intense African dancing.

They describe their work: “Our production helps the participants release from the stress of an unbalanced society and creates for the audience a mirror in which to view themselves, past present and future, to analyze their conditions and make better choices that will enable them to rise to their highest potential.... WombWorks brings art and spirit  together to create long lasting healing of the cellular memory, our earliest DNA, the truth we know in our inner core but believe we don’t remember. Once that memory is triggered, the healing process begins. In traditional society, art forms such as dance, music and theater were used as medicine to heal the community. WombWorks restores the ancient tradition of the healing power of these art forms in order to maintain the spiritual connection of all people.”

They are not joking around. That performance was among the top three most powerful theater experiences I've ever had in my life.

irfan

Hi to All,

I work in Human Rights Commission for Social Justice and Peace Quetta Balochistan. As it is obvious from the name of the organization, Human Rights, Social Justice and Peace" which are the fundamental issues of human being fright from the start of the human history up till now, many great social reformers  like Aristotle, Plato  , Socrates and many more struggled to set human beings free from the bondage of exploitation caused by social injustice , unfair distribution of resources and destroying peace in the world just for commercial reasons. I try to make familiar the community, students , teachers and youths about the issues of human rights , social , justice and peace through open street shows , open painting exhibition shows to make them realize and feel what they think and perceive about  the issues. As I am living in the most difficult and different part of Pakistan, whereas going with the theater and painting and music are alien for people, as compared to the other provinces of Pakistan are comparatively more familiar with   theater and painting and music. The reasons for being alien with open theater and painting, since Balochistan is very backward, tribal and fundamentally it has strong religious build. All these three points stopped people to understand and feel the issues of human rights, justice, peace and democracy. I through theater and painting shows try to awaken the critical sense of the people to feel the bondages created by backwardness, tribal and wrong religious ideas and practices , unfortunately since the wave of the suicide bombing attacks we are no more able to go with the open street and painting shows, where were really the source of awakening people.   

Hi Everyone -

I am so glad to be able to start this dialogue off.  What I'll do is give step by step instructions for a foundational exercise of the Theater of the Oppressed called "Complete the Image".  I will then give my thoughts on why this is an important exercise to do with groups in preparing them to think about their futures and what they want to create for themselves and their communities.

COMPLETE THE IMAGE

 Procedure:

Two volunteers come to the front of the classroom.  They face each other and shake hands and freeze.  While they are frozen they must stay in the same position as long as they can.

Facilitator draws an imaginary frame around the image they have created and asks the spectators to imagine what this image can be of.  For instance, they are meeting for the first time and one is a boss interviewing a job candidate, etc.  Be sure to get the participants to talk about how the characters are standing and how that effects what they see in the image.  EX: They look like they know each other because they are standing very close and smiling, etc. Move from the "objective" to the "subjective".

Then, one of the pair steps out of the image and the other is alone holding the same pose as before.  Spectators then analyze this image in the same way as above. 

Then, the partner who stepped out can come back into the image and “complete the image” in any way s/he wishes.  S.he can arrange her body in front, behind, below, etc. of their partner, but she can’t change her partner’s image in any way.  But she must step out of the image completely, look at the frozen image that remains and then come back in.

This new image is analyzed again by those watching.

Then the second partner (who remained frozen) can come out and “complete the image” in the same way that the first did.  This new image is analyzed by the spectators. Then, ask the first participant to step out again, but this time a spectator from the audience comes in to replace her and s/he can “complete the image” in her own way. Have a few spectators try this out. See what the group imagines.  Are they constrained in their imagination, are they saying the same themes over and over, what is the group "seeing" in the images?

After many repetitions, add a "theme" on to the image.  Ask people to make images of "resistance".  Have many people try different interventions, and discuss the types of resistance images that are being shown.  Are they all violent, does the group have a hard time showing resistance, etc. 

Discuss what they thought about the exercise in a large group discussion. Discuss the images of resistance and what the group thought about the process and the results.

MY THOUGHTS: 

In stories and attempts at resistance, we can see the embodiment of narrative, history, and hope.  Participants begin a synthesis of their lived experience, historical images of resistance, and what they want and can do in the future.  Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed, provides a great pedagogical foundation for us to see how theater bring participants from anti-oppression discourse to practice.    

Many people think of art as a reflection of reality, that the artist replicates an aspect of what already is, what exists, with a fresh twist, a strange perspective, or some extra sensory perception.  However, this is a narrow view of the work of the artist and the power of the arts.  Augusto Boal has said that art is a mirror which reflects reality, but it is a magic mirror. One we can reach into to transform the image into what we want it to be.  This idea underlies all of the Theater of the Oppressed work; that the artist works from the real, transforming it.  And, that anyone can be an artist – it just takes a vision of the possible, of what can be.  This concept of his is grounded by Boal’s work with Paulo Freire and his inclusion of Paulo Freire’s pedagogy; to see, to analyze, and to act.  This is most clear in Boal’s exercise, “Complete the Image”.  Here the exercise moves students through an analytic process where they must contend with the image they see, the “real” image, and with change.  They must change themselves, change their position or action in order to make new meaning out of the image. I value this exercise as a way to bring participants into their own process of problem solving and liberation because it is the job of the facilitator to hand over the "wheel" to the participants.  This exercise primes the participants to take over. 

Using complete the image with the theme of resistance helps participants to envision the multiple possibilities of what resistance can look like; stimulating their senses and rehearsing for the future.  There is no right or wrong, there is the process of analyzing and creating, and re-creating.  What we see in this exercise is what we see in life: images of solidarity, violence, mutual support, or nonviolent actions.  But while we are asking participants to “complete the image”, they are never making a complete image.  They are always struggling with change, with perception.  They practice being inside the image, being analyzed by others, and outside them image, analyzing it.  They are embodying being a subject of their own life, and the oppression of how the dominant society sees them.  In order to gain a sense of comfort with this complex relationship between oneself and society – one needs practice.  Instead of throwing participants into creating action plans or concrete resolutions, we are having them explore their relationship to the larger community of resisters by embodying the act over and over again through many exercises and examples.

Resistance is imagination, creativity, creation, regeneration, and love.  Using theater to understand and explore resistance is a more powerful force for transformation because of the regenerative properties, the subjunctive action, imagination, the visioning process for creating the future. Through this process, we are looking at today’s struggle, but are not bogged down – rather we create links for continuing to move out of that struggle.  The coupling of the analytical and transformative aspects of art making is an important way to move from resistance to future action. This is the power of the work, and it is how participants can see themselves as resisters in charge of the shape of their future.

An effective model that I am pursuing for neighborhood-based community puppet parades has been created (and is still being developed) by Spiral Q Puppet Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Spiral Q’s neighborhood parades and pageants are a collaboration of community members, local organizations and municipal leaders. It's an effective process because it's designed and driven by community members, it raises up local issues/visions, it can bring together people across race/class lines, and involves different sectors of a neighborhood and encourages neighborhood unity.

I’m going to share the general process to create such a parade, but for more details on how Spiral Q does it, visit their website or contact them: www.spiralq.org

(This process could take weeks... this is just a general outline:)

1. A strong neighborhood parade begins with strong neighborhood participation and ties. Collaborate with a local group or community-based organization that is committed to the success of the parade.

2. Through collective brainstorming exercises/games, draw out the themes, visions and or concerns about the neighborhood from participants and collectively choose which people would like to raise up in their parade.

3. Through more brainstorming exercises, draw out visuals around the chosen themes and collectively choose what visuals people would like to make.

4. Work with participants to design each puppet (you could break into groups, each group taking on one puppet if that makes sense in context): how should it move? how big should it be? how should it be operated and how many people should that take? (Numbers 4 - 9 here aren’t necessarily in order and will probably need to be somewhat simultaneous).

5. Collectively decide on and implement the parade logistics, making sure participants take leadership and responsibility for achieving the different elements: where should it start and end, what permits will you need, how many parade volunteers will you need, who else do you want to include in the parade*, where do you want to advertise, etc...

*As part of a neighborhood parade, it’s important to include other community organizations, businesses, schools, drill teams, choirs... contact them and see how they’d like to support or participate in the event whether it’s by helping build the puppets, by marching in the parade in their own specific way, or by donating money.

6. Build the puppets with participants!

7. As part of the parade-planning process, you could plan neighborhood events with the different organizations, businesses, and community members involved as a way for them to socialize with each other/see what each other does in the neighborhood/generate excitement over the upcoming parade

8. Advertise, advertise, advertise!

9. With participants, make sure logistics are in order, make sure each participating group has what it needs for the parade, make sure you have enough volunteers (and prep time) for the puppets, etc...

10. Parade!

11. Celebrate the success of the parade with a party or something and make sure you get an evaluation of the process from participants so you can reflect on how the process was experienced by them.

Below are my favorite and most-used resources. I begin with books and end with websites. They run the gamut from puppetry to theater in development to direct action. But they have all been incredibly helpful in my theater work, whether for tools they offer or for models to follow. Enjoy!:

“Wise Fool Basics: A handbook of our core techniques” by K. Ruby

This is a GREAT resource for making puppets, masks, stilts and other visuals. It also has sections on designing a workshop to elicit visuals for an action, the consensus process, and other awesome stuff. As far as activist puppetry goes, I haven’t found any better resource.

"Enacting Participatory Development: Theatre-Based Techniques" by Julie McCarthy This is a completely brilliant book for people working in NGO's, non-profits, grassroots organizations, social justice campaigns... anyone who is interested in using theater techniques for workshops, project planning, evaluation, decision-making, research and more. It was developed through participatory research and training processes and has great exercises that borrow from a range of techniques. It is GREAT.

"Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority" edited by Josh MacPhee and Erik Reuland This is an amazing collection of articles that look at many artistic mediums. The part that I have found incredibly valuable is the article titled "When Magic Confronts Authority: The Rise of Protest Puppetry in North America" by Morgan Andrews. It is the only history of recent radical puppetry in the USA that I've found. It looks at puppetry from worker rallies in the 1930's to the anti-globalization movement in this decade and has inspired me and given me many useful ideas.

“The Activist Cookbook: Creative Actions for a Fair Economy” by Andrew Boyd

Andrew Boyd is a real genius for creative direct actions--he was one of the inventors of Billionaires for Bush and most of the actions he dreams up are inherently theatrical. I take a lot from the framework he uses when thinking about designing an issue-based street theatre or puppet piece.

Participatory Performance Practices (PPP) in Theater for Development: http://www.cdcarts.org/ppp/

I really responded to the principles laid out in this website and have referred to them when about to work in communities that are not my own. Very basically,  PPP combines Participatory Research with Theater in Development to empower communities, facilitate cultural understanding and accountability between communities and theater practitioners, in the process of executing a community-based initiative. The website is a little complicated--I think they were trying to be technologically poetic and imaginative--but it's worth the time it takes to figure it out.

The Hemispheric Institute: http://hemi.nyu.edu/

Another incredible online resource, the Hemispheric Institute documents, studies and reports on the intersection between politics and performance in the Americas (North, South and Central). It puts out an online journal and highlights some of the most cutting edge and visionary work that is being done (in my opinion). They also have an Encuentro (a conference) once a year and bring together people from all over the Hemisphere to share their work. Awesome.

The Center for Civic Participation: Arts and Democracy Project: http://www.ccp.org/organizing/groups/artsdem

This project "builds the momentum of a cultural movement that draws on a rich history of arts activism, social justice organizing, and grassroots engagement. We are engaging the following questions: How do arts and culture play an active role in our democracy? What forms of cultural expression move people to participate in decision-making? What forms of activism and organizing are best linked to arts and cultural work? How can this work become more strategic, effective and sustainable?

The project catalyzes and supports cross-pollination between sectors, cultures, and generations and the linking of practitioners, policymakers, educators, and activists."

I wanted to highlight a great post that had been made under the "Training for Nonviolent Action" dialogue regarding the benefits of using Theatre as a tool for a rehearsal for change...Augusto Boal

The post includes some useful history regarding the emergence of theater in social change movements as well as great definitions of the various "players" used in the Theatre of the Oppressed model.  I hope people find this cross reference helpful!

Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager

Annie I was totally captivated to hear you started out with Westside. I know the Circus well, my son was involved in Westside. Currently, the young woman who I provide foster care for is also training with Westside.  She has just finished her second show. She loves it. So much so she is talking about becoming a circus trainer.  I remembering working hard to encourage her to give circus ago, to get her into circus. I felt she would find community there, safety, pride, and a relationship with her body, and it's capacity, beauty beyond the sexualized understanding so often imposed on young women in particular.

I am sharing this story because I want to echo your sentiments about the positive value of physical theatre as another form of theatre. Though I don't work in circus what I saw in my son case and in this young girls case was a transformation that is understandable, yet hard to articulate. They physically felt more confident, capable, open. It has something to do with breaking down imposed understandings,  breaking down self perceptions, limitations, instead learning to fly (sometimes literally).  Also, from what I hear in their accounts and witness in my own work, physical theatre as in other types, a unique space is created where you learn to work with others despite differences, to find a way to mount a show. The show in itself a dare. It takes courage, and courage - risk, is an excellent capacity to foster in our work for change.. Thanks for sharing. I valued your personal account.

Thank you for sharing your story, Annie. It is amazing how powerful theatre can be. It has been really inspiring to read about all the stories of how theatre has been used to provide a safe place to carry out this 'positive risk taking' and move to action - and reading your own person experience confirms this even more.

I look forward to learning more about your work through this dialogue in the next week! 

Kristin Antin, New Tactics Online Community Builder

Hi Annie

Your beautiful story of how theatre is great for social change and find the beauty within us is something that I do share with you completely.

Myself, I was in love with painting, photography and theatre. In theatre mostly as actor and writer. But of course, at that time, when I finished high school, studying arts was not a choice in the sense that it doesn't feed you. So my family said do something to earn your living first and then do whatever you want. I finished a PhD in Biological and Medical Engineering in France, where I stayed 9 years. But in all these years, I didn't stop painting, and joined a theatre class and created with friends a theatre group. At certain moment, I was about to leave my PhD for theatre, and of course, great panic in the family... but I did finish my PhD finally, and I earned my living with it, and earned my spirit and soul with theatre.

I was very shy, and theatre helped me deeply to express more myself, since on stage I wasn't shy at all. I guess this is the greatness of theatre as tool for change and social change, help find the peace within us, and gets out of us the most beautiful and positive energy that we have hiding in us. It is also away that I use with children and youth in Palestine to allow all the stress and violence to dissipate and be expressed on stage rather than in real life... it is away where the beneficiaries find a balance somehow.

I do agree completely with you that it is truly an amazing transforming tool, and a constructive way of making beautiful and non-violent resistance to injustice and oppression..

AbdelFattah Abusrour, PhD Ashoka Fellow Director of Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center ____________________________________________ Alrowwad is an Independent Center for artistic, cultural, and theatre training for

Thanks for joining the conversation, Roberto. I like the idea of using theatre as a 'transformative' tool for communities of survivors. Theatre can be a powerful method strengthen communities after violent atrocities. Has anyone else had experience using theatre in this context?  

Kristin Antin, New Tactics Online Community Builder

I don't think that dream is too big, partly because I've seen it done before and it's been beautiful and effective! There are two examples of world-wide unified theater events to further social justice that I’d like to share. I find them powerful not only because so many people participated, but especially because they are connected to larger organizing efforts that do ongoing work around the issues:

The Vagina Monologues

Millions of people are now familiar with this show which is performed around the world in February near the USA's Valentine's Day. The show is a series of monologues that talk about womens' relationships to their vaginas. It deals with abuse, internalized oppression, body image, rape, liberation, love... Many years ago when I first participated in the play, it completely changed my view of myself and helped me to deal with deep issues I had with my body image and sexuality. 

Eve Ensler, the author and original performer of the monologues, founded V-Day, a movement to end violence against women and girls. Her organization helps raise awareness around violence not only by promoting the performance of the Vagina Monologues, but by encouraging performances to connect to organizations and campaigns world wide that are working to end violence against women. 

V-Day organizes events, benefits, and gatherings to support the movement. They provide opportunities for people to be involved year-round though the V Monologues happen only once a year.  In 9 years they have raised over $50 million and have been active in 120 countries. (Their website is: www.vday.org )

The Lysistrata Project

Two New York actors, Kathryn Blume and Sharon Bower organized this event; world-wide readings and full productions of Aristophanes' Lysistrata as a peace action. In their own words: “A funny, bawdy romp of a play with a strong anti-war message, it seemed an ideal vehicle for theatrical protest. The title character, Lysistrata, organizes women from warring Greek city-states to band together and deny sex to their husbands until they stop the Peloponnesian War. Unable to bear their intense...longings, the men finally agree to lay down their swords and call a permanent truce.

“This all came together in two months.... We wanted to tell the world that [President] Bush doesn't speak for all Americans, and to provide a megaphone for voices of dissent.”

In the midst of a major anti-war movement, activists, organizers and artists came together to use this play as a vehicle for dissent. (Attracting more press coverage than many other anti-war events happening at the time...)