drama a way to social inclusion

Participatory drama methods wereseen in project as a way to social inclusion.. In our project we have explored and developed new combinations andadaptations of a wide range of applied an

- a WAY to social inclusion

Practical process descriptions

for drama workers

- a Way to Social Inclusion

Practical process descriptions

for drama workers

Jouni Piekkari (ed.)

University of Turku,

This handbook is one of the outputs of DramaWay project

(107247 - JA - 1 2002 1 FI JOINT CALL-SITG, http://www.tkk.uty.fi/dramaway).The handbook has been done with European support

Publications of the Centre for Extension Studies in Turku University A: 88

Cover Keijo Viljakainen

Coverphotos Ulla Halkola and Titi Lillqvist

Layout Rivico Oy, Jouni Vilhonen

Publisher Centre for Extension Studies, University of Turku

Drama – a Second Chance to Learn 5

1 Introduction 9

What is Drama Way? 9

2 Aims and Methods 12

Why to use drama as an alternative tool for learning? 12

Some Genres of Participatory and Interactive Drama 14

3 Projects in the Co-operation Countries 21

Estonia 22

Social Theatre Festival “Spartacus” (VAT Forum group) 23

Visits at Tallinn’s Centre of Children at Risk (VAT Forum group) 27

Forum Theatre in TV Youth Program “The Fist” (VAT Forum group) 31

Using Improvisational Technique in Forum Theatre (VAT Forum group) 35

Forum Theatre Workshops in Estonia (Jouni Piekkari) 39

Spain (Catalonia) 44

Clowns for Clean Clothes -Campaign (David Martínez) 45

Uncovering the Conflict Exploring Our Decisions Through Drama (David Martínez) 51

Theatre Project with Immigrant Children of Raval

(Anna Caubet & Jordi Forcadas) 64

Session of Interactive Theatre (Anna Caubet) 69

Invisible Theatre with Immigrant Youth (Jordi Forcadas) 71

Portugal 74

Interactive Class Learning about Drama Literature (Marco Ferreira) 75

Youth & Job – Equality of Rights (Marco Ferreira) 80

Sonho de Amanda - Amanda´s Dream (Baal 17) 89

Finland 100

Free fall – Project in Lohja (Titi Lillqvist) 101

Photo as a Step to Drama (Ulla Halkola & Tarja Koffert) 115

Arts, Educators, Communities – a Participatory Approach (Jouni Piekkari) 119

Kullervo Social Exclusion of Youth in Mythology (Titi Lillqvist & Jouni Piekkari) 130

New York, New York Parents Making Choices Concerning Their Careers and Children (Jouni Piekkari) 142

Aleksi How do I know someone is using drugs? (Jouni Piekkari) 148

4 Literature on Different Genres of Drama 155

Information of the writers of the articles 164

Appendix: Drama a Way to Social Inclusion CD 166

Drama – a Second Chance to Learn

It is common to experience discomfort at Finnish schools and work places Severalsurveys and public discussions show that such aspects as bullying, burn-outs,psychological violence and sexual harassment have become a significant issue inFinland These phenomena seem to be common also in other European countries.The society is evidently increasingly emphasising competition, specialisation,technical knowledge, know-how and consumption In such a society it is moreand more difficult for human beings to interact in positive, human ways And thesame challenges are met in family life as well

It is visible in public discussions that parents, people working with youngstersand educators often try to search for forums and methods to learn social skills

needed to tackle these problems However, where are these kind of forums in

which people with various backgrounds could learn together through play: observetheir lives with open eyes; experience moments of sharing? Where could westrengthen our communities and learn the social skills needed in that process?

Drama a Way to Social Inclusion (Drama Way) was a project by the European

Union Socrates Joint actions program The project was started in 2002 andconcluded in the end of February 2005 It was coordinated by the University ofTurku, Centre for Extension Studies from Finland The project has studied andexplored the use of drama as forum-based tool in four countries in Europe;Spain, Portugal, Estonia and Finland The basic idea of the project was to connectparticipatory drama and informal learning Participatory drama methods wereseen in project as a way to social inclusion The utmost intention was to promotethe equality of values and active citizenship among different minority groups ofyoung people

We, the active participants of the project, have explored especially the use of

drama in social exclusion of youngsters We want to believe that drama could be

the “second chance to learn” for those who have lost their first chance in the

mainstream school system

In Catalonia (Spain), young prisoners try to understand their decisions in lifethrough Shakespeare’s story of Hamlet In Estonia, youngsters at a drugrehabilitation centre create constructive conflicts with their parents, relativesand drug dealers – in an imaginary drama In Finland, 7th grade school childrenlearn critical awareness in drug questions - through an interactive forum theatre

In Portugal, children from isolated schools in the countryside are learning socialskills through allegoric drama stories and self-expression exercises In Finland,the secrets of sexuality are revealed and shared through world-famous fairytales; the pre-Christian Finnish myth of Kullervo has been a tool for social workstudents for approaching and discussing cultural history concerning young people’smarginalisation and suicides

In the city of Barcelona, second generation immigrant youngsters create invisibletheatre dealing with the rights of teen age girls In the town of Turku, youngstersescaping their family problems to youth shelters get new perspectives to theirlives through cross-artistic methods, such as photographs, music and diaries

Catalonian clowns fool people of all ages to think about the injustice of theglobal trade and how to live ethically in a more sound way.

These projects and many others have been an unusual way of sharing Youngand old, prisoners and non-prisoners, immigrants and non-immigrants, rural andurban, artists and non-artists have encountered each other on equal level Everyonehas done something different from what they usually do; taken positive risks

On the contrary to what one might expect, Drama Way did not produce alarge number of theatre performances Instead of creating shows, the participatorydrama that we explored is an art form of a moment; creating and sharing meanings,process leading one towards understanding

In our project we have explored and developed new combinations andadaptations of a wide range of applied and interactive drama, such as forumtheatre, live action role play (LARP), process drama / Drama-in Education (DIE),clownery, photo drama, cite-specific theatre, and education on theatre art Theparticipants of Drama Way are mainly young professional, who want to broadentheir scope of work, for example, from conventional theatre work to interactiveprison drama

Drama Way project has produced results beyond expectations Some of theideas born in these projects have already received funding from local orinternational co-operation partners The most delightful thing is to see howsome lonely people working with youngsters have made friends with other inspiredpeople in the field Some of them have found completely new directions for theirlives and for their work with youngsters Drama Way is not meant to be walkedalone, but together with other people, in a creative interaction

In this handbook our purpose is to introduce our work in a practical way, sothat anyone with some experience in applied drama can try to adapt theseprocesses in one’s own work Even better, we hope that you could improve anddevelop our work: experiments presented here are “works-in-progress” Some

of the processes that did not function in first attempt in the best possible wayare also included in this handbook We believe that we can learn a lot from ourmistakes as well The great creativity and mercifulness of drama work lies in itsunpredictability: how we succeed depends on the methods, people, environment,expectations, mood, context – often even the lucky position of stars…

Only some of the projects that were borne due to the Drama Way arepresented in this handbook Many of the project reports are to be found on theproject’s web site, which is updated regularly www.tkk.utu.fi/dramaway/ Projectreports are published in the internet as original versions and as English translations,when possible Many of the stories are so multidimensional and fine, that theywill never be written down anywhere else but in our hearts You have to go andexperience them by yourself

We hope that you can also contribute to this sharing of experiences in ourDrama Way project in the future!

Behalf of the DramaWay project team

Jouni Piekkari

Editor, drama trainer

1 Introduction

What is Drama Way?

There is a need for alternative and more adaptable ways and means of learningfor the young people who are under a threat of social exclusion This need hasbeen recognised throughout Europe The demand for this project has becomeevident through the results of various previous educational programmes andprojects Special ways of working, such as participatory and experiential methods,are often required to guide the groups in threat of exclusion towards socialinclusion Drama in its various forms is one example of these tools

The need for a new approach is perhaps most clearly recognised with thoseworking with youngsters who have various kinds of problems, such as school drop-outs, young substance abusers and immigrants For example, European Socrates

Grundtvig project Social inclusion through APEL made a research, which summarised

that the informal ways and methods of learning are of crucial importance in theefforts against marginalisation The need for networks of drama groups and individualdrama specialists with training institutions and various projects is clear A continuousneed to develop the practice has become evident though the previous projectsand training programmes Also drama as a tool has to be explored in new andapplied ways to ensure its applicability for various target groups

General objectives of Drama Way

• To share practical tools and insights between the young/ beginningprofessional or semi-professional drama workers who are interested inworking with youngsters under a threat of social exclusion

• to improve local and international networks of drama workers, fundinginstances and social workers – to improve the visibility of the work

• to create practical, easily accessible material and project descriptions tohelp the development of practical and pedagogical drama work of youngprofessionals in the field

• to identify themes that are locally important

• to initiate small-scale pilot drama projects with various youth groups inneed for social inclusion e.g drug addicts in each partner country (Estonia,Spain (Catalonia), Portugal and Finland)

The main target of the project Drama – A Way to Social Inclusion (Drama Way)

was to promote the opportunities of the young, especially 14-18 year old people;

to adapt them to the larger society and to the community they are living in, aswell as, to the possibility to get education and to learn from the methods tailoredfor them The learning methods used for these youngsters must be differentfrom the formal methods of education; the methods must provide a genuinesecond chance of learning in an informal way The methods often include takingthe youngsters away from the conventional school context: into the nature, youthcentres or theatre schools Many of the projects also integrate different age and

The aim of the project was to gather, apply and mix different pedagogicaldrama tools in order to utilise them in different local training contexts Theproject aimed also to activate the target youngster groups to participate actively

in planning of the curricula and in developing the methods These aims werereached mainly through pilot workshops, practical evaluations and feedbackdiscussions with the youngsters

The project was realised locally in four countries: Finland, Spain (Catalonia),Estonia and Portugal The local groups organised workshops and real life laboratories

in each country These experimental laboratories also produced material for internet

based data-bank of experiences (see www.tkk.utu.fi/dramaway) and for national

discussion forums debating the use of drama methods in local context

The local workshops were also important forums of networking: participantshad various backgrounds; teachers, youth workers, drama workers from the wholeregion, not only from the co-operation area The workshops created co-operation

on local and national levels This promotes multi-disciplinary approaches and operation in the future We often noticed how people working close to eachothers and struggling with similar kind of problems and target groups did notknow about each other This tendency of segregation is seen everywhere: without

co-an outsider input one rarely has time to look outside one’s own work field co-andprofessional specialisation

In the end of the project, the European workshop in Turku (Finland) presentedsome of the results of the projects to the wider audience The results of the localworkshops were presented though practical workshops and other suitable means,such as video and slide shows

Locally adapted themes and working methods

All the four partner countries have their own specific focuses In Finland the

main theme was substance abuse Finland used to have one of the lowest rates ofdrug abuse and crimes related to illegal drugs Nowadays the figures areskyrocketing in the fastest rate in whole Europe Furthermore, alcoholconsumption has increased due to suddenly sunk prices and increased availability

of alcohol Especially amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised groups it hasevidently caused a growing number of social problems and health risks “We arefinally becoming European - is that what we wanted? How can we suddenly changethe cultural patterns of substance use that seem to be a result of decades of mal-planned policy and perhaps hundreds of years of colonised mentality?” These arequestion that many people ask in Finland Therefore, the preventive work is the keyinterest area in the Finnish Drama Way project However, we see the preventionwork in a broader perspective Through drama work we want to support thewelfare and building of healthy social environment for the young people

In Catalonia (Spain), the focus is on the work with young prisoners and

immigrant groups Spain is one of the entrance countries of great numbers oflegal and illegal immigrants, especially from Africa Massive anti-globalizationdemonstrations, Iraq war protests, terrorist attack to Madrid and the policy ofthe previous conservative government that paid less attention to the social welfareseem to draw more attention to the integration of the immigrants and to the

Third World issues During the project period these issues have been clear forthe drama workers and artists in Barcelona This general atmosphere alsocontributed to the success of Drama Way seminars and networking in the area.

In the rural Portugal drama workers tackle with problems of the countryside

and small rural towns Such issues as norms and sexuality, substance abuse, thepossibilities of the young people to develop and stay in their own region areconsidered Portuguese partners claim that these problems are a result of

“backwards mentality” that derives from the era of dictatorship, a short history

of democracy, neo-liberalisation and harmful and de-moralising effects of manyaspects of EU policies

Estonia is a newcomer in the EU ”family”, and the country is characterised by

the rapid social change from Soviet system to an independent nation maintainingone of the most neo-liberal economical systems in the world Estonian youngster

in the projects deal with their issues through a national debate in TV forum theatresessions, in schools, youth rehabilitation centres, festivals, live action role gameassociations etc In Estonia the main focus is young people discussing with theirpeers through an interactive drama The topics are handled in a participatory wayand consist of the topics that the young people themselves are concerned of.Drama Way gathers people with various backgrounds and ways of working towork together This has resulted in a tremendous range of working methods andcreative ideas

Different approaches are utilised in Drama Way: some emphasise celebratoryaspects in their work: carnival, fun, wild imagination, mass approach, some prefermore issue-oriented and intimate approaches, using also sociological and qualitativeresearch methods along with the drama work

In the first meeting in Finland our working tool was Finnish oral poetry, sincefrom there we could find same kind of stories of social exclusion of youngsters,which are visible in the lives of the modern refugees, victims of human trade oramongst the young people committing suicides We chose a pre-medieval story

of Kullervo as a tool, and situated it in the forest of an island close to Nokiacellular phone -town Salo In Finland forest and water are present practicallyeverywhere, and it is quite natural for people to use these natural settings forsummer theatre, pedagogical adventures or other celebrations We developedthis process drama also to suite more simple processes that can be easily used inclassrooms and social or youth work training sessions aiming at focusing adiscussions in the lecture on certain social topics

The new EU member state Estonia is another good example how the localculture can be used in drama In the workshop, the Estonian actors and dramaworkers gave the other Drama Way partners a chance to explore how the liveaction role play (LARP) and traditional Estonian wedding games and dramascould be used to help the youngsters build their identity in the new and changingEurope On the other hand, we explored these wedding traditions as a localform of interactive and participatory drama Participatory drama is oftenconsidered as something modern, but we tend to forget that the local folk formshave used quite similar techniques In the past, they were also ways to empower,

2 Aims and Methods

Why to use drama as an alternative tool for learning?

Drama as a learning method is gaining increased interest throughout Europe andthe world There is a wide range of different participatory drama techniqueswhich are developing rapidly However, no methods should be used merely because

of its popularity, but they should preferably be used when based on conscious

arguments or clear evidence British drama pedagogues Allan Owens and Keith

Barber define their arguments with four categories: a) play as universal expression;

b) practical experiences; c) empirical evidence and d) ideological reasons

Firstly, play is an essential element in the life of a human being This is

apparent with children, but concealed and suffocated with adults and young people,who for several social reasons have stopped creative playing Such reasons can

be fear of ridicule, finding safety in rigidity of values and standard behaviour anddisbelief in personal potential for creativity By giving the children, youth and

adults an opportunity to ”play seriously” through drama, we can offer them a

genuine ”second chance” for learning through play We can also offer them an

opportunity to enjoy the learning process, an aspect that is all too often neglected

in formal education In this way drama in a safe environment can lower thebarriers of learning, since negative attitudes often prevent learning in formalsettings

Secondly, practical experience of drama workers show us that it is possible

to use drama as a learning method even in such situations which seem to be verydifficult for promoting learning By offering a ”new start”, drama has functioned

as a motivating impulse for people with learning difficulties or low motivation forlearning Therefore, the use of drama in such situations has also opened doorsfor social inclusion by increasing self-esteem, personal and emotional skills andapprove creativity Drama can also serve as a holistic therapeutic healing device(Koskela 1999; Blatner 1996) It can offer a safe environment to explore difficultpersonal issues through safely distanced allegories and symbols of drama Theholistic group processes as such have also proved to have healing effects on thegroup members For example, a group process can offer sense of belonging,opportunities to reflect oneself as a personality and enjoy mutual support(Jauhiainen 1999; Blatner 1996)

Thirdly, the empirical evidence shows that process drama has had a

remarkable impact on learning of various groups in prisons, schools, youth sheltersetc This evidence has been gathered in several countries that have practiseddrama as an alternative arena for learning for several decades Effects of dramause have been researched, and the results showed that drama can promotequalitative learning, which considers the different individual learning styles.Participatory drama seems, for example, to use and combine practically all thedifferent learning channels and processes such as auditive, kinaesthetic, visual,tactile, multi-sensory, mathematical, interpersonal, intuitive However, due to thecomplexity of these processes, it is difficult to measure this kind of quality learning

Fourthly, reasons for the use of drama can be ideological Drama can be used

as a tool for empowerment and therefore it can promote social change and

inclusion of marginalised groups, and create a chance based on their own priorities,

not those dictated from above or through the formal education system.Participatory drama (not just any drama) is considered as a democratic andcritical device for learning, where both the ”teachers” and ”pupils” can learn

from each other, and more precisely learn together A teacher/educator of

participatory drama can never be a fully learnt specialist of the subcultures s/he

is working with To give an example; only the gypsies can truly understand whatthe life of a gypsy is like However, both non-gypsy drama educators and thegypsy participants of drama process can get new perspectives into their livesfrom each other

The so called constructivist paradigm in education emphasises that learners

are not empty vessels to pour information and ideologies into They are rather

to be seen as radiating starting points of their own learning through their ownlife experiences and values that they have formed in the socio-cultural contextsthey live in both within and without the formal school system (von Wright & vonWright 2001) Drama as a multidisciplinary form of art can activate and bringforth these life experiences through the use of imagination, dreaming, use ofbody, symbol, imagery, visual arts, music, writing etc and help to use them in theindividual learning process in a holistic manner Drama is also a group processthat always activates and develops social learning, emotional intelligence, argument

on values, spiritual thinking, intuition and other meta-learning skills, that havebeen recognised as essential elements in learning process of a human being.These skills are still often neglected, or cannot fully be covered through theformal learning system, especially in the case of youngsters with learning difficulties,which are often based on socio-cultural background (see also Goleman 1997)

Blatner, Adam (1996): Acting-in Practical application of psycho dramatic

methods

Hannula, Aino (2000): Tiedostaminen ja muutos Paulo Freiren ajattelussa.

Systemaattinen analyysi sorrettujen pedagogiikasta Helsingin yliopistonkasvatustieteenlaitos, Helsinki

Jauhiainen (1999): Ryhmäilmiö.

Koskela, Virpi (1999): Elämäntehtävä Legioonateatterin opetukset – Kokemuksia

ja ajatuksia ohjaajan ja kouluttajan roolista Kuikka, Suvi (toim.): Friikki.Nuorisoteatteritoiminnan opas Vapaan Sivitystyön liitto

Owens, Allan and Barber, Keith (1997): Drama Works.

Rohd, Michael (1998): Theatre, Community and Conflict Resolution Hope is

Vital Manual for educators and youth workers

Some Genres of Participatory and Interactive Drama

In the Drama Way project we use and mix various forms of participatory andapplied drama These forms are borne in different cultures and contexts Despitethe differences there are also a great number of similarities in these forms Many

of these genres overlap each other, and the boundaries between them aretherefore rather blurred However, each of them emphasises some aspects ofusing drama as the tool in the process

A general feature in these different genres is that the process of making and

creation is an important aspect, even in some cases more important than the end

product For example performances are emphasised, since they are eulogises ofhuman interaction and create meanings through the symbolic form of drama in agroup process In spite of these general features, the different genres have varyingideologies and philosophies These approaches interpret the nature of human beingdifferently Furthermore, the concept of good learning and the question how ahuman being learns may also be different in different genres Therefore, it is essential

to be aware of these basic ideas and aims of different approaches, even if many ofthem can be applied together Respectively, many of the different concepts developed

in varying cultural contexts can actually refer to strikingly similar processes Thebest way to understand the processes is to discuss them with people who usethese methods: what do the practitioners try to achieve by using them? Even more

important is to discuss the experience and empirical evidence: how do these different

forms actually work? Are the set goals achieved with these processes?

Drama-in-Education (DIE)

Drama-in-Education, and often simply the drama itself, refers to the use of drama

as a tool of education This methodology of drama used in education is mostextensively developed in the British and Australian contexts This form of drama ismainly used in a school context to supplement the curriculum It can be used inany subject as a way to learn through experience In the most typical situation it isused to learn, for example, history, but it can be applied to learn mathematics as well

In the DIE method the emphasis is on the processes of exploring differenttopics through drama conventions (techniques) On the contrary to conventionalschool drama the DIE rarely aims at creating polished performances for theaudience, but instead the teachers or educators from outside try to offer ”safeenvironments to create meanings through pretence” in a learner-centred groupprocess Therefore, these methods are also called as process drama or pedagogical

drama The new view emphasises the concept drama as an art form in its own right,

instead of overemphasising its use as a tool of learning

Theatre-in-Education (TIE)

The TIE method refers to the use of pre-written and rehearsed theatreperformance as a tool of learning The plays in the TIE process are usuallyperformed by specialised and professional touring theatre companies The playsare carefully designed to complement different subjects in the official school

Jouni

Piekkari

curricula These performances are often partly interactive Furthermore, theymay include so called pre- or post-performance workshops, where the pupilscan be more actively involved in their own learning processes Through variousexercises the pupils can further explore the themes of the play Sometimes theseworkshops take place before the play, in order to prepare the pupils for thethemes that are discussed in the play These kind of sessions can be organisedeither with the theatre group or separately with their own teacher Therefore,many of the groups also produce complementary materials and teachers’information packs to integrate the theatrical intervention into the learning process.

Forum theatre

Forum theatre is a form of interactive theatre developed by a Brazilian director

Augusto Boal as part of his participatory theatre method system called ”Theatre

of the Oppressed” In the forum theatre method, the theatre group presents asocial problem – an injustice or ”oppression” - that is relevant to the audience

In a forum theatre performance there will be no end solution for the problem,but the conflict is left unsolved The audience is activated to explore solutions

for the problem by inviting the audience (“spect-actors”) on the stage to act the

solutions for the problems

Julian Boal is directing Forum Theatre in Barcelona in March 2004.

Forum theatre is also a workshop technique where there is no pre-determinedtime span for the play The group, for example a group of mothers, creates theseplays entirely by themselves These theatrical exercises are used to explore thesocial themes, problems and oppressions of the group Forum theatre has beenused to tackle such issues as racism, substance abuse, sexual prejudice or bullying

in schools It is also utilised in media education and interactive discussion forums

on TV According to Boal, it aims at empowerment of individuals and groups; it is

”rehearsal for the reality”

Invisible Theatre

Invisible theatre method was invented by Augusto Boal It was born during thedictatorship of Brazil, when the politically critical play-making was forbidden.Invisible theatre is a form of theatre where the audience does not know thatthey are witnessing a play These performances have a pre-written storyline thatportrays a social problem or oppression and the performance is taken into a reallife situation, it can be performed, for example, in a tram, bar, market place orshopping centre The aim is to provoke people to participate in the ”play” whichthey believe is a real situation of oppression

Legislative Theatre

Legislative theatre is a further elaboration of Theatre of the Oppressed or forumtheatre, where different techniques are used as a tool to discuss local or nationaldemocracy and public decision making The solutions that the audiences draw inthe forum plays create a starting point for legislative level discussions This methoduses also internet discussions, thematic festivals, political rallies etc to help thedisadvantaged people to participate in politics

Theatre-for-Awareness / Theatre-for-Development

These methods of touring theatre have been used especially in the Third WorldCountries as a tool for participatory development programmes and awarenessraising campaigns Instead of telling people educationally what they should know– inform them - this form of theatre raises questions, for which the audiencesthemselves have a chance to answer through the organised post-performancediscussions The plays are based on a field research on certain topic amongst thetarget groups, in order to identify what the local people themselves consider asthe most crucial problems of the area The themes considered may be completelydifferent from the issues, that the “developers” or the authorities regard asimportant

These theatre forms aim at a self-motivated social change of the communities.They can even aim at a very concrete completion of a local or regionaldevelopment programme, for example anti-poaching programme, agriculturaldevelopment, women’s rights etc Other names used for these forms of

participatory drama are popular theatre and community theatre.

Devised Theatre / “From Fact to Fiction”

Devised theatre refers to all processes of theatre making where there is no written play text or where a play text is used only as a starting point for acompletely new piece of theatre Devised theatre is created in a so calleddemocratic group process where the group explores a chosen theme through

pre-movement, theatrical improvisations, visual techniques, videos etc From Fact to

Fiction is one form of devised theatre where the starting point of the performance

is factual material concerning the chosen theme: research reports, newspaperarticles, interviews, TV programmes, internet etc This material is converted into

a dramatic form in a creative group process Devised theatre techniques aremainly used in creating plays concerning the themes chosen by the youngstersthemselves

Play Back Theatre

Play Back theatre is a form of interactive drama created in the United States The

most famous developers of this genre is Jonathan Fox The idea of play back theatre

is that the participants of the workshop (or the audiences of a play back theatreperformance) tell short, real episodes of their lives where after the actors (orother workshop participants) improvise them on stage by following certain dramaconventions Only a few aspects of the stories are emphasised in the scene,aspects such as specific emotions, personified objects presented in the story orsome selected sentences or meaningful interactions These symbolic scenes areoften accompanied by improvised soundscapes or music

Play back theatre is a form of sharing individual experiences in a community It

can be a purifying or healing experience, even though the creators of this genre

emphasise it as a form of sharing real life experiences in an entertaining way.

Sociodrama

Sociodrama, based on the work of Jacob L Moreno, is one of the earliest genres of

applied drama Sociodrama is not a simple drama technique; it is a complextheory and method of analysing, understanding and learning about the differentsocial phenomena of people’s everyday lives The techniques used in sociodramaare similar to many of the above mentioned techniques, emphasis being on theanalytic understanding of social dynamics Sociodrama is commonly used method

of training Sociodrama is also a non-therapeutic sibling of Moreno’s psychodramaand has strongly influenced the development of Play Back theatre

Celebratory Drama

Celebratory approach in theatre making often aims at identifying certainconcentrated settlements or groups of people that seem to be less involved inthe community Typical example of these concentrated settlements are the urbanhousing areas Celebratory drama emphasises aspects of carnival, the use andcreation of myth, creativity, visual theatre and street theatre style of expression

The philosophy of celebratory drama emphasises that arts should bedemocratised: anyone can be an artist, and the responsibility of a professionalartist is to set this creativity free from the culturally learned inhibitions and fears

of ridicule Celebratory artists believe in that opening up the in-born creativity is

an almost necessary prerequisite for the human being’s capacity to solve personal

and social problems The British artist collection Welfare State International is one

of the best known examples of celebratory arts and drama

Hospital Clownery

Hospital clownery, originally invented by Patch Adams in the United States, is

increasing its popularity also in Europe Hospital clowns target their performances

to seriously ill children in hospitals It is believed – and proved– that laughter cansupport the healing process even in serious cases of illness Most importantly,the philosophy of hospital clownery emphasises the basic human need for laughterand joy Laughter and joy should be taken into such places where it is mostunlikely to occur Many of the hospital clowns have also worked e.g in refugeecamps of Yugoslavia amongst the victims of war

Site-specific theatre

Site-specific theatre refers to any kind of theatre that takes place in a theatre environment and uses the special features of different environmentstheatrically and symbolically For example, a theatrical event or performance cantake place in a dumping area, old abandoned building or in nature Performancesand their audiences may also wander from one place to another In many casesthis kind of performance blurs the rigid distinction between the audience andthe performers: in a similar way as in rituals or ceremonies the spectators become

non-an integral part of the event

Drama, myths and ritual forms of performance

Traditional forms of performing art can function as a inspiring starting point for

a community theatre event Myths and their modern applications can invokeallegories between the factual and fictional; past and future; concrete and imaginary;collective and private The use of local myths and traditional forms, such as songsand dances, can be important for building the local identity by revitalising thecultural heritage

Street theatre

As the name suggests, this theatre is performed on the streets or in publicplaces Street theatre is probably one of the oldest forms of secular theatre.Street theatre often uses strongly visual and carnivalistic means to draw attention

to these often spontaneous performances

Live-Action Role Play (LARP)

LARP could be defined as a genuine cultural movement of young people, since it

is mainly organised and run by the young people themselves LARP is a series ofhighly interactive and imaginary dramatic events, where each participant takespart in an improvised drama by following their own pre-determined roles Thegame is totally improvised and has no script The role games take often place in

an imaginary world of myths, sci-fi, prehistory or any other world created by theparticipants or the game leaders

Sometimes a LARP session may continue for several days, or the same group

of people may explore the same theme for several years LARP communities areoften partly virtual, as well Internet sites and discussion lists form an importantforum for creation of characters, stories and reflection

Community Theatre or Theatre/Drama in the Community is a loose

umbrella term that can refer to almost any kind of theatre making which is in

some relation to a community It can be created with, for or by the community.

This vague umbrella concept applies to any genre mentioned above in this list,therefore these concepts are avoided in the Drama Way project

Draditional wedding serenomy in Estonia, June 2004

3 Projects in the Co-operation Countries

Estonia

Social Theatre Festival “Spartacus”

The background and participants of the festival

The project “Spartacus” was organised by Tartu Anne Youth Centre, and theevent took place in Miina Härma Gymnasium, 14th – 16th of November, year 2003.Altogether 135 youngsters from different schools from all over Estonia participated

in the three-day long Forum Theatre training session The head-director and

instructor of the session was the director and “Joker” Margo Teder of the VAT Theatre Forum Group His assistants were Andres Kask (director of Kanuti Youth House’s theatre group), Kadi Jaanisoo and Piret Soosaar from VAT Theatre Forum

Group

The participants were gathered from the following Estonian towns/areas: Tartu,Tallinn, Narva, Jõhvi, Viljandi, Kuressaare, Sindi, Ahja, Nõo, Luuja and Tarvastu

Working process and phases

The work phases of the festival:

1 On the first day, the head director explained the whole group, what is

forum theatre and how the forum scenes are built After this people weredivided into groups and the groups continued individual work in separaterooms (class-rooms and gym-room, etc.) The group work consisted ofdefining and exploring problematic issues, thus the themes Each groupwere given 2 words/themes, which functioned as a starting point for groupdiscussions Group work was the working method Youngsters preparedindependently one forum scene of some problem that concerns themselves

as youngsters Firstly, the group had to find the themes based on their discussions and then create still-images, so called stop-pictures The stop-

pictures were then dynamized, meaning that the people in the picturesstarted to move The scenes of forum theatre were born

2 On the second day, dramaturgical expressions of the problems under

consideration were created and put in practise The problems were, in

other words, transferred into theatrical language (the scenes weredeveloped based on the pictures prepared during the first day); thus shortforum-scenes, where the main character tries hopelessly to overcome thekind of oppression in his way, were borne In other words, the main characterwas faced with some kind of conflict The assistants helped the participantswith this process

3 On the third day, the results of the work of the previous days wereperformed in form of a group work This group work event turned into a 3

hours long marathon-performance, where all groups one by one showed

their vision of one issue/problem that concerns youngsters After eachgroup had performed its scene, the head director introduced forum theatretechniques to the audience with the help of particular group scene He

introduced, for instance with the help of one story, the hot seat technique

where all characters sit one by one in a so called hot seat and the audience

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of their behaviour With another group he introduced how the characterscan say out loud their thoughts – the Joker (the leader of the show) canwhenever he wants say “stop” and ask the character to say out loud, whats/he is thinking at that particular moment With the third group he usedforwarding and rewinding of the scene -technique This means moving intime - the things that happened in the past, present and future were playedout What happened before the conflict, what could happen afterwards?

Techniques used in the work process

In order to reach co-operation with this kind of large assembly of youngstersthe work processes had to have several clear steps

The following methods/techniques were used during the festival:

1) Ice-breaking, different warm-up games;

2) Trust-games;

3) Group Discussions (defining and exploring the problems);

4) Creating the forum theatre story (through pictures/still-images,conversations);

5) Playing out the scene within the group (converting the created story intotheatrical language);

6) Interactive discussions between the audience and the performers;

7) Combining all the prepared forum scenes into one big performance;8) Interactive feedback circle with the participants

Different techniques were used in different stages– some of them wereapplied to small group work, some to all participants Sometimes it wasthe small group that had to be active, sometimes the head-director of thefestival or the leader of the happening/action

Demand for this kind of interactive theatre projects in school theatres: positive and negative aspects

In addition to traditional school theatre festivals, there is a demand for happeningsthat are socially directed and for events of participative theatre schooling and

training However, there is quite much of confusion with defining the concepts

of this field in Estonia For instance, this event was called social theatre festivaleven though only school theatres were present in the event and the participants

had no previous experience of social theatre What is social theatre as such after

all? It can be said, that making theatre is always a social phenomenon, but socalled social theatre as such is actually something else than the typical schooltheatre represents Social theatre aims at changing some social issue, for example

at increasing people’s educational level, growing general awareness and othersimilar issues Naturally, it would be nice if school theatres could take over thisfunction even partly and would try one of the social theatre forms - forumtheatre - in their schools There is evidently enough problems and themes to dealwith in schools But on the other hand, the question is: are our schools ready totalk publicly about the themes/problems that concern the youngsters, even intheatrical language? The answer to this question would be a vivid indicator of thedevelopmental level of the school The idea of organizing this kind of educational

gathering of school theatres is extremely This kind of gathering works as good

advertise for this interesting theatre form – forum theatre – and, furthermore,

the willingness to participate in further training meant for smaller groups could

An old fashioned teacher carrying the traditions of Soviet times maintains strict discipline in the classroom.

These training days were not aiming at offering thorough knowledge concerningforum theatre; they offered a brief introduction to the methodology of forum

theatre Some imperfections concerning this event are the following:

• The number of youngsters participating in the training, where a specificmethod was introduced, at the same time was too large (many of theyoungsters did not know anything about the phenomena considered andmost likely felt at the end that the provided knowledge was too shallowand created no clear picture of forum theatre methods)

• Too little time to introduce forum theatre method step by step, slowly andthoroughly Youngsters did not understand very well how the forum theatrestory is prepared and how to build up one forum scene If there were to

be less children, maybe there would have been more time to do this aswell This is the reason why some of the scenes that were prepared did notwork as forum theatre scenes Some of the school-youngsters could notunderstand what forum theatre, the purposes and expectations, is all about

in such a short time period

• The assistants did not have enough concrete work tasks and the director was not present all the time

• Lack of information and poor distribution of information during the festival.These problems were mostly due to the organizational aspects of the event

In the future it could be wise to take a smaller group of school youngsters

when organizing forum theatre training The training could also be shorter, moreintensive and concentrated All three working phases/days could be arrangedduring one day If this kind of mass event is organized again, there should be moreprofessional assistants and directors helping the children in the groups in orderfor them to understand how forum theatre works

On the first day there should be more time to get used to the spirit of theevent, and to learn about the purposes of the forum theatre in smaller groups–the groups could be assisted by the directors In this particular event the wholemass was divided into groups according to the schools they attended, and alltogether nine groups were born The groups could also have been differentlyorganized, in order to enable youngsters to make new friends and shareexperiences with new people from all around the country, not only with one’sown schoolmates

A positive aspect of this festival was that, all in all, quite many youngsters gotthe possibility to get acquainted with forum theatre method and got to trycreating forum scene by themselves for the first time– to put some problem/conflict/thought/experience into theatrical form Furthermore, the forum-performance/demonstration put together from the different scenes and playedout on the third day ended up being quite interesting The head-director managed

to lead the event rather well

Visits to Tallinn’s Centre of Children at Risk

Work environment and background of the children

Tallinn’s Centre of Children at Risk is an institution where under-aged childrenare kept isolated from their usual everyday environment from six months up to

a year These children have problems with alcohol, drugs and other toxic substances.They have an increased need for attention and a labile nerve-system, and thereforeoften behave hyperactively and nervously

Some features describing these children (description of features of one orseveral children in the group):

• have experienced violence and have been left without attendance duringtheir early ages

• have roamed on the streets in gangs and developed criminal behaviour

• unstable nerve-system, deficit of attention

• highly egocentric

• have tried suicide

• using alcohol and toxic substances for amusement, escaping from the reality

• early sexual relationships and several different partners

• bad relationships with the parents

• not going to school

• has no-one to trust to, and therefore suspicious with all peopleThe VAT Theatre Forum Group visited and organized Forum Theatreworkshops in Tallinn’s Centre of Children at Risk during a time span fromNovember 2003 to June 2004 The group usually went to the centre 1-2 times amonth, and arranged a group session including 6-10 persons; half of them weregirls and half boys The length of the workshop was about 2 hours and it wasorganized in a medium sized computer classroom (once it took place in the gym

of the centre) Participation was voluntary for the children

Working process and purposes

Each forum theatre workshop differs form previous ones At this time we werefaced with a quite “difficult” group instead of so called ordinary children It meantthat we had to organize our activities and plans according to the situation and tothe concrete moment of time – how many children wanted/could show up inthe workshop It is clear that organizing and participating in the workshops wasobviously a challenge for both sides – for us, as guests and VAT Theatre ForumGroup actresses, and for the children as local habitants and as so called “badchildren” in the eyes of the society Both sides were put into a test The childrenput themselves, as well as us, into a test by trusting us and confiding in us withtheir secrets and (life)stories, and we tested ourselves - how and in which way

we know how to react to these stories of much-experienced and much-seenchildren without hurting them or seeming too false, cold/rough

On the other hand, our purpose was not to be a constant supporter of their

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Analyzing and recognizing the limits was a part of the process during the wholeworking-period, and every time when we met the process was repeated Judging

or showing negative evaluation to them was out of question, since that wouldhave destroyed the trust But nevertheless, there was place for discussions andsaying out loud opinions for us in a non-judgmental tone

Its is anyway complicated to start working under the name of voluntaryparticipation in a firm institution, where the habitants are kept inside non-voluntarily It is natural that skepticism raises up among the children, since theyare used to living in a world of bargaining and abuse, and therefore tend to ask:what do you want from us? When they finally understood that we do not requireany material or effort-based activity from them we gained the contact This contactand trust are based on the surprise they experience, when they realized thatnobody expects favors from them This feeling is in strong contrast with theirreality outside the centre and also with the system inside the centre, where theyoungsters receive minus-points from bad activities and plus-points from goodbehavior Every child has so called point-account, which grows or decreasesaccording to their behavior The points are to punish or to reward – the youngsterare allowed, for instance, to go outside of the building with the guard if they arebehaving well and when behaving badly they loose some privileges The systemthat we proposed – system without giving-taking points – was a shock But it wasfunctional – the surprise worked

At first the children were unmotivated and untrusting They felt that we werejust teachers, who come and try to tell them how they should live and behave.Within a short time period we gained contact, cooperation (group-work, team-work), increasing interest and initiative, raise of the trust and working towardsone purpose

Most likely, the main aim of the children was to have some variation andexcitement for their everyday routines in the centre Certainly, one importantaspect for them was the fact, that somebody visits and is interested in them –listens what they have to say Realizing that we are interested in their opinionswas of great motivation to take part in the workshop

Our purpose was to learn more about the lives of the children – the way theyfeel, think and act in the world – to learn about people different from us The aimwas to show with forum theatre games how it is possible to have fun and feel niceand that there are always choices and other possibilities in life… Another goal was

to provide the children with variation in their life and to consciously lead anddirect their thoughts towards a direction where they could think at least for sometime about something else that they usually do (which is about escaping from thecentre, toxic substances, drugs, etc.) There was also an aim to prepare a forum-play and perform it for the strangers who come to the centre to visit

In the process of the forum theatre workshop we considered following activitiesand aspects:

1) Strong and purposeful icebreaking with forum theatre games was needed(ice-breaking);

2) It was necessary to build trust and that we did with different types ofgames invented by Augusto Boal and Markus Zohner games (so called

“Boal and Zohner games“);

3) Creating games with using improvisation techniques;

4) For the creation of the forum-scenes we used pictures photos);

(still-images/stop-5) Preparing and performing forum play to strangers who come from outside

of the centre;

Markus Zohner is a director and an actor from Switzerland, who is the owner

and former of a theatre school concentrating on improvisational techniques (http://www.zohnertheater.ch/Markus Zohner Theater Compagnie)

Local need for Forum Theatre workshop, positive and negative aspects

In this kind of closed institution there is a big need for forum theatre kind ofactivity, but more importantly there is big need for every kind of activity comingfrom outside and inside the house, which activates positive thinking and behavioramong the children It could be, for example, amusement-groups/rat packs orsome other kind of activity-trainings The forum theatre methods we used, werejust a drop in the sea More easily measurable and larger number of results could

be reached in regular forum theatre workshops The best way would be to have

a regular schedule for the visits and to have the same participants each time there should be a fixed week day and time to the workshop, in order to reach aclear rhythm for the visits

-forum theatre is just a drop in the sea? Because we are dealing with deeplyviolated children, who would all actually need different kind of therapies (preferablycreative ones) and thorough regular individual attendance to work with theirthinking-patterns and deal with their childhood experiences etc Forum theatrecan support these issues and function as a courage-lesson, teaching better self-expression, developing emotional intelligence and in other different ways, but it

is not therapy Forum theatre can have a therapeutic influence, but is not therapy,and the children who participate in the process are not clients or patients - theyare spect-actors, they are human beings, children

One mistake that influenced the work process was that there were too longpauses between the meetings, which made the process a little dissipated andforced us, forum-group members and the children, often to start the processfrom the beginning after each brake On the other hand, this was good, since inthis way we had to be creative in our works and extend ourselves, which createdbetter basis to be able to create trust between the children and us

From all the positive aspects here could be mentioned the whole experiencethat we got from the work with these children - creating a contact takes timeand effort - but after it is reached it is therefore rather stable The communicationstage that seems impossible in the beginning can be reached with patience If youhave patience, the change is slow, but will nevertheless happen – from time totime these children were more focused and attentive and were able to work as

a group

Forum theatre on TV youth program “The Fist”

The Background and the Format of the Program

The VAT Theatre’s forum theatre work on TV has not been directly involved inthe Drama Way project, but it has been presented in the National workshops as

an excellent method of distributing the drama work to a wider audience, andcreate a genuine, young people’s forum to publicly discuss the themes that arerelevant to them

The Estonian Television’s (ETV) youth-program “The Fist” (“Rusikas”) wasshot during a period from January to April in 2000 The authors of the programreceived the impulse to use forum theatre scenes in television from the VATTheatre Forum Group performances in spring of 1999, during the “Youth withoutViolence” festival (“Vägivallata Noorus”)

Fifteen short plays on different themes were created in co-operation with theVAT Theatre Forum Group Each one of the TV shows lasted 40 minutes and therecording of each one took about 90 minutes

The Working Process

The VAT Theatre Forum Group actors played different scenes, which dealt withthe problems that young people have Each show had its own theme, which wasthen dealt with Before recording the show for television, the producers sent thetheme of the play to the VAT Theatre Forum Group director, Margo Teder TheForum Group worked with the script, and after three or four meetings orrehearsals, during which the group used Forum Theatre methodology (still-imagesetc.), the group made a short play on the theme Then the play was performed

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for the TV show directing team After that there was a discussion about the play

- the purpose of which was to make it as real as possible

The structure of “The Fist”:

1 Introductions by the host of the TV show

2 The VAT Theatre Forum Group actors play the problematic scenes

3 The Characters sit in the hot seat (This means that the guests and the host

of the show can ask questions from the characters in order to betterunderstand the scene, how the characters feel about each other and whathad generally happened in the story Actors have to answer through theircharacters and have to stay in their roles through the whole duration ofthe show and to answer the questions honestly, just as if they were having

a discussion in their head, with themselves) The three guests (high schooland university students and specialists – psychologist, gynecologists etc.)

of the show sit opposite to the actors The guests then help to deal withthe theme problem by asking questions, until the guests find a way to solvethe problem presented in the scene in a way that does not result in anyonegetting hurt The dialogue between the characters and guests is organized

by the host of the show, who also puts the new way of seeing the situationinto words and describes to the characters how they have to change theirbehavior in the scene

4 The problematic scene is then played again, but now in a new way

5 The host of the show concludes the show

The main point of the dialogue is to stimulate people into thinking about theproblem, not to give them exact solutions or ways to deal with the conflicts

Young lady harrassed at the bus stop on the Estonian TV forum.

After the show, people watching the program at home had a chance to givefeedback and tell what they would like to see in the next show by sending an e-mail or a letter Before the next show the directing team went through theletters.

Some of the topics that were dealt with in the TV show “The Fist”:

Similar interactive TV shows are also done in Canada by David Diamond who

handles themes like problems with street children and native people by usinginteractive theatre methodology (see www.headlinestheatre.com)

3 Are these kinds of interactive TV shows needed? Positive and negative aspects of the TV show.

Forum Theatre creates a possibility to discuss the problems of Estonian youth.These problems are not dealt with much in Estonia Although, it is very important

to start in early, from the roots – from young people, maybe even kindergarten

children This is because sometimes the reasons for unemployment, deviantbehavior and asocial lifestyle have their roots in the childhood During childhood

the environment affects a person very much The media have a big influence,

through all of its channels – radio, press, television and other media It is knownthat computer games, different chats and dating sites on the Internet are very

popular The popularity of these kinds of activities shows that youngsters need

to communicate and speak their minds on various issues.

It is important for young people to talk about their problems and relationships.Nowadays children’s TV programs often underestimate the children’s abilitiesand way of thinking Television should offer more shows in which youngsterscould tell their opinions about things; they should be equal members of thesociety Youngsters could be the best specialists in making decisions about theirown lives They might be full of interest to find solutions to the problems, whichthey can relate to; Forum Theatre methodology gives them that opportunity

In Estonia there is a show for women, in which they can appear to the publicand speak their minds This show is called “Mamma Mia”

There are also some interactive shows, mainly on the radio, which deal with

discussions by calling the show, but television offers a chance to visualize andillustrate the problems that are handled The show “Mamma Mia” also used thehot seat method, in which the people sit in their seats and tell their stories Thehost of the show is like a Joker, who asks the questions and controls the discussion.The difference between the TV shows “The Fist” and “Mamma Mia,” is that in

“The Fist” the participants are anonymous, no-ones real story is presented, but

in “Mamma Mia” people talk about their own stories “Mamma Mia” does not try

to find solutions to the problems either, nor is there a scene performed in it.Both of the shows are produced by the same person

Performing forum theatre in television is different from doing it at youthcenters or schools, as television is a very technical environment In the usualsurroundings the play is not performed more than once, but for television theplay was shot many times in order to make it technically better and to have itlook good on TV On television the performance is not a traditional forum theatreperformance with a big audience; neither is it a workshop in which all individualsare physically involved in the process On television, it is forum theatre formconformed for television, where the public can not go on stage and show howthey would act in this kind of a situation

If there would be a possibility to do this kind of television show and use theforum method in it in the future, the host of the show should have knowledge onforum theatre, and he or she should have gone through a Joker training The host

of “The Fist” show was not very competent (she had no experience or educationalbackground connected to Forum Theatre) The host of the show should be good

a show-man and have a good social sense He or she should not be a psychologist,who goes into details of the characters problems Forum theatre story representscommon problems that are recognizable for larger groups of people This makesthe people feel that the story is about people and things that they can relate to,and if it affects and attracts them, it will activate them to start a dialogue Forumtheatre should certainly not be TV-therapy session

In the future it would be interesting to make public or open recordings of theforum theatre performances in schools (of course participation would bevoluntary) Other possibility would be to take more audience into the TV studioduring the show – then the audience members could also be involved in theforum-process Another option would be a live TV show, where people could callfrom home and tell what they think of the problem and how people or charactersshould act so that the story would end in a better way The theme of the show –problems of the young people - could remain the same, but the format of theshow should be more innovative

In addition to the youngsters’ themes, there also should be other themesdealt with in the public TV forum shows in order to start dialogue and discussion.Themes could vary – starting with changes and processes in the community,which involve little groups of people, going all the way to the problems thatinvolve all the citizens of the country (for example, this could have been usefulbefore voting for or against the European Union membership) Forum plays could

be used before making big decisions or voting for laws Forum theatre method isgood for making things more visual and understandable

Using Improvisational Technique in Forum Theatre

An Example of an Improvisation Exercise

One way to apply improvisational techniques is to use them in the story-findingprocess of forum theatre, for instance during the workshop or group work Inthat case using so-called picture-system technique is a part of the working process.The stages of the picture-system exercise:

1 Somebody from the group says out loud one noun (for instance a tree, aspoon, a chair, etc.) After that, the members of the group compose a threeperson statue or a still-image according to their first impulse

The rules: The first actor must follow the word and set a fixed position or

an image that is physically strong The second actor sets into a fixed positionaccording to the first actor’s position and his position should show a conflictwith the first actor (it does not have to be physical contact) The thirdactor takes a fixed position according to the conflict he sees between thefirst two actors and acts as a counterpoint to them This means, that thethird one supports the conflict between the first and the second personfor instance by presenting the contents of the conflict with his fixed position(time, place, relationships, etc.)

2 The Joker works with the concrete and correct statue or still-image thathas been created by the three members of the forum theatre workshop.When the statue is ready and formed according to the rules, the Jokerasks each actor that is posed in the statue to say one sentence that shouldcontain more information than what the statue can visually convey

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The rules: It is important that the person who came to the statue first, also

says the sentence first The second person must follow the first person’s ideaand say his sentence according to the first one’s direction of thinking Thethird person says his sentence in accordance to the first and second person’s

thread of thought For instance when the second person thinks that he is in

a conflict with his mother, but the first person says a sentence, where itbecomes evident that she is a teacher, the statue is going to describe aconflict involving a teacher and the second and the third person will have totake notice of this The first person who comes to the statue creates thebasis and the theme of the story that the other two have to acknowledgeand follow, even though they might have seen something else, some otherstory, when they came into the statue This is the moment when improvisation

is very important – the moment when the two last people have heard, whatthe first one has said and have to become acclimatized into the plot

A ready statue or still-image, in which the actors have scripts, could be thebase for a forum theatre play or story This kind of improvisational work could

be used with any group from children to seniors and from so-called normalpeople to groups of people with more problems Improvisational techniques arealso useful to use with the actors in the rehearsals of forum theatre performancesand the story-finding process

Other possibilities for the use of improvisational techniques

The VAT Theatre Forum Group director and Joker Margo Teder’s comments andexperiences in using improvisational techniques are in the following:

“I have used the improvisational techniques in working with childrenover 6 years of age When using different improvisation-exercises

according to the needs of the group in group work, it is possible to find

new stories, develop the actors’ fantasy and listening abilities, concentrate

attention, etc

Certain improvisation-exercises are very useful to organize, for instance,

Lightning Forum performance – performance within and in the middle of a

performance It is possible to perform a forum play without preparations and byusing the audience only This is what I once did with the students of ViljandiAcademy of Culture

The performance started with some warm-up games, where, for example, thebest players won a possibility to be or become an actor as a prize The story wasbased on the first conflict The wishes and the needs of the characters wereformed on the base of the dialogue with the audience (the audience gave thestory) Then, according to the information given by the audience, the actorsimprovised and created a forum play I have used the improvisation-technique inthe work with young people very much

While being the director of the Tallinn 32 Secondary School’s acting group Iworked very thoroughly with a group of students and we used the improvisation-technique very often in creating plays By now some of the drama-group membershave become actors and actresses in the VAT Theatre Forum Group and havevery strong improvisational techniques Improvisation-techniques are also very

useful when applied in teaching or developing group work This is because

improvisation requires people to listen, support and help each other Ideally, onemonth is the minimum period to work with one group in order to reach a point,

in which the actors have learned the improvisation-techniques well enough to beable to perform freely in an improvisational play

Form the point of view of forum theatre some improvisation-exercises are

very good in fieldwork too For instance when the VAT Theatre Forum Group

was working with the children of Tallinn’s Center of Children at Risk, I used manyplayful and fun improvisation-exercises, and while participating and being a part

of the exercises, the children gave very interesting information about themselves.”

Handbook material from Estonia is based on the VAT Theatre Forum Groupmembers work experience The VAT Theatre Forum Group actresses: Mari-LiisVelberg, Kadi Jaanisoo, Piret Soosaar The director and Joker: Margo Teder

Forum theatre workshops in Estonia, October 2003

Background

There was a Forum theatre workshop in Tallinn run by Jouni Piekkari The event

took place in October 2003 There were roughly 24-26 participants from differentbackgrounds: secondary school drama groups, youth and social workers andstudents, actors, activity therapy students and drama teachers

The workshop was targeted at the first timers, who had no previousexperiences of forum theatre This workshop was organized by the VAT Theatreforum group independently from the Drama Way project There was a need tofind a fresh start for the local forum theatre activities and create a networkwithin the new groups of people

Jouni Piekkari has facilitated similar kinds of forum theatre guest workshopswith different groups in the VAT Theatre since 1999

Description of the Activities

The Toronto handshake People shake each others hands, always having one hand

linked to someone else’s hand Who am I, why did I come here?

A name game series Atoms and molecules, groups according to hair type, type

of trousers, favorite music People always learn each other’s names in small groups.Check if people remember each other’s names in a big circle

Blind walk with a partner Moving front and back, touching things etc, free

movement Share the experience

Complete the image Three people complete the image Image becomes alive.

Continue

Example of a Forum Theatre Performance

(a simulation of an audience forum)

1 Explanation: what is forum theatre?

2 Audience warm-ups: a) draw a circle and a cross in the air, b) touch a coloretc c) introducing oneself to the neighbor in a non-sense language

4 Watch the forum: A bus stop harassment scene

5 Analysis: What was it about? What is the problem actually about? Was itok? Who were in trouble?

6 Hot seating: asking questions from the characters

Jouni

Piekkari