Goals
- raising awareness about situations of inequality that permeate everyday life.
- transform such oppressive realities through a collective search for pragmatic solutions rather than looking for ideal situations per se.
Elements
- Curinga/joker – The curinga or joker is a person who acts as a facilitator. Not only does s/he guide the initial games and group dynamics but s/he also assists the group in the following processes of discussion. To be specific, the curinga poses questions and encourages the group to participate while the participants determine how to represent the issues they want to discuss. In a similar fashion, during the performance of a short play (and of its various re-runs), s/he takes note of any spectator that has an opinion about what is being performed. S/he invites that person to replace one of the actors and share with everyone how s/he would change the dynamics at stake.
- Spect-actors – The participants are both audience and actors. First in small groups and later in a larger one, the participants discuss issues they find relevant through theatre. Role-playing serves as a vehicle for analyzing power, stimulating public debate and searching for solutions. Participants explore the complexity of the individual/group relation at a variety of levels of human exchange. They are invited to map out: a) the dynamics of power within and between groups; b) the experience and the fear of powerlessness within the individual; and c) rigid patterns of perception that generate miscommunication and conflict, as well as ways of transforming them.
The process
1. Group dynamics: The group dynamics build on a series of games that participants engage in. Such games serve to loosen body, mind and spirit, awaken the senses as well as helping participants to feel and act as a group. In other words, the games allow participants to break from the almost mechanical way in which we use our bodies and senses in everyday life.
2. Devising a bottom line for discussion: participants are divided in smaller groups and create a play, an image or a skit depicting a situation in which there is unfairness based on their own life experiences. Either choosing one person’s story or combining stories of different members, they pick a theme they want to explore and represent it. Groups present their short plays, images or skits to each other. Depending on time constraints, one or more of them are explored as put forth in step 3.
3. Performance(s): the plays, images or skits are performed at least two times. The first time serves to introduce the audience to the theme in question through the presentation of a real situation. As such situations are controversial spectators are likely to feel strongly about them. Because of siding with some character, finding the situation is not truly representative or other, the audience is called upon to replace some of the actors and present their own take on the situation. In this way, passive spectators become active in the play – they become spect-actors. Following each intervention, audience members discuss the solution offered. The aim of the forum is not to find an ideal solution, but to invent new ways of confronting problems.
- raising awareness about situations of inequality that permeate everyday life.
- transform such oppressive realities through a collective search for pragmatic solutions rather than looking for ideal situations per se.
Elements
- Curinga/joker – The curinga or joker is a person who acts as a facilitator. Not only does s/he guide the initial games and group dynamics but s/he also assists the group in the following processes of discussion. To be specific, the curinga poses questions and encourages the group to participate while the participants determine how to represent the issues they want to discuss. In a similar fashion, during the performance of a short play (and of its various re-runs), s/he takes note of any spectator that has an opinion about what is being performed. S/he invites that person to replace one of the actors and share with everyone how s/he would change the dynamics at stake.
- Spect-actors – The participants are both audience and actors. First in small groups and later in a larger one, the participants discuss issues they find relevant through theatre. Role-playing serves as a vehicle for analyzing power, stimulating public debate and searching for solutions. Participants explore the complexity of the individual/group relation at a variety of levels of human exchange. They are invited to map out: a) the dynamics of power within and between groups; b) the experience and the fear of powerlessness within the individual; and c) rigid patterns of perception that generate miscommunication and conflict, as well as ways of transforming them.
The process
1. Group dynamics: The group dynamics build on a series of games that participants engage in. Such games serve to loosen body, mind and spirit, awaken the senses as well as helping participants to feel and act as a group. In other words, the games allow participants to break from the almost mechanical way in which we use our bodies and senses in everyday life.
2. Devising a bottom line for discussion: participants are divided in smaller groups and create a play, an image or a skit depicting a situation in which there is unfairness based on their own life experiences. Either choosing one person’s story or combining stories of different members, they pick a theme they want to explore and represent it. Groups present their short plays, images or skits to each other. Depending on time constraints, one or more of them are explored as put forth in step 3.
3. Performance(s): the plays, images or skits are performed at least two times. The first time serves to introduce the audience to the theme in question through the presentation of a real situation. As such situations are controversial spectators are likely to feel strongly about them. Because of siding with some character, finding the situation is not truly representative or other, the audience is called upon to replace some of the actors and present their own take on the situation. In this way, passive spectators become active in the play – they become spect-actors. Following each intervention, audience members discuss the solution offered. The aim of the forum is not to find an ideal solution, but to invent new ways of confronting problems.
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