Download COMMUNITY-BASED THEATRE FOR DIALOGUE AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION

COMMUNITY-BASED THEATRE FOR DIALOGUE
AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION
IN THE MALDIVES
Working Manual
Copyright and Acknowledgements
Copyright @2012
By the United Nations Developmet Programme in the Maldives
UN Building, Buruzu Magu, Male’, Maldives
All rights reserved. The document may, however, be freely reviewed, quoted
reproduced, translated, in part or in full, provided the source is acknowledged.
The following persons contributed to the publication of this manual
Lead Author: Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn, [email protected]
Illustrator: Aima Musthafa
Layout Designer: Ahmed Fayaz, Scorpius Technologies
CONTENTS
FORUM THEATRE: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
5
THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED (TO)
7
The wave comes and takes
Three Things in Common
Tour of my favorite Place
Two truths, One lie
Values Clarification
Where are you from?
14
ACTING AND IMPROVISATION SKILLS
PREPARATION FOR A FORUM THEATRE WORKSHOP
Workshop Structure
Physical and Mental Demechanization
Final Considerations
WORKSHOP RULES
15
15
16
17
RULES FOR BLIND GAMES
18
POST-EXERCISE DISCUSSION
18
WARM-UP, GROUP BUILDING & DEMECHANIZATION
21
Badu21
Circle of Dash
22
Clap Exchange
23
Colombian Hypnosis 24
Cover the Space
26
Cross & Circle
27
Enemy & Friend
28
Fainting29
Heads Up, I do not want to see you
30
Maldivian Lap Dance (U’ngu)
31
Me/Not Me
31
Name, Sound, Movement
32
Ping33
Pulse Dance
34
Pushing against each other
36
Four Irish-Timorese-Maldivian Duels
37
Tsunami38
Walk means Run
39
BLIND GAMES
40
Affective Hand
40
Blind Car
41
Blind Handshakes
43
Blind-V44
Find the spot blind
44
Pachamama (Forest of Sounds)
45
Trust Falls
47
Trust Walking
48
PERSONAL DISCLOSURE
49
3-Image Story
49
Aima, I love/I hate
50
I feel...
51
I have got something to tell you
52
Pain Circle
54
Sociometry55
Story of my Name
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
1, 2, 3 Breadfruit
63
Association Jump
65
Boxing66
End Of The Day Performance
67
Environment67
Exit-Entrance (Burning House)
68
Flying Mask
69
Freeze Tag 70
Machine70
Magritte71
The Haka 72
Soundscapes73
Thats a lie
73
The sad story of Zuhra, Tahrir and Palang
74
Two Lines
76
Two Secrets
77
West Side Story
78
What are you doing?
78
Yes, let’s
80
IMAGE THEATRE/PLAY DEVELOPMENT EXERCISES
81
1:1 Oppression
81
Complete the Image
81
Group Sculpting (Image of Four)
83
Image of the Hour
83
Image of the Word
85
Sculpting86
Sculpt the Face You Love
87
Sheep88
Song of the Mermaid
90
Spontaneous Image
92
The Journey from here to there
93
Two chairs, Three actions, One Play
94
PLAYBACK THEATRE FORMS AND EXERCISES
96
Fluid Sculptures
96
Pairs97
3-Part Story (4-Part Story)
99
Tableau100
Story101
Playback Theatre Merry-go round
102
6 Elements
103
Once there was
104
FORUM THEATRE REHEARSAL TECHNIQUES
105
Analytical Rehearsal of Emotions
105
3
Analytical Rehearsal of Style
106
Inspired by an Animal
107
Interview108
Play to the Deaf
109
THE FORUM THEATRE PLAY
111
The Creation of a Forum Theatre Play
111
The Role of the Actor, Spect-Actor & Joker in a Forum
Theatre Play
113
JOKERING A FORUM THEATRE EVENT
114
ANNEX 118
TWO STORIES TOLD BY AUGUSTO BOAL
118
The Story of Virgilio-The birth of the Theatre of the
Oppressed118
The Story of the Fat Lady-The birth of Forum Theatre 119
SUGGESTED WORKSHOP PLAN 120
GLOSSARY122
RECOMMENDED READING LIST
4
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Augusto Boal (1931-2009)
5
FORUM THEATRE: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
“Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.”
(Augusto Boal, Creator of Theatre of the Oppressed/Forum Theatre)
Forum Theatre is a theatre for everyone, even for professional actors and other trained artists.
It is a theatre that is at the service of ordinary people and that aims at democratizing peoples’
access to art and culture not only as passive consumers but as active participants, as creators,
in the process re-discovering their inherent creative potential usually dormant and atrophied
after years of non-usage.
Forum Theatre is also an entirely community-driven process, in which people from different
walks of life come together to collectively discuss important community issues, develop
interactive plays about these issues and act out these plays in front of other people like them
in order to start a search for grassroots solutions, in which the focus of the performance lies
as much on the audience as on the actors on stage.
Hence, in Forum Theatre the main aim is not art per se but the mobilization of ordinary
(‘oppressed’ or ‘marginalized’) people to take control of their own lives and become powerful
agents of change for the transformation of their community conflicts in particular and their
societies in general. In other words, forum theatre is a predominantly political and social rather
than an artistic tool, though it is ultimately the combination of politics and art that makes it
such a unique and innovative methodology.
2. So what are the differences between Forum Theatre and other, more conventional theatre
forms? Arguably the main difference is that conventional theatre is more often than not a
top-down process in which most if not all of the aspects related to the production are the
exclusive domain of theatre professionals, with the audience assigned the role of passive
spectators, recipients of other people’s work and ideas. In Forum Theatre, on the other hand,
the main focus is on providing opportunities for ordinary people who might have never thought
of themselves as actors to re-appropriate the theatrical means of production and to use these
theatrical means to start transforming society. In the words of the founder of the Theatre of the
Oppressed and Forum Theatre, Augusto Boal,
“Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming
society.”
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3. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that Forum Theatre is not an effective tool
when it comes to simply wanting to pass a particular message to the audience, i.e. when
the goal is to educate people about a particular issue or desired behavioral change. On the
contrary, forum theatre performances always revolve around questions rather than answers,
and the idea is to empower communities to find their own solutions instead of letting others
decide what is good for them.
This notion of supporting self-help is intimately linked to the theory and practice of renowned
Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire. Working with largely illiterate, impoverished communities in
Brazil and other parts of Latin America in the 1970’ties, Freire was interested in nourishing
a pedagogy that could be used to liberate people from oppression. In his analysis of the
educational system in Brazil at the time (and still very much predominant in most parts of
the world today), he realized that there was an almost absolute lack of dialogue between
teachers and students based on an ill-conceived dichotomy between an all-knowing teacher
and his/her know-nothing students, whose empty brains served as deposits for the teacher’s
information. This “Banking System of Education” treated people as objects and reflected a
larger culture of silence in which ordinary people’s potential was left untapped and indeed
deliberately ignored in order to serve the interests of those in power.
Freire attempted to address this situation of injustice by proposing a people’s centered
“Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, in which the act of learning is transitive and all parties learn,
i.e. teachers learn from the students and vice versa. Working with marginalized communities,
the goal would be for these communities to gain a deeper understanding of their situations
of oppression, in what Freire called “Conscientization”, or the process of increasing of ones
awareness and understanding. Once aware of the reasons behind their oppressive situations,
people would then try to find their own solutions and strategies for change, i.e. they would
become the protagonists of their own lives instead of waiting for other people (political or
religious authorities, community leaders, businessmen, parents) to solve their problems for
them.
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THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED (TO)
These radically new ideas of an education for liberation from below were eventually discovered
and applied to the theatre by a contemporary of Freire and fellow Brazilian, Augusto Boal
(1931-2009). Inspired by Freire’s notion of more participatory approaches to learning and
social change, Boal analyzed the theatre of his time and found similarities to some of Freire’s
criticisms of the educational system1. For him, in most theatre practices there was a lack of
dialogue between actors and audience, with professional artists acting for a passive audience
in what resulted in many propaganda performances with information (messages) deposited
into the brains of the spectators. In addition, living in the harsh political climate of a military
dictatorship in the Brazil of the Cold War era, Boal asked himself what the theatre could do
to liberate people from oppression. The result of his deliberations was the Theatre of the
Oppressed (TO), a bottom-up theatre approach in which the theatre is used to gain a deeper
understanding of ones situation of oppression (“Conscientization”), with the objective for both
actors and audience to learn together and the latter to try out their ideas how to bring positive
change in their communities.
Since its birth almost 40 years ago, the Theatre of the Oppressed has gradually made its
way across the planet and is now practiced in nearly 100 countries on all continents. More
importantly, led by Boal and an increasing number of passionate and dedicated practitioners,
the methodology has been enriched, expanded and adapted to fit different cultural contexts
and meet local needs. The result is an authentic arsenal of different participatory theatre
techniques that are most beautifully symbolized in the so-called tree of the Theatre of the
Oppressed.
1
8
Please refer to the annex for two foundational stories often told by Boal.
Community-based Theatre for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation in the Maldives
Working Manual
Simultaneously to the development of the different practical techniques, an equally great deal
of time and efforts have been invested into devising a coherent theoretical body of work. This
includes various books by Augusto Boal himself, regular reflections by the TO practitioners
of the Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio (CTO Rio) and many articles, book
chapters and secondary literature by TO professionals from all over the world2. Moreover, an
international network of practitioners has found its home online (www.theatreoftheoppressed.
org) and has developed a series of guiding principles that form the philosophical backbone of
every TO endeavor. Some of the principles include:
2
Please refer to the annex for a book list with some of the most relevant literature
9
• The basic aim of the Theatre of the Oppressed is to provide the oppressed an
opportunity for expression.
• The Theatre of the Oppressed is based upon the principle that all human relationships
should be based on dialogue. Therefore, the main principle of Theatre of the Oppressed
is to help restore dialogue among human beings.
• The oppressed are those individuals or groups who are socially, culturally, politically,
economically, racially, sexually, or in any other way deprived of their right to Dialogue
or in any way impaired to exercise this right.
• Dialogue is defined as to freely exchange with others, as a person and as a group,
to participate in human society as equal, to respect differences and to be respected.
• The Theatre of the Oppressed is made of Exercises, Games and Techniques to help
men and women develop what they already have inside themselves: theatre.
• Everyone is capable of acting. We all use, in our daily lives, the same language that
actors use on stage: our voice, our body, and our expressions.
• The Theatre of the Oppressed offers everyone the possibility to examine their past, its
effect on their present, and subsequently to invent their future, without waiting for it.
Theatre of the Oppressed is rehearsal for reality.
• The Theatre of the Oppressed is respectful of all cultures. It is a method of analysis
and a means to develop happier societies. Because of its humanistic and democratic
nature, it is widely used all over the world, in all fields of social activities such as:
education, culture, arts, politics, social work, psychotherapy, literacy programs and
health.
Forum Theatre
Easily the most well-known and widely practiced technique of the Theatre of the Oppressed is
Forum Theatre (FT), the main subject of this working manual. Forum Theatre is an interactive
form of theatre in which a problematic scenario is presented and then replayed, with audience
members (spect-actors) encouraged to enter the action and attempt to positively change the
outcome on the stage and then take what they have learned during the forum and apply it in
their real lives. It is a rehearsal for future action, a unique opportunity to practice change in the
safe space of the theatre. Hence, Forum Theatre is theatre not as spectacle but as a means of
expression where all people have the possibility and the right to be heard and exchange their
perspectives in action. It is a constant search for authentic dialogue, in which people analyze
their past, in the context of the present in order to identify strategies to create a more peaceful
future.
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Working Manual
Legislative Theatre
In the early 1990’ties, coming back to Brazil from a long period of exile in Europe, Boal was
voted into the city parliament of Rio de Janeiro. Realizing that there was very little contact
between elected officials and their constituencies, and taking advantage of his new role as
legislator, Boal started promoting Legislative Theatre: the attempt to democratize democracy
by using forum theatre to involve ordinary people in the making of laws that will protect and
expand the rights of marginalized communities. How? Boal and his colleagues at the CTO Rio
continued to produce public forum theatre plays with oppressed populations but this time,
during the performances, a lawyer present in the audience, would note down the suggestions
for change, look for patterns in different audience responses and eventually channel these
responses into a legal report that Boal presented in the Rio city parliament for discussion.
The results were astonishing. In little over 2 years, 13 laws were passed and a new, more
participatory form of democracy was born.
Other TO techniques
Apart from Forum and Legislative Theatre, a range of other techniques have blossomed and
enriched the tree of the theatre of the oppressed over the past four decades. What all of
these methods share is the desire to promote spaces for ordinary people to use the theatre
to discuss sensitive community issues and find ways for people to actively affect positive
transformation from below. For instance, Newspaper Theatre serves to analyze the often
contradictory role the media and other opinion producing agents can play in the control of
access to crucial information. Invisible Theatre, on the other hand, is used in contexts in which
sensitive conflicts cannot be discussed openly. A highly controversial method even among TO
practitioners, Invisible Theatre aims to promote dialogue and real life interventions in a public
space (the street, public transport, restaurants, etc.) without the public knowing that what they
are witnessing is a theatre performance.
A more inward-looking technique is a set of so-called introspective methods named the
Rainbow of Desire. Rainbow of Desire was conceived as a result of Boal’s life in exile in
Europe, when he came to realize that the objective realities of Europe were very different
from what he knew from Latin America. There were no brutal military dictatorships, no overt
police repressions, no outrageous poverty nor any other kind of excessive injustices that
claimed for immediate redress. On the other hand, people in his workshops complained about
a lack of meaning in life, feelings of profound depression and spiritual emptiness as well as a
generalized lack of energy, motivation and even a tendency towards suicide. When analyzing
some of these symptoms, Boal found out that many of these stemmed from conflicting desires
and fears as well as concrete experiences with being at the receiving end of abuses of power
and repressive behaviors by parents, teachers, bosses and other authorities. Recognizing that
Forum Theatre had been designed primarily to tackle external oppressions, he invented the
11
Rainbow of Desire as a means to support people suffering from internalized oppressions to
overcome their states of paralysis and promote healing and a sense of catharsis, the latter in
the sense of paving the way for action and the removal of all blocks that prevent people from
taking action towards achieving their desires.
Finally, towards the end of his life, Boal realized the need for a new Aesthetics of the Oppressed.
In this technique, different art forms including painting and photography (“The Image”), poetry
and creative writing (“The Word”) as well as musical production (“The Sound”) are promoted
to enable people’s full engagement with their creative potential at the service of overcoming
oppression and exclusion.
Playback Theatre (PT)
A different, complementary form of TCT is Playback Theatre (PT). It is theatre based on stories
told by audience members. Concretely, life stories are shared, cast, and then enacted on the
spot by a team of actors/dancers and a musician.
Developed by Jonathan Fox and his wife Jo Salas in the USA of the 1970’s, Playback Theatre
holds that people have a need to tell their stories and that the theatre can promote spaces
for ordinary people to do so. PT is hence a way to validate and acknowledge people’s life
experiences, often with a focus on promoting the voices of marginalized and silenced groups.
It is also a space for deep listening and the humanization of human relationships, with the
final result often described in terms of individual and collective healing. Playback Theatre lives
on the cusp between art and social change and provides opportunity for deep reflection and
connection. Over the years, Playback Theatre has gradually become a powerful community
building tool across the globe and there are so-called Playback Theatre companies from
Brazil to Hong Kong, from Finland to Afghanistan. Besides, PT has increasingly been used for
reconciliation and documentation purposes in a number of (post-) conflict settings including
Afghanistan, Burundi, Northern Ireland and Rwanda.
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Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre
Theatre of the Oppressed (TO)
Playback Theatre (PT)
Political (Origins)
Personal (Origins)
„Uses“ Teller
“Honours” Teller
Plays of Oppression
Stories of Joy and Suffering
Analytical/Action based (Wordy)
Ritual/Art (Emphatic Listening)
Solutions/Strategies for Change
Deep Dialogue
Catharsis (Removal of Blocks)
Catharsis (Removal of Disease)
Joker as problematizer
Conductor as naïve enquirer
Aspects in common
ŽŽ Both make an effort to address conflict, invite dialogue and build community
ŽŽ Both are non scripted/improvisational
ŽŽ Both rely on audience participation
ŽŽ Both aim to encourage people to become agents of social change
‘PT and TO are two different doorways leading to the same house’
(Hannah Fox, daughter of PT founders Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas)
13
THE CBT
WORKSHOP
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PREPARATION FOR A FORUM THEATRE WORKSHOP
The CBT workshop is an absolutely essential element in the development of an interactive
Forum Theatre play. The theatre workshop may vary in duration and content, generally lasting
from 3-6 days, but always aims to promote dialogue on sensitive community issues through
the use of different theatre games and exercises. Before embarking on such an initiative it is
important for the workshop facilitators (called the Joker) to prepare the activities.
Basic Considerations/Questions for the Jokers
Who is your audience/target group? Who are your participants?
Are there any exercises that may be considered culturally inappropriate? If yes, how can
they be adapted?
In which language will the workshop be conducted? Is there a need for an interpreter?
What are some of the conflicts existing in the community?
What do you aim to achieve with the activities? What impact do you want to have?
How can the activities be evaluated?
Planning of Workshop Sessions
Is the workshop space conducive to the kind of games and exercises you want to do?
What is the theme of the session and which exercises will best address this theme?
How does the session take into account the readiness levels of the participants?
What feelings are we, as Jokers bringing to the session?
How much time is there to conduct the sessions?
Which specific resources (Flip Chart, Markers, Props) are needed for the workshop?
Workshop Structure
Depending on the facilitator’s style of facilitation, level of experience and the specific objectives
of the theatre activities there are many different ways of structuring a community-based
theatre workshop. One suggestion for a workshop outline includes3:
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
3
Opening Circle (Welcome, Theoretical introduction, Logistical questions)
Introduction Exercises
Warm-Up & Trust Building Exercises
Acting and Improvisation Skills Exercises
Personal Disclosure Exercises
Please see examples of the different games and exercises in the next section.
15
ŽŽ Image Theatre Exercises
ŽŽ Play Making
ŽŽ Closing Circle/Debriefing (Time for reflections)
In terms of choosing the different games and exercises for the workshop, every practitioner has
his/her own favorites with some exercises (Colombian Hypnosis, Blind Games, different Image
Theatre exercises) that are part and parcel of most practitioners’ tool box. However, given that
theatre is ultimately a physical language, every day time should be made for physical exercises
that promote physical self-awareness and what Boal calls “demechanization”.
Physical and Mental Demechanization
Our sensory capacities are often severely limited by the deforming and repetitive nature of our
everyday jobs and activities. In addition, our minds and brains are under constant pressure
to conform to certain, mechanized, ways of thinking, often heavily influenced by a cultural
industry that manipulates our ways of being in the world. Boal suggests that one way of
dealing with these daily mechanizations is the use of theatre.
Hence, the aim of physical demechanization exercises is to support the participants to
reconnect with their senses and develop their capacities to understand the world in different
ways. At the same time, all theatre games and exercises attempt to create an atmosphere in
which people can think new thoughts, thereby demechanizing our thought processes.
Final Considerations
Apart from the technical preparation, it is crucial for the facilitator(s) to keep in mind the
importance of providing a safe working environment.
Ideally the working space is
• free of obstructions, open, clean and warm
• free of judgment, a place where it is safe to take risks
• somewhere where it is safe to make mistakes
• where it is possible to think new thoughts
• where it is possible to feel different kind of emotions
• where it is possible to disagree
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IMPORTANT!
• All the games and exercises relate strongly to the senses and can be used with actors
and people who have never thought of themselves as actors.
• The aim of the exercises is to help people find new ways to see, to listen and to touch
in order for them to use the theatre as a means for social change.
• All games have their own powerful symbolism. They are metaphors for real life and
each person will experience them differently, experiencing the games through their
own life experiences.
• All games should be adapted to local circumstances and needs.
17
WORKSHOP RULES
Generally, the workshop rules will be developed together with the workshop participants.
However, certain basic guidelines should be established by the Joker so that the working
environment will be safe and comfortable enough for people to engage authentically with the
games and exercises.
It is important to stress that:
ŽŽ During the discussion of an exercise, only one person speaks at a time. The discussion
is an opportunity to speak and to be heard
ŽŽ The participation in all games and exercises is voluntary
ŽŽ Each person is invited to extend their own boundaries, and should not be forced and/or
pressured by others to do things s/he does not want to do
ŽŽ The games and exercises are not a competition
ŽŽ The participants project their own understanding onto the images they see
ŽŽ There is a general respect and recognition of the different degrees of knowledge and
experience that the participants bring into the workshop.
ŽŽ Everything said in the room stays in the room
ŽŽ Cellular phones should be turned off at all times during the workshop sessions as it is
very disrespectful to interrupt a workshop process in which the participants often go
deep inside themselves
ŽŽ Cultural traditions should be treated respectfully
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RULES FOR BLIND GAMES
Before doing blind games, it is important to remember the following rules:
ŽŽ In order to respect people’s physical integrity and privacy, participants’ hands should be
either by their side, behind their back, or across their chest
ŽŽ Heads are up so that head crashes can be avoided
ŽŽ The speed is determined by the person doing the walking
ŽŽ Blind games are silent games
POST-EXERCISE DISCUSSION
ŽŽ A general discussion should take place after each (or most) theatre game or exercise
ŽŽ The goal is to make links with “real life”, problems and conflicts that exist in our
communities
ŽŽ It encourages personal disclosure, greater group cohesion and trust
ŽŽ The Joker should not assume anything but should rather ask the group how they
experienced the exercise.
To do this, the Joker needs to make a few decisions regarding the question s/he will ask. It is
important to decide:
•
•
•
•
how to phrase the questions
how to order them,
which to include
which to leave out
Generally, the Joker tries to ask open questions, i.e. who, what, where, when, why and how
questions.
Example Questions:
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
What thoughts and feelings did have during the exercise?
What insights did you have as a result of engaging with the game?
How does this game relate to life in Maldives?
How does this exercise relate to the topic that we are here to investigate?
What do you think this exercise was about?
19
Special discussion questions apply to Image Theatre work:
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
20
Who might these people be?
What seems to be going on?
What do you think that gesture means?
What does it seem like this person is saying/thinking at this moment?
Where do you think this could be taking place?
When does it look like this is taking place?
What might you do in this situation?
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GAMES & EXERCISES
21
WARM-UP, GROUP BUILDING & DEMECHANIZATION
1-2-3-Boo
Objectives: Group Building
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle and starts counting.
ŽŽ Instead of the number 4 and all multipliers of 4 (8, 12, 16, 20, 24, etc.), the
participants have to say ‘Boo’.
ŽŽ If a participant makes a mistake, s/he is out.
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Badu
Objectives: Group Building, Introduction
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle.
ŽŽ The participants, using their right hands, gently tap on their hearts, establishing a
collective rhythm.
ŽŽ After a while, the Joker asks the participants to introduce a second, complementary
rhythm. This time using the right index and middle finger to gently tap twice on the
palm of their left hand. They establish the following rhythm: heart (2 taps), hand (2
taps), heart (2 taps), hand (2 taps), heart (2 taps), hand (2 taps), etc.
ŽŽ Finally, the same rhythm continues but this time the participants will also say their
names while tapping their hands. Mu-Naam. Za-Far. Aen-Tu.
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Circle of Dash
Objectives: Warm-Up, Group Building
Number of People: 7+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This is a silent game.
ŽŽ The group gets into a circle with one volunteer in the middle.
ŽŽ The Joker explains that the aim of the game is for any two people in the circle to
silently signal each other and quickly switch places.
ŽŽ The person in the middle tries to get into one of the open spots before the participants
successfully swapped places. The person left out takes the spot in the middle.
ŽŽ Variation: The person in the middle is asked to approach individual participants in
the circle and ask them “Can I have your space, please?”. The answer is always
the same “No, unfortunately not” and then the person is sent across the circle to
another person. While the verbal exchange is happening, other participants can
make contact and quickly change places, with the person in the middle attempting
to get there before them.
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Clap Exchange
Objectives: Warm-Up, Team Building
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle.
ŽŽ Facing to his/her right, the Joker sends a clap around the circle. The person on the
right attempts to clap his/her hands at the same time and then passes the clap to
the person next to him/her, all the way around the circle, again and again, faster
and faster.
ŽŽ After a while, a second, third or fourth clap starting from a different section of the
circle, can be introduced.
ŽŽ Variation: Every second person ducks, then rises and claps in unison with the second
person on their right.
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Colombian Hypnosis
Objectives: Demechanization, Analysis of Power Relationships
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ First, the participants divide into pairs. Then, the Joker asks for a volunteer to
demonstrate the exercise with him/her while explaining the basic instructions at the
same time.
ŽŽ Stage One: One person will be the hypnotizer (A) and the other one the hypnotized
(B).
ŽŽ A holds one of his/her hands in front of B’s face, at a distance of approximately 1015 cm. As A slowly moves his/her hand B follows the hand always maintaining the
same distance.
ŽŽ The idea is to help B move his/her body into unusual positions. The whole space
can be used.
ŽŽ After a few minutes A and B swap roles.
ŽŽ Variation Two: A and B hypnotize each other at the same time.
ŽŽ Variation Three: One hypnotizer (A) hypnotizes two people (B & C) simultaneously,
using both hands.
ŽŽ Variation Four: ‘A’ comes into the middle and slowly starts moving through the
space. One by one, the other participants “attach themselves” to any part of A’s body
(elbow, knee, ear) and follow his/her movements.
ŽŽ During all stages, music can be played, with the participants moving in accordance
to the rhythm of the music.
ŽŽ Before discussing the exercise in the big group, each pair can be given a minute to
discuss their experiences during the exercise.
ŽŽ It is not necessary to do all variations consecutively on the same workshop day.
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Cover the Space
Objectives: Warm-up, Cooperation
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to walk around the workshop space, trying to make
sure that all empty spaces in the room are constantly covered.
ŽŽ From time to time the Joker claps and all participants freeze wherever they are and
the Joker points out the empty spaces (if there are any).
ŽŽ Variation: The Joker limits the space with a number of chairs. After s/he has asked
the participants to freeze, the Joker attempts to walk through the space. If the space
between participants is big enough for the Joker to walk through, all participants die
a dramatic death.
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Cross & Circle
Objectives: Demechanization, Warm-Up for Forum Theatre Audience
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 05 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
The Joker asks the participants to make a circle with their right hand.
Next they should make a cross with their left hand.
Finally, they should do both at the same time.
This is a great warm-up for the audience before a Forum Theatre performance.
29
Crossed Legs
Objectives: Team Work, Warm-Up
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ In pairs, actors hold each other round the shoulders and intertwine their inside legs.
A’s right leg crossed under B’s left leg, lifting the leg on each step. The pair then
starts walking around the space.
ŽŽ For larger groups: This game can be turned into an exciting (relay) competition, trying
to find out who can run faster across the room.
ŽŽ Variation: Instead of crossing legs, the participants can be invited to lean against
each other and walk around by finding the balance of strength between them.
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Enemy & Friend
Objectives: Warm-Up
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants start walking around the space without talking.
ŽŽ Then, the Joker asks each person to silently pick an individual in the room that s/he
will consider his/her friend. They continue to move around while doing so.
ŽŽ Next, the participants are asked to silently pick an enemy.
ŽŽ Then the Joker tells the participants that the goal is to always keep their friend
between themselves and their enemy. Because it is likely that everyone picks
different friends and enemies, the usual result is that everyone frenetically runs
around the space.
31
Fainting
Objectives: Group and Trust Building
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants walk around the workshop space. At any time during the exercise,
one of the participants “faints”, i.e. s/he slowly falls backwards while producing a
screaming sound to alert the other participants.
ŽŽ The objective for the other participants is to quickly come over and catch the person
before s/he hits the ground.
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Five Irish-Timorese-Maldivian Duels
Objectives: Demechanization, Team Building
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 2-3 min per Duel
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This game consists of five different duels, each with groups of two facing each other,
constantly attacking and defending at the same time.
ŽŽ Duel 1: Knee Tag. Two participants attempt to touch each others knees.
ŽŽ Duel 2: Foot Stomp. Two participants attempt to (gently) step onto each others feet.
ŽŽ Duel 3: Back Tag. Two participants attempt to touch each others backs.
ŽŽ Duel 4: Sword Duel. The participants use their right index fingers as swords and
their left hands as shields, with the shields being kept behind the back. The goal is
to touch the other person’s shield with one’s sword.
ŽŽ Duel 5: Balancing Act. The participants stand on one leg and try to make the other
person put his/her foot down.
ŽŽ The first person to reach three points wins.
33
Heads Up, I do not want to see you
Objectives: Group Building
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 5-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to stand in a circle and put their heads down.
ŽŽ The game has two, back-to-back instructions: “Heads Up” & “Heads Down”.
ŽŽ The game starts with the Joker saying “Heads Up”. “Heads Up” means all the
participants simultaneously look up and gaze at a person in the circle.
ŽŽ If four eyes meet, i.e. if two people look at each other at the same time, they both
have to leave the game.
ŽŽ The game continues with “Heads Down” (all the heads go down), then “Heads Up”
(all heads go up; each participant looks at somebody else in the circle; if two gazes
meet, the participants leave the game), “Heads Down”, “Heads Up”, etc. until only
one or two participants, the winners, remain.
ŽŽ The Joker can ask some of the eliminated participants to call out the instructions.
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Maldivian Lap Dance (U’ngu)
Objectives: Demechanization, Internal Rhythm
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs, facing each other, legs slightly bend.
ŽŽ The Joker asks the pairs to establish a rhythm sequence, using the palms of their
hands to simultaneously tap twice on their thighs.
ŽŽ After a while, in the interval between the taps, the Joker invites the participants to
start swinging their arms either to the right, left, up or down. In case, the participants
happen to swing their arms in the same direction, e.g. both to the right, they now
have to “high five” before resuming with the sequence tap-swing.
35
Moving Chairs
Objectives: Group Building
Number of People: 7+
Duration: 15 min
Material:
Process:
ŽŽ The group sits in a circle, with one additional empty chair. One person volunteers to
be in the middle. His/her goal is to sit down on the empty chair.
ŽŽ Stage 1: At a signal from the Joker, the participants quickly move from chair to chair
with the person in the middle trying to get in.
ŽŽ Stage 2: The person in the middle can call out ‘Change directions’ and the participants
now have to move from chair to chair in the opposite direction. The person is the
middle tries to use the confusion and sit down on the empty chair, leaving someone
else in the middle and the game continues.
ŽŽ Stage 3: The person in the middle can yell out ‘Revolution’ and everyone has to
get back and find a new chair. The person is the middle tries to use the confusion
and sit down on the empty chair, leaving someone else in the middle and the game
continues.
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Name + Adjective = Me
Objectives: Introduction, Group Building
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle.
ŽŽ Stage 1: Every participant introduces herself by saying her name and an adjective
that starts with the same letter as her name (e.g. Sunny Suha, Drowsy Daanish)
accompanied by an image. The rest of the group repeats the name and the image.
ŽŽ Stage 2: Same as before but this time saying only the name and making the image.
ŽŽ Stage 3: ‘Name, Name, Die’. A participant walks across the circle towards someone
else- if the latter does not say the name and make the image before the former
reach them, they die.
37
Name & Ball Sequence
Objectives: Introduction, Group Building
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Several Balls (any size)
Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle and establishes a fixed name sequence by throwing
the ball from one person to the next, across the circle, every time saying the name
of the person to whom the ball is thrown. After while, a second and third ball are
introduced.
ŽŽ The sequence can be repeated in reverse order.
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Name Choreography
Objectives: Introduction, Group Building, Acting Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Stage 1: Every participant writes down his/her name on a piece of paper and present
him-herself to the rest of the group.
ŽŽ Stage 2: Every participant says his/her name and performs an action related to the
name and/or his/her personality.
ŽŽ Stage 3: The participants divide into groups of 3 or 4 and devise a name choreography
based on their names and actions. The choreography is performed for the other
groups.
39
Name, Sound, Movement
Objectives: Warm-Up, Introduction
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle.
ŽŽ A volunteer takes a step forward, calls out his/her name and makes any kind of
movement and sound.
ŽŽ S/he then goes back into the circle and the rest of the group comes into the middle
copying the name, sound and movement.
ŽŽ The exercise can also be used at the end of a workshop day, finding different ways
to say good-bye.
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Ocean & Shore
Objectives: Warm-Up, Group Building
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle
ŽŽ The Joker explains the rules. ‘River’ means the participants jump into the circle.
‘Bank’ means the participants jump back to their original spot.
ŽŽ The Joker alternates ‘River’ and ‘Bank’. If a participant makes a mistake, s/he is out
of the game and can take on the role of Joker.
41
Person to Person
Objectives: Group Building, Demechanization
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker invites the participants to quickly walk around the space. When the Joker
calls out ‘Person to Person’, the participants form pairs with the person nearest to
them.
ŽŽ The Joker calls out different body parts that the participants have to connect. For
example, ‘Knee to Shoulder’, followed by ‘Forehead to Calf’, followed by ‘Thigh to
Ear’. The Joker keeps on calling out body parts until it appear to be impossible to
continue.
ŽŽ Then, the Joker again calls out ‘Person to Person’, which is the signal for the
participants to disengage and start walking again until the next ‘Person to Person’.
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Ping
Objectives: Physical Warm-Up, Demechanization
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The actors move around the workshop space and receive the following instructions
from the Joker:
–– Walk (The actors walk through space)
–– Run (The actors run through space)
–– Jump (The actors jump and land at the same time)
–– Silent Jump (The actors try to land silently at the same time)
–– Walk Backward (The actors move through space walking backwards)
–– Level (The actors freeze in different levels and then collapse on the floor)
–– Spread (The actors run to the opposite side of the room and then spin
around each other)
–– Angle (The actors move around with angular movements, robot-like)
–– Flow (The actors move around with round movements)
–– Part of Body (The actors walk around leading with different parts of their
bodies)
–– Resistance (The actors move through space confronting different kinds of
resistance: air, paper, stone)
–– Freeze (The actors freeze and strike a pose)
43
Pulse Dance
Objectives: Physical Warm-Up, Demechanization
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants stand in a circle.
ŽŽ Next, the Joker asks everyone to find their pulse, listen to its rhythm and start moving
through space, eventually turning the rhythm into a ‹pulse dance’.
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Pushing against each other
Objectives: Demechanization, Preparing for Forum Theatre
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This exercise is about using one’s strength without trying to win.
ŽŽ Two partners face each other and place their hands on each others’ shoulders.
ŽŽ They start pushing with all their strength. When one person feels that the partner is
weaker, she eases off so as not to ‘win’.
ŽŽ The Joker invites the participants to use different parts of their bodies (e.g. knee to
knee, back to back, etc.).
This exercise is very important because it symbolically shows what the actor’s action should
be during a Forum Theatre when responding to spect-actors interventions, pushing them to
try harder but without totally defeating them.
45
Tsunami
Objectives: Demechanization, Group Building
Number of People: 7+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to divide into groups of three, with two participants
making a house by lifting their arms and joining their hands, making a roof. The third
person stands inside the house.
ŽŽ One person remains without a group. The Joker explains that s/he can choose one of
three instructions: “House” (all the houses change partners), “Person” (all the people
inside the houses change houses) or “Tsunami” (everyone changes).
ŽŽ Depending on the instruction, the person without a group attempts to either make a
house or become a person, leaving another person without a group, who will choose
the next instruction.
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Tunnel of Applause
Objectives: End of Workshop Acknowledgement
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group makes two lines, facing each other, building a “tunnel”.
ŽŽ One by one, the actors walk through the tunnel, receiving the applause of their fellow
actors for the work done during the workshop.
47
Vowel Names
Objectives: Warm-Up, Introduction, Demechanization, Acting Skills
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants stand in a circle.
ŽŽ One by one, everyone introduces herself by performing a sound and movement
sequence consisting of the vowels contained in their names. For example, if the
participant’s name is Shifaza. The vowels would be ‘I’, ‘A’, ‘A’.
ŽŽ The other participants copy the sequence.
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Walk means Run
Objectives: Demechanization, Group Building
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants walk around the workshop space.
ŽŽ One by one, the Joker introduces the following combinations: Walk/Run, Stand/Sit,
Stop/Jump, Knee/Arms.
ŽŽ After a while, the facilitator explains that from now on his/her instructions mean the
opposite of what he/she says, e.g. Walk means Run, Stand means Sit, Stop means
Jump, Knee means Arms etc.
49
Weather Circle
Objectives: Group Building, Personal Disclosure
Number of People: 7+
Duration: 10 min
Material: Chairs
Process:
ŽŽ The participants, including the Joker, sit in a circle.
ŽŽ The Joker begins rubbing his/her hands and the participants, one after another, also
rub their hands until everyone in the circle is rubbing his/her hands.
ŽŽ In the second round, the Joker snaps his fingers, then claps (Round 3), then taps on
his/her thigh (Round 4), then stomps with his/her feet (Round 5).
ŽŽ The sequence is repeated with the eyes closed.
ŽŽ Afterwards, the Joker asks something like “What is your internal weather like?
Describe in a word or two and share with group.” For example, “Generally sunny
with occasional rainfall”.
What Has Changed?
Objectives: Concentration
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs of ‘A’ and ‘B’, facing each other. ‘A’ begins and is
asked to closely observe ‘B’. Next, ‘B’ turns around and changes three aspects of
his/her appearance. Then, ‘B’ faces ‘A’, who has to find the three things that have
changed.
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BLIND GAMES
Affective Hand
Objectives: Trust Building, Physical Sensitization
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to walk through the workshop space with their eyes
closed. Whenever they encounter somebody, they briefly shake hands and continue
walking.
ŽŽ Next, at a signal from the Joker, the participants find a partner, thoroughly explore
each others hands and then continue walking through the space with their eyes
closed.
ŽŽ Finally, the Joker asks the participants to find their partners hands again.
ŽŽ The exercise can be done with other parts of the body, for example the face.
ŽŽ Alternatively, the exercise can start with a back-to-back dance and then move into
the blind part.
51
Blind Car
Objectives: Trust Building, Cooperation
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs. One is going to be the car and the other the driver.
ŽŽ The driver stands behind the car while the car closes his/her eyes.
ŽŽ The driver has 5 options to drive the car:
–– Patting on the back of the head means go forward.
–– Patting on the left shoulder means turn left,
–– Patting on the right shoulder turn right,
–– Patting on the back means reverse and
–– No pats means stop.
ŽŽ This is a silent game. The participants change roles after a while.
ŽŽ Before discussing the exercise in the big group, each pair can be given a minute to
discuss their experiences.
ŽŽ Variation: Blind Bus.
ŽŽ It works just like ‘Blind Cars’, but this time groups of four to five people make
“busses”, i.e. standing in line, one after another, with the driver at the back of the
bus.
ŽŽ The driver is the only participant with open eyes. Everyone else is blind.
ŽŽ The signals are the same as in ‘Blind Cars’, i.e. the driver moves his/her bus by
patting the person in front of him/her, who in turn pats the person in front of him/
her, etc.
ŽŽ The Joker can ask the groups to change the driver after a while.
ŽŽ At the end of the exercise, the pairs are given one minute to talk with their partners
about how they experienced the exercise.
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53
Blind Handshakes
Objectives: Trust Building, Cooperation
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
This is a silent game.
The participants divide into pairs.
They find an open space to stand in the room, shaking hands.
Next, they are asked to close their eyes and agree on a number of steps they will
walk backwards.
ŽŽ When they feel ready, they start to walk backwards very slowly. Then, still with their
eyes closed, they attempt to come back together and shake hands again.
ŽŽ The number of steps should be gradually increased: 3-5-7-10-15-20, as far back
as possible.
ŽŽ Before discussing the exercise in the big group, each pair can be given a minute to
discuss their experiences.
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Blind Magnets
Objectives: Trust Building, Harmonization
Number of People: 5+
Duration: 20-30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Magnets have two basic qualities. They attract and they repel.
ŽŽ The participants walk through the space with their eyes closed, arms by their side
or across their chests.
ŽŽ When the Joker yells “Attract”, the participants, still with their eyes closed, stick
together in pairs or clusters and move around in whatever way possible.
ŽŽ When the joker yells “Repel”, participants cannot touch and must immediately
disconnect when they come in contact with each other.
ŽŽ Before finishing the exercise, generally during the ‘attract’ phase, the Joker can ask
everyone to freeze where they are, open their eyes and ask themselves how their
position in relation to others (on the outskirts of the cluster, right in the middle, far
away from the group, etc.) is symbolic for how they relate to others in real life.
ŽŽ This is a silent exercise.
55
Blind-V
Objectives: Trust Building
Number of People: 7+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants stand in the shape of a “V” at one end of the room
ŽŽ One by one, a volunteer comes to the other end of the room and, with his/her eyes
closed, runs as fast as possible into the V.
ŽŽ The people in the V have to serve as a buffer, making sure that the blind runner is
safe.
ŽŽ This is a silent exercise.
Find the spot blind
Objectives: Trust Building, Sensitization
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Everyone finds a place in the room, standing on his/her own.
ŽŽ Next, all participants point at a specific spot in the room.
ŽŽ Then, with their eyes closed, the participants slowly walk to their spot. When they
think that they have reached their destination, they may open their eyes to check.
ŽŽ This is a silent game.
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Object among Subjects
Objectives: To illustrate the power relationship between subject and object
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants stand in a circle (the subjects), with one person in the middle (the
object).
ŽŽ The person in the middle stands straight, with his/her feet together (eyes either
closed or open) and lets him-herself fall back. The subjects have to catch the person
and (gently) push him/her around the circle.
ŽŽ After a few minutes, someone else comes into the middle to be the object.
57
Pachamama (Forest of Sounds)
Objectives: Trust Building, Team Work, Listening Skills, Playback Theatre Practice
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Pachamama means “Mother Earth” in the language of the Aymara and Quechua
people of South America.
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs. The Joker explains that one is going to be the guide
(eyes open) and the other will be blind (eyes closed).
ŽŽ The pair decides on a sound together, something that can be done with the breath.
The guide moves in the room and makes the sound. The blind partner moves
towards the sound.
ŽŽ The guide has two instructions: sound and no-sound. No-sound means stop.
ŽŽ All pairs do this at the same time so the blind person really has to listen to the sound
of his/her partner.
ŽŽ For Playback Theatre: The actors choose different instruments and guide their
partners through the space by making sounds with their instruments.
ŽŽ Before discussing the exercise in the big group, each pair can be given a minute to
discuss their experiences.
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Trust Falls
Objectives: Trust Building
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs. Person A stands with her back in front of B and
closes his/her eyes.
ŽŽ B stands in a way that s/he can receive weight.
ŽŽ A, still with the eyes closed and with a straight back, lets herself fall into the arms
of B.
ŽŽ B can slowly increase the distance. After a while A and B change roles.
ŽŽ This is a silent exercise.
ŽŽ Before discussing the exercise in the big group, each pair can be given a minute to
discuss their experiences.
59
Trust Walking
Objectives: Trust Building, Team Work, Feeling what we touch
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs. Person A is the guide and leads B, with his/her
eyes closed, around the room. Every once in a while, A makes B touch an object
present in the room. B takes time to really feel the object.
ŽŽ After a while, the partners swap roles.
ŽŽ This is a silent exercise.
ŽŽ Before discussing the exercise in the big group, each pair can be given a minute to
discuss their experiences.
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PERSONAL DISCLOSURE
3-Image Story
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Playback Theatre Practice
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants work in pairs (A + B). ‹A’ tells the other a brief personal story. ‹B’
listens and then plays back the story in three sequential images (Beginning, Middle,
End).
ŽŽ ‹A’ and ‹B’ swap roles.
61
Aima, I love/I hate
Objectives: Introduction, Personal Disclosure, Image Theatre
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Round One: The participants walk through the space and introduce themselves
to each other by first saying the other persons name and then performing a brief
sound and movement sequence of something they really love (“Aima, I love the
mountains”). The other person copies the same sound and movement and then
performs his/her own sequence (“Spoon, I love dancing”).
ŽŽ Round Two: The participants walk through the space and introduce themselves to
each other by first saying the other persons name and then performing a brief sound
and movement sequence of something they really hate (“Munaam, I hate violence”).
The other person copies the same sound and movement and then performs his/her
own sequence (“Azleema, I hate housework”).
ŽŽ After each round, in the big group, the participants perform some of the things they
learned about the other participants.
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From I to We through Poetry
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Polarized Model
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 60 min
Material: Paper, Pens, Markers, Stickers
Process:
ŽŽ Stage 1: The participants are asked to take a piece of paper and write down as
many of their identities as they can. These can include very concrete identifies (son,
activist, surfer, poet, etc.) as well as more abstract, metaphorical identities (listener,
bird, wanderer etc.). They are given five minutes to complete their task.
ŽŽ Stage 2: The Joker asks the participants to pick the four identities they most identify
with today. The four identities will be written down on separate stickers that the
participants will then attach to different parts of their bodies, in accordance with
where they most feel the identities (heart, stomach, ear, etc.).
ŽŽ Stage 3: The participants, stickers attached, walk around the workshop space and,
whenever they encounter someone, take a close look at their partners’ identities,
pick one of them and make an image and a sound that represent the identity.
ŽŽ Stage 4: The participants divide into small groups of 3 or 4. Each participants creates
an individual sequence enacting his/her four identities. Then, one by one, they
present their sequence to the other members of the group. Afterwards, the other
group members give the performer feedback on what they subjectively perceived
from the enactment (‘you looked very agitated’; ‘at times it felt like you were trying
to hard not to sow your feelings’, etc.). The performer, without discussing or asking
questions, takes notes of what his/her colleagues perceived and then writes a poem
using some of the feedback.
ŽŽ Stage 5: Still in small groups, the participants identify a few elements of their
identities they all share and then proceed to make a (frozen) image of their collective
group identity. They then present their images to the other groups and the Joker
facilitates a group discussion on the nature of the images and identities.
63
I feel...
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Playback Theatre Practice
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 185min
Material: Process:
This exercise has three stages.
ŽŽ Stage One: The participants stand in a circle. One by one, the participants come
into the middle and share a feeling they have experienced in recent times (‘I feel
happy’, ‘I feel sad’). Next, the rest of the group plays back the feeling using facial
expressions only.
ŽŽ Stage two: One by one, the participants come into the middle and share some of the
feelings they have had in recent times (‘I feel worried’, ‘I feel relieved’). Next, the rest
of the group plays back the feeling making only sounds that symbolize the emotion.
ŽŽ Stage Three: One by one, the participants come into the middle and share some of
the feelings they have had in recent times (‘I feel angry’, ‘I feel disappointed’). Next,
the rest of the group plays back the feeling using the entire body, sounds and words.
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I have got something to tell you
Objectives: Communicating a difficult personal moment without words
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20-30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs.
ŽŽ The Joker asks all participants to close their eyes and think of an unresolved conflict
from their lives that involved another person. They should briefly revisit the conflict
and remember the basic data: “What happened? How did you feel? Why did you not
manage to resolve the conflict?” After a while, the Joker asks the participants to
open their eyes.
ŽŽ The pairs decide who will be A and who will be B. They stand facing each other.
ŽŽ The joker will now guide the pairs through several stages, in which A will treat B as
if s/he was the person A had the conflict with, telling B without words, how A feels
about him/her. B just receives, i.e. should not react to the telling.
ŽŽ Stage 1: A must use only the eyes to tell B how s/he feels about the incident.
ŽŽ Stage 2: A can use the eyes and the rest of his/her face.
ŽŽ Stage 3: Eyes/Face/Upper Body plus Arms
ŽŽ Stage 4: The whole body
ŽŽ Stage 5: The whole body plus sounds (not words)
ŽŽ A and B change roles, with the joker once again guiding the pairs through the five
stages.
ŽŽ A and B discuss the exercise, with B telling A what emotions they perceived. A should
not be obliged to reveal the conflict but may do so if /she feels like it.
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Me/Not Me
Objectives: Introduction, Polarized Model
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants stand in a circle.
ŽŽ Round One: one by one, using only their hands/arms and facial expressions as well
as saying their names, the participants will make two images, one representing
something that they consider themselves to be (“Hisan”), and another image of
something that they are definitely not (“Not Hisan”).
ŽŽ Round Two: the participants repeat their own image sequence plus two sequences
(including their names) from any of the other participants.
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My Strongest Impression
Objectives: Re-appropriation of the word, Scene Development
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30-60 min
Material: Paper, Pens, Tape
Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to write about an external event that has left a strong
impression on him/her. The text should focus on how the event impacted on the
writers feelings and thoughts.
ŽŽ Variation One: Each participant reads out his/her strongest impression. Then, the
Joker facilitates a discussion and looks for similarities and differences.
ŽŽ Variation Two: The different papers are pinned to a bulletin board or wall. The
participants read all texts and each participant picks the one that speaks to him/
her the most. Next, the Joker invites the participants to read the text they have
picked once more and summarize its essence in a single word (e.g. ‘Freedom’,
‘Determination’, ‘Courage’, etc.).
ŽŽ The participants divide into small groups of three or four, read out all texts aloud,
discuss and compare the different, summarizing and pick the text that resonates the
most with them. They then proceed to make a small play about the text.
ŽŽ The Joker discusses the different plays with the group.
ŽŽ
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Pain Circle
Objectives: Physical warm-up, Personal Disclosure, Intro to Playback Theatre
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This exercise has three stages and is useful to introduce the basic logic of Playback
Theatre in a symbolic manner.
ŽŽ Stage One: Standing in a circle, the participants identify a pain in their body and
slowly start acting it out.
ŽŽ Stage Two: Working in pairs, the partners perform their pains to one another. Next,
each partner plays back the other persons pain.
ŽŽ Stage Three: Still in pairs, the partners invent a new pain and act it out together.
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Sociometry
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Team and Trust Building
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20-30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle.
ŽŽ The Joker asks different people to voluntarily come into the middle and share a piece
of personal information (“I have three brothers”/”I have lost a family member during
the Tsunami”; “I believe in love at first sight”). If somebody else in the circle has had
the same experience, s/he silently joins the person in the middle.
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Story of my Name
Objectives: Personal Disclosure
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants work in pairs.
ŽŽ Each partner has three minutes to tell the other the story of his/her name (why did
his/her parents choose the name, what does the name mean, does the teller like
the name, etc.).
ŽŽ In the big group: The Joker can ask the participants to perform an action and sound
in accordance with what they learned about their partner’s names. The rest of the
group copies.
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Subject among Objects
Objectives: To start learning to ask for what we want
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ One person tells the rest of the group what s/he wants them to do (‘I want to be
carried around’, ‘I want to fly’, ‘I want a massage’, etc.).
ŽŽ The group must follow the instructions as authentically as they can.
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T ea Convivio
Objectives: Getting to know each other, Group Building
Number of People: 2+
Duration: 5-30 min
Material: Tea, Cookies, Cake
Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs and talk about the importance of tea in their lives.
ŽŽ Question to be explored could be ‘How do you like your tea? With sugar? With milk?
Do you prefer green or black tea? Why?, How were you introduced to tea?, etc.
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The wave comes and takes
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Team Building
Number of People: 5+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Chairs
Process:
ŽŽ The group sits in a circle with a volunteer standing in the middle. The volunteer says
“The wave comes and takes everyone” and adds a piece of personal information that
the other participants might have in common (“everyone born in Laamu”).
ŽŽ Those who share the statement have to get up and find a different chair, with the
volunteer trying to get onto one of the free chairs.
ŽŽ Suggested themes for the participants are objectives truths (clothing, jewelry, etc.),
things you like/do not like, family/community, fears, dreams, etc.
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Things That Are Good About Me
Objectives: Personal Disclosure
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs. Each participants is given 3 minutes to tell his/her
partner a few things that are good about him/her (e.g. I am a good listener, I like to
be supportive of people in need, I cook really well, etc.).
ŽŽ The Joker can ask the participants to present their partner to the rest of the group.
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Three Chair Proclamation
Objectives: Personal Disclosure
Number of People: 7+
Duration: 30-45 min
Material: (3) Chairs
Process:
ŽŽ The Joker places 3 chairs in different areas of the workshop space.
ŽŽ Stage One: The participants slowly walk around the room. At a clap from the Joker,
three volunteers get up on the chairs. The rest of the group silently negotiates
the order of proclaiming oneself by unanimously looking at one person, who then
proceeds to look at everyone in the group and express him-herself by saying, for
instance, ‘My name is Isham and’, completing the sentence with a personal piece
of information (‘I believe our society needs radical change’, ‘I wish I had the same
opportunities as other people’, etc.). Then, one after another, the group silently looks
at the two remaining people on the chairs, who shares their thoughts. The three
people step down and the participants continue walking until the next clap by the
Joker.
ŽŽ Stage Two: Without the Joker clap. The participants slowly walk around the room
and at any moment one participants can get up on the chair. Then, two more people
get on the other chairs and the rest of the group silently negotiates the order of
proclaiming oneself by unanimously looking at one person, then the second, then
the third.
ŽŽ Stage Three: There are no more rules.
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Three Things in Common
Objectives: Group Building, Improvisational Skills
Number of People: 3+
Duration: 20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into small groups and are asked to find out three things that
they all share (All born in Male/All have a seafood allergy).
ŽŽ Then, they will perform these three things to the other groups who have to guess
what it is they share.
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Tour of my favorite Place
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Team and Trust Building, Storytelling, Playback
Practice
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs. The Joker asks each participant to briefly close
his/her eyes and think of a really existing place that is very special to him/her. S/he
is asked to imagine the place in detail, remembering the colors, smells, shapes, etc.
ŽŽ Afterwards, with their eyes open, the participants take their partners on a tour of
their favorite place by leading him/her through the workshop space and describing
the place in great detail.
ŽŽ For Playback Theatre: The listener plays back the emotional content of the space as
well as how the teller described the space.
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Two truths, One lie
Objectives: Personal Disclosure
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants work in pairs, A & B. A tells B three things about herself. Two things
must be true, the other a lie. B has to guess which information was false.
ŽŽ Next, A & B swap roles.
ŽŽ The Joker may ask the participants to present what they learned about their partners.
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Values Clarification
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Listening Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Before the start of the exercise, the Joker prepares a number of statements about
the workshop theme, for instance “I believe that the use of violence can be justified
sometimes” or “Victims of violence have only themselves to blame”.
ŽŽ The participants gather on one side of the workshop space.
ŽŽ The Joker explains that the working space will be horizontally divided into three
separate zones: “I agree”, “Not sure” and “I disagree”.
ŽŽ One by one, the Joker reads out the statements and the participants are asked to
decide to walk to the zone that corresponds to their perspective about the statement.
ŽŽ Once everyone has chosen a zone, the Joker can ask different participants to
volunteer their views.
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Where are you from?
Objectives: Personal Disclosure, Acting Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Working alone or in pairs, the Joker asks the participants to perform some of the
aspects that are special about their hometown or home country.
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Who am I?
Objectives: Self-Identification, Group Building, Personal Disclosure
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group sits in a circle.
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to declare themselves to the rest of the group (‘I am
a teacher’, ‘I am an activist’, ‘I am a father’).
ŽŽ The Joker asks those participants who identify with the statements to raise their
hands.
ŽŽ Variation: The participants are invited to share what they are not (‘I am not prejudiced’,
etc.)
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ACTING AND IMPROVISATION SKILLS
1, 2, 3 Breadfruit
Objectives: Acting Skills, Demechanization
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants get into pairs and face their partner.
ŽŽ This exercise has four stages:
ŽŽ Stage One: Participants simply count from one to three. A says ‘One’, B says ‘Two’,
A says ‘Three’, B says ‘One’, and so on. As fast as possible. The Joker should invite
the participants to take risks and make mistakes, celebrating every mistake and then
continue the game.
ŽŽ Stage Two: Instead of saying ‘One’, A makes a sound and a movement. Now we
have the following sequence: A makes a sound and movement, B says ‘Two’, A says
‘Three’, B makes the sound and movement invented by A, A says ‘Two’, and so on.
ŽŽ Stage Three: ‘Two’ is replaced by a second, different sound and movement. The
pairs should try to get as fluent as possible, celebrating their mistakes.
ŽŽ Finally, “three” is replaced by a third sound and movement. There are no more
numbers. Only three different sounds and movements.
ŽŽ The game works best if the three sounds and movements are very different from
one another.
ŽŽ The counting part of the exercise is sometimes used as a warm-up for a Forum
Theatre event.
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Association Jump
Objectives: Acting Skills, Improvisation Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker gives each participant a number starting from 1 and asks the participants
to walk around the workshop room.
ŽŽ At regular intervals, the Joker yells out one of the numbers. The participant with that
number ’jumps’ into a frozen position/image. Then, the other players quickly add
complementary images around that player. The end result is a still scene.
ŽŽ Next, at a signal from the Joker, the participants, using words and movement, start
a brief improvisation.
Boxing
Objectives: Acting Skills, Using violence in Forum Theatre, Demechanization
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 10-15min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants work in pairs standing several meters apart.
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to get into a physical fight. Everything is allowed:
punching, kicking, biting, pulling hair, etc.
ŽŽ There are only two rules: 1. the participants must move in slow motion and, 2. they
cannot actually touch their partner.
ŽŽ After a few minutes, on a signal from the Joker, the fight turns into an all-out brawl
with everyone fighting against everyone.
ŽŽ This exercise can be used to practice violent Forum Theatre scenes.
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End Of The Day Performance
Objectives: Acting and Improvisational Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-30 min
Material: Any objects available in the workshop environment
Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into groups of 2-6 people.
ŽŽ The Joker gives each group 5-10 minutes to make a short play about an actually
existing community conflict.
ŽŽ The Joker can give the groups “challenges” to stimulate creativity and artistic
excellence (e.g. there must be a song/poem in the play, etc.)
ŽŽ The groups perform their plays and the Joker leads a discussion about the issues
depicted.
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Environment
Objectives: Acting and Improvisational Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into groups of 4-6 people.
ŽŽ In each group, a volunteer starts doing an activity (e.g. washing his/her face). As
soon as another participant knows where the activity takes place, s/he begins a
complementary activity that could also take place in the same location (e.g. putting
on make-up).
ŽŽ The rest of the participants keep adding additional activities, until everyone is in the
space.
ŽŽ Then, they start a new environment, and another, and another, etc.
ŽŽ Generally, this is a silent exercise but the Joker may ask the participants to add
sounds or even words to their characters.
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Exit-Entrance (Burning House)
Objectives: Improvisational and acting skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to divide into pairs and decide who is A & B.
ŽŽ Round One: A decides on a specific space (e.g. at home, in the office, on a plane)
s/he is in. A urgently needs to leave that space. B, using words and actions, makes
sure that A does not leave.
ŽŽ Round Two: B is outside a specific space (e.g. a hospital, a governmental building, a
public restroom) and urgently wants to get inside. A, using words and actions, makes
sure that B does not get in.
ŽŽ Both sides have to engage in an improvised dialogue, using arguments for and
against getting in and out of their respective spaces.
ŽŽ The Joker may decide to ask a number of pairs to present their improvisation before
the rest of the group. Content permitting, audience members may be asked to
replace one of the characters and try out their ideas for change.
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Flying Mask
Objectives: Acting Skills
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle. One person volunteers to make a mask (i.e. any facial
expression), briefly covering her face with both hands and then revealing the mask
to everyone in the group.
ŽŽ Then, s/he throws the mask to any other person in the circle, who catches it, copies
the mask, covers his/her face and comes up with a new mask, which is then thrown
to another person, etc.
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Freeze Tag
Objectives: Improvisational and acting skills
Number of People: 3+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into groups of three.
ŽŽ Two people start an improvisation using words and gestures.
ŽŽ At any time, the third person can yell “Freeze”, replace one of the actors in the exact
same position s/he is in and then start a totally new improvisation from within that
particular position.
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How many A’s in an A?
Objectives: Improvisational Skills, Aesthetics of the Oppressed-The Word, Play
Development
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-60 min
Material: Pens and Paper
Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle. One volunteer comes into the middle and expresses a
feeling, thought or idea by artistically pronouncing the letter “a” (or any of the other
vowels) and adding a movement or gesture. All the other participants in the circle
repeat the sound and movement.
ŽŽ Then, the Joker asks the participants to offer common words and expressions
of everyday life (e.g. elections, human rights abuse, sexual harassment, etc.)
accompanied by a movement and gesture.
ŽŽ The participants divide into small groups and pick and write down 3-5 words from
the previous exercise and turn these into a brief performance, using only sounds and
movement but no words. The other group(s) watch the performance and note the
three words they believe were shown.
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Machine
Objectives: Acting Skills, Image Theatre
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks a volunteer to start doing a repetitive sound and movement, imagining
that s/he is a part in a complex machine.
ŽŽ Next, another person adds a different, complementary sound and movement to the
machine.
ŽŽ Eventually all participants should be integrated into the machine. The Joker can
ask the participants to vary the speed and volume of the machine. Faster. Slower.
Louder. Silent.
ŽŽ The machine can be given different themes (Love, Male, Maldives).
ŽŽ This exercise works well with some of the participants being the audience,
interpreting the different machines.
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Magritte
Objectives: Acting and Improvisational Skills, Playback Theatre Practice
Number of People: 3+
Duration: 15-20 min
Material: Any kind of object people can hold, Playback Theatre Cloth
Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle.
ŽŽ The Joker places an object into the middle of the circle, e.g. a bottle or a shoe and
says “This is not a bottle”.
ŽŽ Then, the Joker invites the participants to find different uses for the object, e.g. the
bottle becomes a telephone, a rocket, a toothbrush, etc.
ŽŽ For Playback Theatre: Instead of an object, the actors can use Playback cloth to
symbolize different emotions and scenarios.
ŽŽ For large groups, it can be useful to first divide into small groups and later do the
exercise in the big group.
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The Haka
Objectives: Acting Skills
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Haka is the national dance of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand.
ŽŽ The exercise has three different variations.
ŽŽ Variation One: One actor comes in front of the group and makes a series of
movements and sounds which the other participants have to copy.
ŽŽ Variation Two: One actor comes in front of the group and makes a series of
movements which the other participants accompany with different sounds.
ŽŽ Variation Three: One actor comes in front of the group and makes a variety of sounds
which the other participants accompany with different movements.
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Soundscapes
Objectives: Acting Skills
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks a volunteer to leave the room. The rest of the group decides on a
natural environment (the streets of Male, an uninhabited islands, office environment)
they can represent by making different sounds.
ŽŽ After a while, the volunteer comes back in, closes his/her eyes and listens to the
sounds of the environment, which s/he then has to guess.
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Speed Gestures
Objectives: Acting Skills
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 20-30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The game begins with a participant (‘A’) offering an open-ended gesture, one that
can be interpreted in various ways. The participants faces the group and repeats the
gestures three times. Special attention should be given to the emotional content of
the gesture.
ŽŽ Stage 1: The other participants line up and, one by one (‘B), run into the playing
area and face ‘A’. ‘A’ makes the gesture. ‘B’ very quickly responds with another
gesture, establishing a short exchange, with no words. ‘B’ leaves the stage, another
participant comes on and ‘A’ and ‘B’ engage in a new exchange of gestures.
ŽŽ Stage 2: A new ‘A’ offers an open-ended gesture. This time, ‘B’ runs into the centre,
and faces ‘A’, who makes the gesture. ‘B’, very quickly responds with another
gesture and a word or phrase that grows directly out of the gesture, to which ‘A’ will
respond with another, new gesture and a word or phrase, creating a short exchange
that has spoken and gestural language. Important: ‘A’ must accept the reality that
‘B’ creates.
ŽŽ Stage 3: Another ‘A’ offers an open-ended gesture. ‘B’, runs in and stops. ‘A’ makes
the gesture. ‘B’ quickly responds with another gesture and a word or phrase that
grows directly out of the gesture, to which ‘A’ will respond with another new gesture
and a word or phrase. Then, ‘A’ and ‘B’ will continue, without gestures, just with
dialogue, improvising until the Joker invites a new ‘B’ to come and face ‘A’.
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Thats a lie
Objectives: Listening skills, Verbal improvisational skills
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs, A and B.
ŽŽ A tells a story, fictional or real. B can interrupt A on various occasions by saying
“That’s a lie”, at which point A has to backtrack and quickly invent a new part for
the story.
ŽŽ After a while, the Joker asks A and B to change roles.
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The sad story of Zuhra, Tahrir and Palang
Objectives: Physical warm-up, Group Building, Acting and Improvisational Skills
Number of People: 8+
Duration: Part One: 15 min, Part Two: 30 min
Material: Props for Part Two
Process:
ŽŽ The Joker tells the tragic Persian story of Zuhra, Tahrir and Palang (“Tiger” in
Persian).
ŽŽ Tahrir, a proud and charming prince falls high over heels in love with beautiful and
enticing Zuhra (Scene 1), who one sad day falls prey to a ferocious lion (Scene 2). In
his unbearable despair, Tahrir kills the lion with a sword (Scene 3).
ŽŽ The exercise has two stages.
ŽŽ Stage One: The participants divide into two groups and face each other. Next (similar
to rock, paper, scissors), they choose one of three characters Zuhra, Tahrir, or
Palang. Then, at a signal from the Joker they present their images. Zuhra entices
Prince Tahrir (Zuhra wins), Palang devoures Zuhra (Palang wins) and Tahrir stabs
Palang (Tahrir wins).
ŽŽ The first group to get 3 points, wins.
ŽŽ Variation: Every time a group wins a point, they can choose one (and later two, three
or even more) member of the opposing group to join their team. This continues until
one team has prevailed.
ŽŽ Stage Two: In groups of at least four, the actors perform the story, inventing one or
more new characters (for example, the mother-in law, the king, a witch, etc.) and
one additional scene.
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Two Lines
Objectives: Acting Skills
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to make two lines.
ŽŽ The first person in each line is asked to come up to each member of the line, making
different sounds and movements, with the people in the line copying him/her as
exactly as possible.
ŽŽ As soon as the first person has moved on, the next person in the line initiates his/
her “journey”.
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Two Secrets
Objectives: Acting and Improvisational Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15-30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into pairs, standing or sitting in two lines facing each other
at a few meters distance.
ŽŽ The Joker gives the pairs an interpersonal relationship they will have to improvise.
Only close relationships should be selected (husband and wife, father and son, boss
and worker, etc.).
ŽŽ Next, the Joker asks the participants to invent an extremely important and realistic
secret their character might have.
ŽŽ Then, the improvisation begins. First, the pairs meet. They say hello and start talking
about the things they would usually talk about.
ŽŽ On a signal from the Joker, one of the partners reveals his/her secret, and the other
reacts to it from the perspective of his/her character. After a few minutes, the Joker
tells the second partner to make his or her revelation, and the first partner reacts
accordingly.
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West Side Story
Objectives: Acting Skills, Team Building
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the group to form two teams.
ŽŽ The two teams should stand in two horizontal lines facing each other, with a leader
(1 & 2) a few paces in front of each team.
ŽŽ ‘Leader 1’ does an “aggressive” rhythmic sound and gesture (no language). His/her
group, once it has grasped the sound and movement, joins in, moving forward in line
behind him/her.
ŽŽ As team 1 advances, team 2 retreats, making defensive movements and sounds.
ŽŽ After pushing the other team to the end of the workshop space, ‘Leader 2’ responds
with a challenge that forces group 1 to retreat.
ŽŽ Then, the leaders join their respective line and two new leaders come to the centre.
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What are you doing?
Objectives: Acting & Improvisational Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a half circle.
ŽŽ A volunteer comes in front of the group and starts an activity, e.g. brushing his/her
teeth, planting a flower, etc.
ŽŽ After 5-10 seconds, another participant comes up to the actor and asks: “What are
you doing?” The person answers with a different activity than the one s/he is doing
(“I am dancing” instead of “I am brushing my teeth”). The person who came in and
asked the question will now have to perform this new activity.
ŽŽ After a while the next person comes in and asks: “What are you doing?”, etc.
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Yes, let’s
Objectives: Acting Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle. A volunteer steps out of the circle and begins by saying
“Let’s go (e.g. swimming, eating, sleeping, etc.)” and initiates a movement and
sound that goes with the sentence. Afterwards, the whole group replies “Yes, let’s”
and copies the sound and movement.
ŽŽ After a few seconds, another participants offers a new activity. “Yes, let’s”.
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IMAGE THEATRE/PLAY DEVELOPMENT EXERCISES
Image Theatre is one of the most crucial CBT techniques. It often provides immediate
opportunities for dialogue on sensitive community issues through, initially, non-verbal images.
Later, the Joker often proceeds to dynamize or activate the images, i.e. brining the images
to life in order to learn more about the original intentions of the image maker as well as the
characters portrayed in the images. Some of the most important dynamization techniques are:
ŽŽ The Jokers asks the characters to speak a 30-45 seconds Internal Monologue, i.e. the
thoughts and feelings of the character in the moment of the image.
ŽŽ The Joker asks the characters what they want, fear and feel in the moment of the
image (e.g. ‘I want to be heard’, ‘I fear to be rejected’, ‘I feel sad’, etc.).
ŽŽ The Joker can ask for the images to move in slow-motion, make sounds representing
the characters and/or speak words said by their characters.
1:1 Oppression
Objectives: Image Theatre
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30-60 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Working in pairs, one person is F (the artist), the other person G (the clay).
ŽŽ F silently sculpts G into an image of oppression.
ŽŽ All artists come to one side of the room, look at the different images of oppression
and then join an image other than their own, taking on the role of the oppressor
character.
ŽŽ Next, the Joker can activate these images using slow-motion movement, sounds,
words and dialogue in order to explore the different scenes of oppression.
ŽŽ Time permitting, F and G should change roles.
ŽŽ The Joker may decide to ask a number of pairs to present their improvisation before
the rest of the group. Content permitting, audience members may be asked to
replace one of the characters and try out their ideas for change.
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Collective Forum Theatre Play Development
Objectives: Forum Theatre Play Development
Number of People: 12+
Duration: 120 min
Material: Paper, Markers
Process:
ŽŽ Stage 1: Image of 4. The participants divide into groups of 4-5. The Joker asks each
participant to make a personal image of oppression, using the other members of his/
her group to take on the role of the remaining characters before putting him-herself
into the image. All images are presented to the rest of the group and the Joker
proceeds to dynamize them. Then, one image per group is chosen to be further
explored.
ŽŽ Stage 2: Improvisations. The three images chosen are converted into three brief
2-3 minute improvisations. The improvisations are presented and the Joker leads a
discussion about the nature of the skits.
ŽŽ Stage 3: Advocating. The Joker invites individual group members to advocate for
one of the three improvisations to form the basis for the Forum Theatre play to be
developed afterwards. After 10-15 minutes, the group votes for one of the three
plays.
ŽŽ Stage 4: Playwriting. The Joker provides the participants with flip chart paper and
markers, and asks them to write down a rough 3-5 scene script based on elements
from the skit as well as other important aspects of the theme. It is important to
stress that the script writing process is a work in progress and that various aspects
of the play might change as the play development process progresses. For now,
each scene should be roughly sketched out, including the place where the action
happens, the main characters and important props. Given that in every group
there are participants who are more outspoken and dominant than others, one
way of ensuring that the process is as democratic as possible is to ask to invite
the participants to finish any suggestion regarding the content of the play with the
question ‘What do you (the others) think?’
ŽŽ Stage 5: Drafting. Now that the main characters have been decided, the Joker
asks the participants to draft themselves for the different roles. The main reason
for offering oneself should be that the participant volunteering to play the role
understands and perhaps even relates to the character personally.
ŽŽ f the group and the other workshop participants are asked to replace some of the
characters and try out their ideas for change.
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ŽŽ If the group decides to also include music and commercials in the Forum Theatre
production, those participants not featuring in the play volunteer to become either
musicians or to produce and take part in the commercials.
ŽŽ Stage 6: First Improvisation. Scene by scene, the group works through the play. The
Joker supports the actors to make the strongest, most complex play possible, asking
relevant questions without imposing his/her personal views. Ideally, the play shows
the main protagonist on his/her journey from a situation of tolerable normalcy to a
gradually increasing experience of oppression that culminates in the worst moment,
the end of the play. In the meantime, the music and commercial groups work on their
elements. After 30-45 minutes, the three groups come together, present their work
and give each other constructive feedback and suggestions.
ŽŽ Next, the participants return to their groups and incorporate some of the suggested
changes.
ŽŽ Stage 7: Rehearsal Techniques. The Joker uses different rehearsal techniques to
strengthen the play’s content and enhance its aesthetic qualities. Later, the music
and commercials are incorporated into the play, generally following the order MusicScene 1-Commercial 1-Scene 2-Commercial 2-Scene 3-Music.
ŽŽ Stage 8: Forum Rehearsal. In order to prepare the actors for the unique acting
challenges during the Forum Theatre event, the play is presented to the rest o
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Complete the Image
Objectives: Image Theatre
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15-30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This exercise is often done on the first day of a CBT workshop. It gets the participants
used to the idea of making images.
ŽŽ The Joker asks a pair of actors to shake hands and freeze.
ŽŽ Then, the Joker asks the group what possible meanings the image might carry.
ŽŽ Next, one of the two actors removes himself from the image, looks at the other actor
and returns to the image by putting himself into a new relation to his/her partner.
Again, the Joker invites different readings of the image.
ŽŽ Next, the Joker invites the participants to divide into pairs and do the exercise, taking
turns, removing and returning to the image, thereby creating a dialogue of images.
ŽŽ After a few minutes, the Joker can bring together groups of 4.
ŽŽ Variation 1: Groups of 3. Two people make an image, the third person observes and
interprets.
ŽŽ Variation 2: Groups of 3 (A, B & C). A & B offer a starting image. ‘B’ leaves the image,
‘C’ replaces ‘B’ by offering a new image accompanied by a sentence said by the
character s/he is playing. Then, ‘A’ leaves the image and ‘B’ offers a complementary
image and sentence in response to ‘C’. Next, ‘C’ leaves and ‘A’ comes in with a new
image and sentence, etc.
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Group Sculpting (Image of Four)
Objectives: Image Theatre, Play Development
Number of People: 8+
Duration: 40-60 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to divide into groups of four or five.
ŽŽ Then, the Joker explains that each person should make an image, using himself/
herself and other people in the group.
ŽŽ The image created should depict a moment in the sculptor’s life, when s/he is
struggling with a certain problem or oppression. It should really be his/her own
moment, not the moment of someone s/he knows.
ŽŽ Each image must contain at least two characters, the sculptor and the person with
whom s/he is struggling. Images can have more characters but not more than the
number of people that are in the group. The sculptor is himself/herself in the image
and should sculpt the other characters with as much detail as possible.
ŽŽ The images are presented to the rest of the group.
ŽŽ The Joker proceeds to dynamize the images, asking the participants to make
movements, sounds and/or words their characters may say.
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Image of a Beautiful Moment
Objectives: Image Theatre, Polarized Model
Number of People: 8+
Duration: 30-60 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to close their eyes and think of a beautiful moment
from their lives.
ŽŽ Next, one by one, the participants are invited to make an image of their beautiful
moment using some of the other participants to play the people in the image, with
the image maker playing him-herself.
ŽŽ The Joker dynamizes the image by asking the image maker to complete a sentence
that begins with ‘I feel’ (e.g. ‘I feel happy’, ‘I feel relieved’, etc.).
ŽŽ If desired, the image maker can step out of the image, and ask another participant to
take on his/her role in order for the image maker to see him-herself from the outside.
ŽŽ The same exercises can be repeated with personal images of family.
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Image of the Hour
Objectives: Image Theatre, Forum Theatre Character Development
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 20 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Jokers asks the participants to walk around the workshop space.
ŽŽ While the actors move around the space, the Joker calls out a time of the day, an
occasion or a significant date (Friday 7am, Wedding Day, Ramazan).
ŽŽ When the Jokers says “Image”, the actors must get into a frozen image of what
they usually do at the time indicated. When saying “Action”, the actors bring their
images to life.
ŽŽ While frozen in shape, the Joker can prompt the participants to ask themselves
whether they like what they are doing at the time, or whether they would rather do
something else. The Joker can also ask the participants, without changing their own
images, to take a look at other people’s images.
ŽŽ The exercise ends with a reflection on individual participants’ schedules, life styles,
things they would like to maintain/change, etc.
ŽŽ Variation 2: Alternatively, this exercise can be used to deepen the actors’ understanding
of the character they are playing in the Forum Theatre play. In this case, the exercise
will be carried out in the same way, but this time with the participants focusing on
what their characters do at the time and day given by the joker.
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Image of the Word
Objectives: Image Theatre
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30-60 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle, facing outwards, their eyes closed.
ŽŽ The Joker names a topic (Maldives/Democracy/Youth), for which the participants
should think of an image they can make using their own bodies.
ŽŽ At a signal from the Joker, all actors simultaneously turn around and show their
images to the rest of the group.
ŽŽ Next, the Joker asks the participants to make families of images, joining those
images that are similar to their own.
ŽŽ Then, the Joker proceeds to dynamize the images, family by family.
ŽŽ First, the Joker asks the other participants to read the images.
ŽŽ Then, at a signal from the Joker, the families make sounds and movements contained
in the image. Again, the Jokers for comments by the other participants.
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Improvise with Your Family
Objectives: Play Development, Acting Skills
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30-45 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the group to start walking through the space and think of a concrete
person in their lives that prevents change from happening, that oppressed them, etc.
ŽŽ Next, the participants are asked to walk like that person, then to make a gesture like
him/her and finally to find a sound that symbolizes that person.
ŽŽ After that, the participants gather in groups of people with similar ways of walking,
gestures and/or sounds.
ŽŽ In their respective groups, the participants have 10 minutes to find out what they all
share and then produce and present a scene/skit about this issue.
Mirror in the Circle
Objectives: Group Building, Image Theatre
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 10-15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The group stands in a circle.
ŽŽ One participant starts by making different sounds and movements that everyone
else has to copy. S/he finishes by pointing at someone in the circle who now has
to initiate his own sequence of movements and sounds that everyone else has to
copy, etc.
ŽŽ This is a useful first image theatre exercise. It is not too challenging and allows for
everyone to make images at the same time.
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Polarized Theatre of the Oppressed Model (2 days)
Objectives: Exploring Group Polarizations, Polarized Model
Number of People: 8+
Duration: 2 Workshop Days (including a number of games from the other categories)
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Stage 1: The participants stand on one side of the room.
ŽŽ The Joker invites individual participants to come in front of the group and express a
personally held conviction or share a personal experience (‘I hate politics’, ‘Corruption
is a necessary evil’, ‘I was a victim of sexual abuse’, etc.). Those participants who
share the conviction/experience join the teller, thereby creating two polarized groups
of people with different convictions and experiences. The Joker writes down the
individual statements.
ŽŽ After a while, the Joker reads out all the statements again and the entire group votes
which polarization they would like to focus on for the rest of the workshop. Ideally, a
theme chosen is one that divided the group into roughly equal numbers.
ŽŽ Stage 2: The two polarized groups sit down in different areas of the workshop space.
The Joker gives them 5 minutes to have a general discussion about the chosen
theme. Then, the Joker gives the groups another 10 minutes to discuss two specific
questions: How do we see them (the other group)? And how do they see us? Each
group designates a scribe to take notes of the things discussed. Afterwards, the two
scribes temporarily join each other groups and share what their respective groups
discussed.
ŽŽ Stage 3: Based on the discussions so far. The Joker asks the two polarized groups to
each create a brief (3-5 minute) performance that expresses some of their thoughts
and feelings towards one another. The performance might be a brief play, a dance
choreography, or any other form of artistic expression.
ŽŽ Stage 4: Polarized Hot Chair. The two groups sit on opposite sides of the room and
face each other. Each group gets 10 minutes to ask the other group questions about
their convictions and beliefs via-a-vis the issue discussed. The Joker takes notes
and may, at the end of this stage, repeat some of the key points mentioned.
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ŽŽ Stage 5: 3 Questions the other group did not dare to ask. The polarized groups
discuss three questions they believe the other group did not dare to ask them. Once
they have decided on the three questions, they proceed to make images of the
answers and present their images to the other group. If necessary, the Joker can
dynamize the images and lead a brief discussion.
ŽŽ Stage 6: The Joker invites the two groups to each create a brief, forumable scene
that shows their own, lived moments of tension and oppression at the hand of the
other group. The groups perform their plays and members of the other group are
invited to take on the role of a member of the opposite group and try out their ideas
how to deal with the members of his/her own group, followed by a group discussion.
ŽŽ Stage 7: Contribution to Maldives Choreography. Each group is invited to create a
brief performance on some of the things they would like to see happen in order for
the polarization to be positively transformed. The groups present their work, followed
by a group discussion.
ŽŽ Stage 8: A secret the other group does not know about us. The Joker asks each
group to create a short performance about something the other group does not
yet know about them, a secret piece of information. The groups present their work,
followed by a group discussion.
ŽŽ Stage 9: Polarized Rainbow of Desire. The same as conventional Rainbow but this
time focusing on the polarizing theme, always creating both groups Rainbows
represented by individual participants’ contradictory experiences with members of
the other group.
ŽŽ Stage 10. Any other CBT technique that promises further insights into the nature of
the polarization.
ŽŽ Stage 11: Final group discussion about participants’ experiences and insights during
the Polarized Model.
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Rainbow of Desire
Objectives: Analysis of Internalized Oppressions
Number of People: 10+
Duration: 60-120 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Rainbow of Desire technique was created by Augusto Boal in order to deal
with internalized oppressions and/or conflicting internal voices. It is one of the most
directly therapeutic CBT techniques and looks at two sides of the same issue.
ŽŽ According to CBT practitioner David Diamond, Rainbow of Desire is most appropriate
for a moment between two people who approach each other with good will, but
through the complexities of their fears and desires, or through their ignorance,
the exchange goes badly and they walk away from the moment confused, hurt,
disempowered, etc.
ŽŽ The following description is adapted from David Diamond’s book Theatre for Living:
ŽŽ Stage 1: The Joker invites three workshop participants to offer the group a situation
that is filled with internal conflict for both him-herself and his/her antagonist.
Concretely, an instance should be chosen where the relationship in question
becomes confusing, contradictory, filled with complexity. It must be a real, not
imagined moment, although identities can be protected.
ŽŽ The three volunteers tell their story and the rest of the group picks one of the stories
to work on. The reason to choose one story over another is that it resonates most
deeply with the majority of the people in the room.
ŽŽ The Joker now asks someone from the audience to come and play the role of the
antagonist. Those offering to play the role should understand something about the
character. The protagonist (the story teller) has the final say. The antagonist gets a
few minutes to ask the protagonist questions about the situation. The goal is not
to create a character that is going to be the same as the real antagonist. However,
the actor playing the antagonist needs a solid reality base from which to improvise.
Ideally, the protagonist tells the group, including the antagonist:
–– where the incident took place
–– how he was feeling
–– what happened
–– what he wanted
–– what he imagines the Antagonist wanted
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ŽŽ Stage 2: The protagonist sets the stage, with the Joker’s help, using whatever is
available in the room. The protagonist and antagonist improvise a short scene. They
should be as true to each moment as possible and keep improvising until asked to
stop. The Joker looks for a moment of emotional engagement and true complexity,
where the conflicting fears and desires of both parties are the most evident. When
this moment becomes apparent, the Joker ‘freezes’ the improvisation there for the
rest of the exercise.
ŽŽ Stage 3: In this frozen moment, the protagonist has desires towards the antagonist.
The protagonist shows one, without speaking, making the shape of the desire,
using as much of his body as possible. A person from the audience offers to play
this Rainbow fragment by taking on the shape. Why would someone do this? Not
because they know what is inside the protagonist, but because they think and/or feel
that they understand the desire being shown. This character is not the Protagonist
in his entirety. It is a very focused character that wants a very specific thing, which
is embodied by the shape.
ŽŽ The Joker requests that the protagonist shows another desire to be portrayed by
a new person. Then, the protagonist shows a fear and someone from the group
becomes a fear. Then another fear is portrayed by another person.
ŽŽ The Fears and Desires (which are now characters) are placed in their shapes and
proximity to the antagonist by the protagonist. All together and at the same time, they
do an internal monologue. After about a minute, the Joker asks each of them to say
a sentence that starts with ‘I want’.
ŽŽ Stage 4: Now we have the protagonist’s Rainbow of Fear and Desire. It is his team.
The protagonist and his Rainbow go to one side of the stage. One by one, in an
order determined by the protagonist, the Fears and Desires enter the playing area to
improvise with the antagonist. Their job is to get what they want from her. They take
their place, frozen in shape. They can move around, but they must stay in the same
body shape for the entire improvisation. The body shape acts as a filter through
which everything they say, hear and do is interpreted by the antagonist, themselves
and the people watching the improvisation. The antagonist can walk and talk and
listen. The challenge is to be as authentic as possible.
ŽŽ The improvisations are generally one to two minutes long. One by one, we see all
the protagonist’s Rainbow fragments improvise with the antagonist. Although it is
difficult to do, the antagonist must try to erase each improvisation from her emotions
and psyche after it is finished, so that she can receive the next fragment as a clean
slate.
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ŽŽ Stage 5: Creating the rainbow of the antagonist. The same process as for the
protagonist is repeated. This time the protagonist receives the antagonist’s Rainbow
fragments in improvisations.
ŽŽ Stage 6: After investigating the antagonist’s Rainbow, the two teams, including
the protagonist and antagonist are placed on either side of the playing area. The
antagonist sends one member of her team into the playing area where he takes up
his place as if the protagonist was there. The protagonist looks at which character
has been sent in and chooses one of his team that he thinks fits together with the
antagonist’s choice.
ŽŽ The protagonist’s chosen Rainbow fragment enters and places herself as if the
antagonist was there. The two characters are frozen in shape and cannot unfreeze
their bodies, although they can move through space. They can listen and speak.
ŽŽ The group sees all the Rainbow fragments this way, teamed up, two by two, in
improvisations. The task here is not to find answers or solutions to the problem, but
to peel the layers of complexity away from the symbols.
ŽŽ Stage 7: Forum Theatre. The initial improvisation is repeated, as close to the original
as possible. The actors must try to be true to the original scene, and not incorporate
insights they have gained during the exercise. Now, members of the audience can
yell “Stop!” and replace either character if they identify with the struggle in which
the character is engaged and have an idea of how to navigate the moment in a
healthier way.
ŽŽ Stage 8: The antagonist and the protagonist are individually thanked, asked if there
is anything they would like to say, and then released.
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Sculpting
Objectives: Image Theatre
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to divide into pairs.
ŽŽ Next, each pair decides who is going to be the sculptor and who is going to be the
clay. Then, the Joker gives the group a topic (Maldives, Human Rights, GBV, Poverty,
etc.) and the sculptors can sculpt by touching the clay and moving him/her into
space or by mirroring and showing him/her the position s/he should take.
ŽŽ Sculptors should be as detailed as possible and are responsible for all limbs and
facial expressions. When touching, the sculptor should be very respectful.
ŽŽ The image can be realistic, abstract, concrete or symbolic.
ŽŽ The Joker can bring together the images in a “Museum”, asking the participants to
interpret the images.
ŽŽ The Joker may also dynamize the images, asking the participants to make
movements, sounds and/or words their characters may say.
ŽŽ During the making of the images, the Joker should ask for absolute silence.
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Sculpt the Face You Love
Objectives: Image Theatre
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 5-10 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to think of a person they love.
ŽŽ With their eyes closed, the participants are invited to use their hands to sculpt the
face of the person they love.
ŽŽ After a few minutes, the Joker prompts the participants to come up with one
sentence they would like to say to that person. Next, at a signal from the Joker, the
participants all say their sentences at the same time.
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Sheep
Objectives: Group Building, Image Theatre
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to make a circle, with one volunteer in the middle.
ŽŽ The Joker explains that s/he should point at someone and call out one of the
following figures:
Figure
Middle Person
Side People
Elephant
Arms in front, one hand touching the Arm in a big “C” position to form
nose, the other making a trunk
ears on either side
Rabbit
Sitting down, hands in front, teeth out
Arm straight up to form an ear
Helicopter
Rotating with the arms stretched out
Ducking
Pirate
Looking through a telescope
Left side: Parrot on Pirate’s
shoulder
Right Side: Pulling down the sail
Playboy
Posing like a true star
Admiring
Maldives
? (to be invented together with group)
Left Side: ?
Right Side: ?
Sheep
No movement
No movement
ŽŽ The person pointed at and the people on either side quickly make the image of the
figure.
ŽŽ If any of the three people involved makes a mistake, s/he comes into the middle.
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Song of the Mermaid
Objectives: Forum Theatre Play Development, Image Theatre
Number of People: 4+
Duration: 30-60 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This exercise is used to start developing the Forum Theatre plays.
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to lie down with their eyes closed. Then, the Joker
asks them to think of a moment in their lives in which they were struggling with
something/someone. S/he asks them to picture (relive) the moment in detail,
remembering the people, the place, the colors, smells, sounds, eventually trying to
identify the strongest emotion felt in this moment.
ŽŽ The Joker then proceeds to ask each actor to find a sound that best symbolizes their
strongest emotions. Depending on the size of the group, the Joker asks 3-5 actors
to share their sounds and invites the rest of the group to join the person whose
sounds most resembled their own sound and/or emotion that informed the sound.
The actors then divide into groups according to their sounds.
ŽŽ The person who made the sound has no special responsibility in the group. However,
s/he should speak first about the feelings that went into his/her sound. S/he may
also tell the story behind the sound but what is most important is to talk about the
feelings. Afterwards, the other members of the group also speak about the feelings
that informed their sounds.
ŽŽ As they talk, the participants will realize that there is a reason why they are together
in the same group. Once they have identified what it is that links them (Anger,
Sadness, Frustration), they should decide on a topic they would like to work with.
ŽŽ Next, the Jokers asks them to make an image of the strongest, final moment of the
theme the group has decided on.
ŽŽ The Joker then proceeds to dynamize the image. Afterwards, s/he asks the group
to make an image of what happened before the final moment, dynamizes the image
and then asks for another image of what happened before that moment, etc.
ŽŽ After the basic skeleton of the Forum Theatre play has been developed, the Joker
may use different rehearsal techniques to strengthen both content and form of the
play.
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Spontaneous Image
Objectives: Image Theatre
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The participants divide into groups of 4-6 people. Each group decides on 3
problematic themes (for example Global Warming/Domestic Violence/Corruption)
they will give the other groups to perform.
ŽŽ Next, one group gives the themes, the other group quickly creates images of the
themes.
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The Journey from here to there
Objectives: Image Theatre, Creating a path from the problem to the solution
Number of People: 8+
Duration: 60-120 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This exercise is based on the famous saying by Paulo Freire: You cannot get there (to
our ideal world) by starting from there, you can only get there by starting from here
(today’s situation). Or as Alice observed in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you
are going, any road will take you there.”
ŽŽ The exercise helps communities to come up with a roadmap for the changes they
would like to see and how to achieve these changes. It attempts to find the balance
between “planning” and “doing.
ŽŽ Before the beginning of the exercise the workshop group decides on a specific topic
they would like to explore, for example “Problems of Youth in Maldives”.
ŽŽ The exercise has three stages.
ŽŽ In the first stage, the aim is to analyze and define the problem by making an image
of problems of youth in Maldives. One by one, the Joker asks the participants to
come on stage and make individual images of concrete problems of young people in
Maldives (e.g. unemployment, alcohol abuse, early pregnancy, etc.). Then, the Joker
leads a discussion of the images with the audience. After the initial discussion, the
Joker proceeds to dynamize the images, asking them to make movements, sounds
and words or sentences contained in the character.
ŽŽ In the second stage, the participants are asked to create a group image of their
dream situation, i.e. they are asked to define how a better Maldives for young people
should actually look like. One by one, the Joker asks the participants to come on
stage and make individual images of their dream situation. Then, the Joker leads a
discussion of the images with those participants that are not in the image. After the
initial discussion, the Joker proceeds to dynamize the images, asking them to make
movements, sounds and words or sentences contained in the character.
ŽŽ Stage 3: Having defined both the problem and the solution, the group now needs
to decide how to get from the problem to the solution. What kind of actions are
necessary? We do not reach our dreams by some act of magic, there need to be
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concrete actions. Next, the Joker asks the participants to make individual images of
these concrete actions (Images of Transition). The Joker then discusses the meaning
of these images with the rest of the group. The Joker may also dynamize the images.
ŽŽ The exercise finishes with a general discussion about the exercise.
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The Wheel
Objectives: Image Theatre
Number of People: 8+
Duration: 30-60
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to divide into two groups of equal numbers. One
group forms an inner circle facing outwards, and the other group forms an outer
circle, facing inwards.
ŽŽ According to the chosen theme (e.g. Domestic violence, political polarization, etc.)
each participant in the outer circle, starts sculpting a participant from the inner
circle, for instance an image of an abusive husband.
ŽŽ Once the sculptors are finished, they are asked to slowly move around the inner
circle, absorbing and accumulating all the images created
ŽŽ After this, the inner circle becomes the outer circle and vice versa.
ŽŽ Then, the sculptors are asked to sculpt the thematic opposite of what was sculpted
before, i.e. an image of the abused wife.
ŽŽ The Joker proceeds to dynamize the images:
–– The images/characters are asked to speak an internal monologue
–– The characters are asked to say a single sentence
–– The characters engage in a dialogue with each other
ŽŽ The Joker selects a number of improvisations to perform before the rest of the
group. The participants discuss the nature of the improvisations. Optionally, the
Joker can invite the participants to replace one of the characters and try out their
ideas for change.
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Two chairs, Three actions, One Play
Objectives: Collective Play Development
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 60-20 min
Material: One chair per participant
Process:
This exercise has six stages.
ŽŽ Stage 1: The Joker asks the participants to walk around the workshop space.
ŽŽ One by one, the Joker introduces three different instructions: ‘Stop’, ‘Sit’ and ‘Drop’.
ŽŽ ‘Stop’ means that at any time a participant can stop walking. When that person
stops, everyone else has to stop, too.
ŽŽ ‘Sit’ means that at any time a participant can sit down. When that person sits down,
everyone else has to sit, too.
ŽŽ ‘Drop’ means that at any time a participant can ‘drop’, i.e. lie down on the ground.
When that person ‘drops’, everyone else has to drop as well.
ŽŽ Once the three instructions have been introduced, the participants will stop, sit and
drop without the Joker repeating the instructions.
ŽŽ After a few minutes, the participants divide into pairs and continue with the same
three instructions. If one partner stops, the other partner stops. If one partner lies
down, the other partner lies down, etc.
ŽŽ Stage 2: Working with the same partner, the Jokers asks the pairs to create a one
minute scene/sequence about a power relationship between two people using only
two chairs and the same three instructions.
ŽŽ Stage 3: Using the same scene/sequence of movements, the participants should
now add one single word for each of their two characters (for example: ‘Relax/
Behave’, ‘Domination/No’), thereby giving the hitherto symbolic scenario a more
concrete theme.
ŽŽ Stage 4: Using the same scene/sequence, the Joker asks the participants to
introduce six sentences (eliminating the six words).
ŽŽ Stage 5: The group chooses the scene/sequence (i.e. the theme) that most
resonated with them and now proceed to make a brief (1-3 min.) scene that shows
the chosen theme in more detail. The improvisation does no longer have to include
the same three instructions/movements (stop, sit, drop).
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ŽŽ Stage 6: The group, aided by the Joker, can now build on this first improvisation and
begin to create a more complex, longer play around the issue at stake.
ŽŽ Joker’s Note: In bigger groups (10-30 people), it may be useful to divide the
participants into two or even groups, then invite them to divide into pairs and finally
end up with 2 or 3 improvisations.
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PLAYBACK THEATRE FORMS AND EXERCISES
Fluid Sculptures
Objectives: Playing back people’s emotions (Playback Theatre Short Form)
Number of People: 3-4 actors plus musician(s)
Duration: 1-2 min for each Fluid Sculpture including the conductor’s questions
Material: Colored fabric, musical instruments
Process:
ŽŽ In Playback Theatre, the Joker is called Conductor.
ŽŽ The conductor asks the audience a question about the here and now, for example
“How are you today? How did you wake up this morning?
ŽŽ A member from the audience shares his/her personal feeling in response to the
conductor’s question. At times, the conductor may ask a series of follow-up questions
in order to clarify the teller’s feelings. The actors and musician listen carefully.
ŽŽ Next, the conductor hands over to the performers by saying “Let’s watch!”
ŽŽ Now, the performers start the enactment. One at a time, they step forward and make
a repetitive sound and movement (and on some occasions a word or sentence) that
express the different aspects of the teller’s feeling(s). During the enactment, the
musician accompanies the action by producing sounds or melodies that also express
the tellers feeling(s).
ŽŽ When all four actors are on the stage, they gradually come to a freeze and
finish the enactment by briefly looking at the teller (This moment is called the
acknowledgement). Next, the conductor asks for another audience member to share
his/her feelings, and a new enactment begins.
ŽŽ In Fluid Sculptures, all actors play only the teller, not any other characters that may
have been part of the teller’s response.
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Pairs
Objectives: Playing back people’s conflicting emotions (Playback Theatre Short
Form)
Number of People: 3-4 actors plus musician(s)
Duration: 3 min per pair including the conductor’s questions
Material: Colored fabric, musical instruments
Process:
ŽŽ The conductor asks the audience for a moment from their lives, when they felt
conflicting emotions at the same time. For instance, a moment in which they
simultaneously felt happy and concerned.
ŽŽ A member from the audience shares his/her conflicting feelings in response to the
conductor’s question. At times, the conductor may ask a series of follow-up questions
in order to clarify the teller’s feelings. The actors and musician(s) listen carefully.
ŽŽ Next, the conductor hands over to the performers by saying “Let’s watch!”
ŽŽ The pair close to the musician begins.
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ŽŽ During the enactment, the actors face the audience in two’s, one behind the other,
with one actor playing one emotion and the other actor playing the conflicting emotion.
After a while, the actors gradually come to a freeze, the musician starts a brief musical
transition, which is followed by the enactment of the second pair. At the end of the
second enactment, the actors briefly look at the teller in acknowledgement.
ŽŽ Next, the conductor invites a new pair from the audience.
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3-Part Story (4-Part Story)
Objectives: Playing back a short story told by an audience member (Playback
Theatre Intermediate Form)
Number of People: 3-4 actors plus musician(s)
Duration: 3-5 min per enactment including questions from the conductor
Material: Colored fabric, musical instruments
Process:
ŽŽ The conductor invites the audience to tell a brief story from their lives. If necessary,
the conductor clarifies the content by asking further questions.
ŽŽ Next, the conductor hands over to the performers by saying “Let’s watch!”
ŽŽ One by one, the actors play back the story, with the first actor playing the beginning,
the second actor the middle and the third actor the end of the story. At the end, they
freeze and look at the teller in acknowledgement.
ŽŽ In 3-part story, the actors can play any character (including significant objects) but
should finish with the teller.
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Tableau
Objectives: Playing back a short story told by an audience member (Playback
Theatre Intermediate Form)
Number of People: 3-4 actors plus musician(s)
Duration: 3-5 min per enactment including questions from the conductor
Material: Colored fabric, musical instruments
Process:
ŽŽ The conductor invites the audience to tell a brief story from their lives. If necessary,
the conductor clarifies the content by asking further questions.
ŽŽ Next, the conductor hands over to the performers by saying “Let’s watch!”
ŽŽ The conductor retells the story in approximately five short sentences, using present
tense and “story language” (“One fine day, Shaliny confronted her teacher”).
ŽŽ After each sentence, the actors quickly create a frozen image, accompanied by
dramatic music. The actors use only minimal movement and sound to make the
image.
ŽŽ At the end the performers acknowledge the teller.
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Story
Objectives: Playing back a long story told by an audience member (Playback Theatre
Long Form)
Number of People: 3-4 actors plus musician(s)
Duration: 10-20 min
Material: Colored fabric, musical instruments
Process:
ŽŽ The conductor invites the audience to share a story from their lives.
ŽŽ Next, the teller comes onto the stage, sits with the conductor, tells his/her story and
chooses an actor to play him-herself during the enactment.
ŽŽ The conductor hands over to the performers by saying “Let’s watch!”
ŽŽ The actors set up the stage without talking while the musician plays. Then, they
enact the story and eventually come to a freeze and acknowledge the teller.
ŽŽ The conductor checks in with the teller after the enactment (“How was this for you?”).
ŽŽ The entire process can be divided into 5 stages: interview, setting-up, enactment,
acknowledgement, and checking in.
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Playback Theatre Merry-go round
Objectives: Practicing different Playback skills
Number of People: 3-4 actors plus musician(s)
Duration: 30 min
Material: Colored fabric, musical instruments
Process:
ŽŽ The conductor asks the participants to divide into groups. The participants then
divide their responsibilities. One becomes the conductor, one is the teller and the
others are actors and musicians. After each story, they change roles in order to
receive a maximal amount of Playback practice.
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6 Elements
Objectives: Playback Theatre Practice
Number of People: 6+Teller
Duration: 20 min
Material: Playback Props
Process:
ŽŽ Six actors sit on chairs representing the following Playback elements:
–– The Teller’s Actor
–– Any other important character
–– The story’s environment (nature, a cafe, the streets of Male)
–– The story from the perspective of an object (A coconut tree, a boduberu
drum, etc.)
–– The overarching theme of the story (friendship, love, loss, etc.)
–– The way the teller told the story
ŽŽ The conductor invites a member of the audience to share a personal story. After the
teller has told the story, the actors, one by one, play back the story in accordance to
the element they are representing.
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Once there was
Objectives: Playback Closure
Number of People: 3-4 actors plus musician
Duration: 5 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ At the end of the performance, the actors stand in a semi-circle facing the audience.
ŽŽ One by one, they take a step forward, saying: “Once there was…”, completing the
sentence with a moment from the performance. (“Once there was a woman, who
lost her husband during the Tsunami”), giving one final acknowledgement to the
teller’s stories.
ŽŽ Ideally, the exercise ends with a “positive” “Once there was” so as to not leave the
audience with a sense of sadness.
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FORUM THEATRE REHEARSAL TECHNIQUES AND AESTHETICS OF THE OPPRESSED
Actors Warm-Up
Objectives: Actors warm-up for (Forum Theatre) scene during the workshop or
performance
Number of People: Forum Theatre actors
Duration: 5 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The protagonist and antagonist stand in front of the audience.
ŽŽ Both, simultaneously, speak to the audience their words of desire (‘I really want him
to respect me’), like a competition.
ŽŽ Then, at a signal from the Joker the two actors go straight into the scene.
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Analytical Rehearsal of Emotions
Objectives: Forum Theatre Rehearsal, Character Development
Number of People: Forum Theatre actors
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ No human emotions are entirely pure. It is often the case that we love and hate
somebody at the same time. This rehearsal technique is about exploring the different
emotions the characters feel towards one another in the play.
ŽŽ A forum theatre scene is rehearsed using only one emotion (love, sadness, etc.) even
if this emotion seems to contradict the scene, e.g. a scene showing a lot of violence
is played with all the characters expressing love.
ŽŽ This exercise helps the actors discover different emotions present in the character.
As a result, the characters become more complex and real and less stereotypical.
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Analytical Rehearsal of Style
Objectives: Forum Theatre Rehearsal, Character Development
Number of People: Forum Theatre actors
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ The forum theatre scene is rehearsed in a certain style of performance, for example
opera, horror movie, comedy, Bollywood.
ŽŽ This technique helps the actors to find new content and form for the play.
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Forum Theatre Aesthetics
Objectives: To make the Forum Theatre scenes aesthetically more appealing
Number of People: 6+
Duration: 60-120 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Paint, Flip Chart Paper, Cloth, Recyclable Objects
–– Music
–– Painting
–– Dancing
–– Lighting
–– Costumes
–– Poetry
–– Design
–– Make-Up
ŽŽ Using the different material available, the participants prepare props, music,
costumes and other artistic artifacts in accordance with the theme of the play.
ŽŽ This exercise is usually done on the day of the Forum Theatre performance.
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Inspired by an Animal
Objectives: Forum Theatre Rehearsal, Character Development
Number of People: Forum Theatre actors
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ Often our human actions resemble those of animals (“Mihad is cunning like a fox”).
ŽŽ The group designates an animal to each character according to his/her personality
in the play.
ŽŽ During the rehearsal of the scenes, all actors play their role with the characteristics
of the animal designated to them.
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Interview/Hot Chair
Objectives: Forum Theatre Rehearsal, Character Development
Number of People: Forum Theatre actors
Duration: 30 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This exercise will deepen the actor’s understanding of their characters.
ŽŽ In character, one actor at a time is asked by the group questions about their life (as
the character), e.g. ‘What’s your name?’, ‘Are you married?’, ‘What is your favorite
food’, ‘What kind of childhood did you have?’
ŽŽ The actor has to answer in character: ‘My name is Hasan and I had a rough
childhood.’
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Play to the Deaf
Objectives: Forum Theatre Rehearsal, Character Development
Number of People: Forum Theatre actors
Duration: 15 min
Material: Process:
ŽŽ This technique helps to make the plays less wordy and more theatrical.
ŽŽ The forum theatre scene is played without words.
ŽŽ The characters don’t use mime or exaggerate gestures, but play the scene as though
the sound has been turned down.
ŽŽ After watching the scene, the rest of the group is asked to tell the story as they
understood it.
ŽŽ The actors will be able to see if any part of the story is unclear without words.
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FORUM THEATRE
PLAY DEVELOPMENT
& PERFORMANCE
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THE FORUM THEATRE PLAY
Forum theatre plays can be developed in many different ways, depending on the particular
style, preference and experience of the Joker as well as the group one works with. Hence, the
path suggested in this working manual is just one of many different possibilities.
At the same time, there are a series of specific elements that make a forum theatre play
appealing for the audience to intervene:
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
ŽŽ
A believable and realistic scenario
A conflict that is clear
Protagonists with whom the audience can identify
A clear idea of what the protagonists want and do not want
Antagonists that are not evil and cartoon-like but credible and with their own life story
and choices that impact on the desires of the protagonist(s)
ŽŽ A protagonist ultimately failing to achieve what s/he wants
The Creation of a Forum Theatre Play
Developing the theme & creating the plot
• The Joker uses “Song of the Mermaid” to divide the participants into groups and start
identifying experiences of oppression they all have in common.
• In order to avoid long group discussions about the plot, it can be easier to start
developing the play in reversed chronological order, i.e. starting with the end of the
play and then deciding what happened before.
• Hence, the groups decide what the central themes of their plays will be and then
proceed to make images of the worst and final moment of their plays (How does the
play end?). Next, the Joker proceeds to activate the images, thereby supporting the
actors to better understand the theme and characters.
• Then, the groups make images of what happened immediately before the worst
moment, and then how the problem began. Each time, the Joker activates the images.
• It is important that the individual scenes are designed in a way that audience members
can say “Stop”, i.e. the scenes should not provide solutions to the problems but rather
move the story forward towards its inevitable catastrophe.
• For a one-week workshop, a Forum Theatre play should realistically have 3-5 individual
scenes with a total duration of 7-10 minutes.
• Once the basic structure of the play has been developed. The Joker applies some of
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the different rehearsal techniques to strengthen the plays both aesthetically and in
terms of content. The rehearsal techniques also help the actors to engage more deeply
with their characters and become comfortable with one another.
• It can be useful to write down the script containing the most crucial dialogue and
sentences said by the characters in the play.
The Characters
ŽŽ The characters in the play should be close to real life and not like caricatures that show
our own stereotypes of people.
ŽŽ There should be at least one protagonist and one antagonist. However, the protagonist
in one scene can become the antagonist in another scene, thereby recognizing the
complexity of people’s lives and the different roles they play in society.
ŽŽ Often there are a number of bystanders (i.e. potential allies of the protagonist)
ŽŽ The motivations of each character must be clear. What does the character want?
Respect, Acknowledgement, Power? What does the character fear? Isolation,
Punishment, Loss of Power?
Set, sound, staging and props
• A Forum theatre performance can take place anywhere.
• No sophisticated set is necessary but if time and resources permit the play should be
made as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
• If possible, objects that can be found in the community should be used.
• Costumes should make the status of the character visible.
• Actors should be encouraged to speak loud enough.
• Actors should face the audience when speaking.
• Other audio-visual means (songs, poetry, etc.) should be incorporated for the audience
to identify more strongly with the play.
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Play to the Deaf
Objectives: Producing a score for the forum theatre play
Number of People: Forum Theatre actors
Duration: 30-120 min
Material: Musical Instruments
Process:
ŽŽ The actors show each scene in an image.
ŽŽ The Joker asks for 5 words each to describe the image.
ŽŽ The musicians are asked to write a song using the words generated.
Forum Theatre Commercials
Objectives: To develop commercials for Forum Theatre productions
Number of People: 3+
Duration: 30-60 min
Material: Paper, Cardboard, Pens, Tape
Process:
ŽŽ Commercials are used in-between Forum Theatre scenes (e.g. Scene 1 followed by
a commercial, followed by Scene 2, followed by a second commercial, followed by
the third and final scene).
ŽŽ There are different reasons to introduce commercials as part of a Forum Theatre
performance:
1. To “sell” the oppression or problem shown during the play, thereby
making visible some of the more absurd elements of the theme (e.g. a “WPS”,
helping men to locate beautiful women; a lotion for men to become stronger
and therefore better equipped to beat up their wives, etc.)
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2. To offer additional information (e.g. statistics, etc.) about the theme of
the play.
3. Alienation Effect. A concept coined by German playwright Bertolt
Brecht. Brecht describes the term as “playing in such a way that the
audience was hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in
the play. Acceptance or rejection of their actions and utterances was meant
to take place on a conscious plane, instead of, as hitherto, in the audience’s
subconscious”
4. To smoothen the transition between the different scenes.
ŽŽ The Joker asks those participants who do not have a role in the Forum Theatre play
to develop a number of commercials in accordance with the general theme. Each
commercial should be approximately 30 seconds long and answer the following
questions:
–– What is the message we want to send?
–– Is it accurate?
–– Is it clear?
–– Is it ethical?
ŽŽ If props are needed for the commercials, the Joker asks the performers to make
these using recyclable objects available in the community.
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The Role of the Actor, Spect-Actor & Joker in a Forum Theatre Play
The Role of the Actor in a Forum Theatre Play
1. It is very important that the actors understand the characters they are playing. They
must know enough about the theme and their character in order to improvise during
the forum.
2. They must listen very carefully to the spectators interventions.
3. They must be able to improvise on the spot and respond to the audiences ideas in a
way that is consistent with their character.
4. They must not simply reject the spect-actor’s idea but should adopt a “Yes, but”
strategy, challenging the spect-actor to engage deeper with the problems in the play.
A useful questions the actors should ask themselves during the audiences interventions is
“Does the intervention empower me to join the protagonist’s struggle?”.
The Spect-Actor
• The spect-actor is the audience member who comes on stage and takes part in the
action (“The Intervention”).
• Spect-actors look for alternative ways for the protagonist (and in some instances the
antagonist) to change the outcome of the play.
The Joker
The Joker is the host of a Forum Theatre performance. S/he sets up the rules of the event
for the audience, facilitates the audience’ interventions, and processes the interventions
together with the audience. This latter part is absolutely crucial and entails challenging the
audience to engage deeply with the issues at hand. However, challenging the audience does
not mean imposing one’s point of view. On the contrary, the main task of the Joker is to
ask questions that will help deepen everyone’s (including the Joker’s) understanding of the
situation. Metaphorically, the Joker acts as a midwife, encouraging the audience to give birth
to new ideas.
Besides, it is important to emphasize that there is no one style of Jokering a Forum Theatre
play. Jokers bring in their own personalities and ways of engaging with the audience. At the
same time, the Joker
ŽŽ is energized and enthusiastic about the process
ŽŽ is a good listener
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ŽŽ is nonjudgmental
ŽŽ is confident in the role as guide, not as someone who knows all the answers ahead
of time
ŽŽ is aware of the dynamics in the room
ŽŽ is flexible to change his/her plans
ŽŽ deepens the discussion and moves the event forward
ŽŽ avoids all actions which could manipulate or influence the audience
ŽŽ knows that the more answers s/he provides, the less chance there is for audience
participation
ŽŽ asks open questions, avoiding “Yes” and “No” questions
ŽŽ asks every question truly wanting to hear the answer
ŽŽ understands that people need time to think things through
ŽŽ avoids long discussions with the audience and encourages the audience members to
try out their solutions on stage
ŽŽ knows that there will always be more than one solution to any problem
ŽŽ must watch for magic solutions and ask audience to decide
ŽŽ makes sure the person who has intervened does not leave the stage defeated
JOKERING A FORUM THEATRE EVENT
Every Forum Theatre event consists of two performances. First, the presentation of the socalled anti-model (the play/script performed by the actors) for the audience to know what the
play is about. Second, the actual forum in which the audience is invited to come on stage and
try out their ideas for change.
In terms of the duration of a Forum Theatre event, this depends heavily on the length of play
as well as the audience’s reactions to the play. Generally, a Forum Theatre event lasts between
60-120 minutes.
Regarding the facilitation (‘Jokering”) of the event, Jokering can be divided into four phases:
ŽŽ Before the performance of the anti-model
During this phase the Joker, usually standing centre stage, welcomes the audience,
introduces him-herself (and in some cases the performers), describes the nature of the
theatre initiative and explains the basic differences between non-participatory forms
of theatre and Forum Theatre as an interactive, audience-driven theatre. It is crucial
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to adapt the introduction of Forum Theatre to each different audience. How much do
they know about Forum Theatre? How can the introduction be reworded so it will make
sense to varied communities? To varied ages and demographics?
On some occasions, it can also be useful to let the audience know that none of the
performers are playing themselves. Finally, the Joker hands the play over to the
performers and the play begins.
“Here is the play”
ŽŽ During the performance of the anti-model and the beginning of the Forum
After the play is finished, the Joker comes back onto the stage and engages the
audience in a brief dialogue about the play. S/he may ask questions such as
––
––
––
––
––
––
––
––
What happened during the play?
What were some of the issues and problems you saw?
Who are the main characters?
What did the protagonist want?
Did the protagonist get what s/he wanted?
What prevented her from getting what he/she wanted?
What else could she have done to get what he/she wanted in this situation
Do these problems exist in our society?
The goal is to involve as many audience members as possible, get them to share their
ideas and warm them up to the idea of participating in the forum event. Next, the Joker
explains the rules of Forum Theatre:
ŽŽ Please yell “Stop” when you have an idea what the protagonist can do to positively
effect the outcome of the play. Come on stage, take the role of the character you would
like to replace and try out your idea.
and then invites the audience to play a little game (for example, Cross & Circle or 1,2,3
Breadfruit) in order to prepare them for coming onto the stage and intervening in the
play.
“Here is the play again!”
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ŽŽ During the Forum
During the Forum, the Joker should be somewhere on the side of the stage, facing
the audience (not the performers) in order to immediately identify audience members
willing to intervene in the play. Once an audience member (the spect-actor) has come
onto the stage, the Joker may ask
–– What is your name?
–– Who would you like to replace?
–– From which moment in the play would you like to start your intervention?
During an intervention the Joker should play close attention to what the audience
member is trying to do, both in terms of his/her words as well as actions and gestures.
When an intervention has come to an end, the Joker first invites other members of the
audience to discuss the intervention
––
––
––
––
––
––
What did you witness during the intervention?
What did this person do differently than the original person?
Did he/she get what she wanted?
Was it realistic? Has this happened before?
Would that option work for everyone?
What are other things he/she could do in this situation?
and then asks the spect-actor to talk a little bit about what s/he tried to achieve.
At times, the Joker may also involve the other actors and ask them questions about
the intervention from the perspective of their characters. Finally, the Joker may ask
if another spectator has a different idea of how to tackle the problem in the same
moment. If no one has another idea at that moment, the play continues (to the following
scene) as if nothing ever happened until the next spectator seizes the opportunity to
come and try out his/her idea.
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ŽŽ After the the Forum
The Forum Theatre event ends with the Joker thanking the audience for their
participation and the performers for their work. S/he also invites the audience to take
what they have learned during the event and apply it in their real lives. “Thank you &
Good-Bye.”
!!!ENJOY!!
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ANNEX
TWO STORIES TOLD BY AUGUSTO BOAL
The Story of Virgilio-The birth of the Theatre of the Oppressed
In the 1960’s Augusto Boal was mainly involved in the production of Agitprop plays, theatre
plays that forcefully denounced the different forms of oppression existing in Brazilian society,
demanding revolutionary change. During one of these initiatives, Boal and his theatre troupe
performed a play advocating the urgent need for a land reform, the changing of laws,
regulations and customs regarding land ownership, which in Brazil was (and continues to
be) concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, leaving the vast majority of peasants living and
working in conditions of abject poverty and marginalization. The play incited the peasants of
Brazil to rebel against the oppressive landowners, if necessary by violent means. After one
of the performances in the Northeast of Brazil, one of the peasants in the audience, Virgilio,
approached Boal and his troupe, praised them for their revolutionary commitment and invited
them to join him and his fellow peasants to fight for the revolution. As Boal offered a range of
excuses- the guns were props; he and his actors did not know how to fight and were not real
peasants but mere artists-Virgilio pointed out the hypocrisy of Boal’s call for action.
“Before that encounter, we were preaching revolution to abstract audiences. Now we
met “the people”. Virgilio was “the people” we had been looking for...But how should
we speak to this real people? How could we teach them what they knew better than
us?”
(Augusto Boal)
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The painful realization that he was not willing to practice what he preached, led Boal to develop
a less top-down, more inclusive, horizontal and more participatory theatre focusing on making
theatre with as opposed to for communities. The Theatre of the Oppressed was born.
The Story of the Fat Lady-The birth of Forum Theatre
Experimenting with different ways of involving the audience, Augusto Boal first invented what
he called “Simultaneous Dramaturgy”. During a Simultaneous Dramaturgy event, a theatre
play showing a situation of oppression was performed and the audience was invited to
propose suggestions for change that the performers would act out on their behalf. During
one of these performances, in which the husband-actor shamelessly cheated on his wife, one
of the audience members, a “fat lady”, suggested that the humiliated wife tell her husband
in “clear terms” what she thought of his betrayal. The wife-actress tried her best to do what
the fat lady had suggested, but the latter was never satisfied, always insisting that what the
actress had done was not exactly what she had suggested. Boal got increasingly impatient
and frustrated by what seemed to be a rather stubborn and overly fussy spectator. Finally, he
would invite her to come on stage, relieve the poor actress of her duties and try out her idea
without intermediary. The fat lady came onto the stage, replaced the actress and confronted
the shorter, much skinnier husband, explaining him in very clear, almost violent terms that this
extramarital relationship had to end immediately. The audience loved the intervention, the fat
lady was finally satisfied and returned to her chair and Boal recognized that the power to try
out ideas for change had to be directly transferred to the audience. Forum Theatre was born.
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PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED & THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
Paulo Freire
Augusto Boal
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Theatre of the Oppressed
(How can we use education to liberate (How can we use theatre to liberate ourselves
ourselves from oppression?)
from oppression?)
Banking Education:
Banking Education:
• Lack of dialogue between teacher and • Lack of dialogue between actors and
student
audience
• Teacher knows everything, and the • Actors active, audience passive
student knows nothing
• Propaganda theatre. Information
• Information is deposited into the brains
is deposited into the brains of the
of the students
spectators
Culture of Silence
Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Learning is
transitive. Both sides learn. Teachers learn
from the students and vice versa. (TeacherStudent & Student-Teacher)
Culture of Silence
Theatre of the Oppressed: Learning is
transitive. Both actors and audience learn
(Spectators become spect-actors).
Education can be used for gaining a The theatre can be used for gaining a
deeper understanding of ones situation of deeper understanding of ones situation of
oppression
(‘Conscientization’)
oppression
(‘Conscientization’)
The Oppressed become the The Oppressed become the
protagonists of their own lives. protagonists of their own lives.
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POLARIZED THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
The Polarized Theatre of the Oppressed model was developed in Israel-Palestine by former
Israeli Army Major turned actor and peace activist Chen Alon.
Alon forms part of the Combatants for Peace movement, which was started jointly by
Palestinians and Israelis who took an active part in the cycle of violence; Israelis as soldiers
in the Israeli army (IDF) and Palestinians as part of the violent struggle for Palestinian
freedom. After brandishing weapons for so many years, and having seen one another only
through weapon sights, a decision was made to put down the guns, and to fight for peace.
Currently, one of the main techniques used to build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians
is the so-called Polarized Theatre of the Oppressed Model that integrates theatrical and
social work processes between two polar (actual and imagined) communities. The theory and
practice of a polarized Theatre of the Oppressed has relevance for every polarized society or
community, and the fieldworkers working with them. The Polarized Model posits that the use
of theatre is fundamental for an understanding of the creation, development and preservation
of the social power relations between polar groups; and that the representation of both
individuals and their “Rainbow of Identities”, materializes and enables an actual visibility of
the power relations, consequently enhancing the transformative potential of the two sides.
In terms of its practical application, the model suggests to divide working with polarized
communities into different stages, starting with a period where the methodology is used for
homogenous, non-polarized groups before gradually moving to working with heterogenous,
polarized groups.
In Maldives, the model has been introduced as a 3/4-day workshop process, with the first
two days spent on establishing a basic theatrical working language through games and
exercises as well as on exploring individual and group identities. The final two days are
used for choosing a polarizing theme followed by a variety of games and exercises used to
explore, critique and dialogue the issue .
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STRATEGIES OF REPRESENTATION
(For the Development of Forum Theatre Commercials)
In the case that a decision has been made to use commercials for a Forum Theatre
production, TO practitioner Brent Blair has developed the following typology:
1. Juxtaposition: Putting two very different elements together. For example, an image of
a happy fisherman followed by an image of the aftermath of a devastating Tsunami.
2. Overlay: Presenting how those in power often distort important issues by revealing
additional information or detail about the theme. For example, the presidential speaker
reading out the expensive menu of a state dinner at the same time as two people are
begging for food.
3. Caricature: Taking an aspect of a situation or person and blow it out of proportion.
4. Captioning: Showing an image or scene and provide it with a brief, generally
contradictory explanation.
5. Repetition: Presenting a famous phrase over and over again. For example, George
Bush’s “You are either with us, or with the terrorists.”
6. Substitution: Taking a famous song or poem but changing an important aspect of it.
For example, a well-know song is performed with new, critical lyrics.
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CATHARSIS
Catharsis is an important concept in both the Theatre of the Oppressed as well as Playback
Theatre. The word has Greek origins and means ‘Purification’ or ‘Cleaning Out’, i.e. purification
from an element which is disturbing the internal equilibrium.
There are different kinds of catharses depending on the nature of what is meant to be purged:
1. Medical Catharsis
Seeks to eliminate the elements or causes of a physical illness, something which has its
origins within or outside the individual, and which produces in him/her a sickness.
2. Aristotelian (Greek) Catharsis
Tragic catharsis. Here, what is being eliminated is the protagonist’s tendency to suppress his/
her desire for transforming society. The aim is to adapt the spectator to society by showing
him/her that rebelling against the established social order does not pay off.
3. Playback Theatre Catharsis
Playback catharsis is creativity-generating catharsis, often based on negative experiences and
actively reliving and/or witnessing them on stage. The hope is that participants can develop the
creativity needed to find new solutions.
4. TO Catharsis
As opposed to Greek catharsis, the Theatre of the Oppressed deliberately aims to create
disequilibrium in the spectator. The idea is to prepare the way for action and purify the
spectators from all the blocks that prevent them from taking action towards transforming
society.
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SUGGESTED WORKSHOP SCHEDULES
Every Joker has his/her favorite exercises that figure in most of their activities. In terms of the
precise order of exercises, this depends very much on the duration of the workshop as well as
the particular needs and challenges of the group one is working with. At the same time, every
workshop day should include games and exercises from different categories (Warm Up, Acting
Exercises, Personal Disclosure, Image Theatre, etc.), thereby ensuring that every workshop
has its own journey.
The following schedule is one suggestion of how a six-day CBT-Forum Theatre workshop may
be conducted:
Day I (9.00-17.00)
Introduction to Theatre of
the Oppressed
Clap Exchange
Circle Dash
The Wave comes and takes
Find the Spot Blind
Blind Walking
Complete the Image
Lunch
Irish-Timorese-Maldivian
Duels
Me/Not Me
Aima, I love
Machine
Image of the Word
5-Minute Plays (2 people)
Closing Circle
Day II (9.00-17.00)
Earthquake
Cover the Space plus
Character Walk
Pachamama
Affective Hand
Colombian Hypnosis
Forum Hypnosis
Lunch
Greetings
Magritte
Image of the Hour
2 Secrets
Association Jump
7 Minute, 2 Scene-Plays
plus challenges (3 people)
Closing Circle
Day III (9.00-17.00)
Walk means Run
1,2,3 Breadfruit
Blind Car/Blind Busses
Exit-Entrance
What are you doing?
Journey Part I
Lunch
Ping
Tour
Journey Part II
1:1 Oppression
10 Minute, 3 Scene-plays
plus challenges (6 people)
Closing Circle
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Day IV (9.00-17.00)
Moving Chairs
Sheep
Blind-V
Image of Four
Song of the Mermaid
Lunch
Zuhra, Tahrir & Palang
Play development and
rehearsal techniques
Closing Circle
Day V (9.00-17.00)
Games such as Boxing,
Environment, the Haka,
That’s a lie
Play development and
rehearsal techniques
Closing Circle
Day VI (9.00-17.00)
Games such as 2 Lines,
Pushing against Each Other,
Character Image of the Hour
Play development and
rehearsal techniques
Forum Theatre rehearsal
Public Performance
Final Evaluation
In case a duration of six days is not feasible, the following three-day model might be applied:
Day I
Checking In
Who am I?
Moving Chair
Circle Dash
Pachamama
Complete the Image
Lunch
Colombian Hypnosis
Complete the Image 3
People Variation
2 Truths & One Lie
Story of my Name
Individual Images of
Oppression
Improvise with your family
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Day II
Checking In
Cover the Space
Sheep
1,2,3 Breadfruit
Image of the Hour
2 Secrets
1:1 Oppression
Lunch
Tsunami
Sociometry
3 Chair Proclamation
Image of 4
Advocating for Forum Play
Forum Theatre Play Writing
Community-based Theatre for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation in the Maldives
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Day III
Checking In
The Haka
What are you doing?
Forum Theatre Play
Development
Aesthetics of the Oppressed
Lunch
Speed Gestures
Rehearsal Techniques
Pushing against each Other
Forum Theatre Performance
In case there is the need for using the Polarized Theatre of the Oppressed model, the following
three-day model can be applied (taking into consideration that the Polarized Model, ideally,
takes places over a sustained period of time, gradually and organically moving the polarized
groups towards working together):
Day I (Personal and
Group Identity)
Who am I?
Me/Not me
Story of my name +
Enactment
Name Choreography
Things that are good about
me
Lunch
The Wave
Sociometry
3 Chair Proclamation
Personal Images: Family
Personal Images: Beautiful
Moment
Day II (MorningPersonal and Group
Identity, AfternoonPolarized Group)
Crazy Circle
Blind Magnets
From I to We through Poetry
Lunch
Weather Circle
The Wave comes and takes
Polarized Statements
Polarized Discussions
Polarized Performance
Day III
Polarized Walks Competition
Polarized Hot Chair
2 Questions The Other
Group Did Not Ask
Polarized Forum Theatre
Group 1
Lunch
Polarized West Side Story
Polarized Forum Theatre
Group 2
Contribution to Maldives
Choreography Group 1 & 2
Secret/The other side does
not know about us (Possible
Dynamization: Image into
Dance)
Polarized Rainbow of Desire
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GLOSSARY
Forum Theatre practitioners use very particular language both during the theatre workshops
as well as the performances:
Actor
A person whose role is to play a character other than his/her own.
Aesthetic Space
The space in which a participatory theatre workshop and/or performance is carried out.
Antagonist
One of the main characters in a Forum Theatre play who is in conflict with the protagonist.
Anti-Model
The original Forum Theatre play that shows a gradually rising conflict that finishes at the worst
moment.
Audience
A group of people who observe a theatrical performance. During a Forum Theatre event the
audience transforms from passive spectators into active spect-actors.
Conflict
Conflict is the fundamental element in any theatre play. Conflict can often be described
as a clash of opposing desires. The protagonists desires one thing, the antagonist desires
something else, hence there is a conflict that is not easily resolved.
Conscientization
The process of gaining of a deeper consciousness regarding one’s life situation that will lead
to marginalized communities transforming into agents of change.
Cop-In-The-Head
An exercise amongst Augusto Boal’s therapeutic techniques dealing with internalized
oppressions.
Demechanization
A series of games and exercises that help the actors reconnect to their bodies and the
enormous variety of movements they are capable of producing. Demechanization also means
to overcome automized ways of thinking that prevent us from understanding the world as it
really is.
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Devised Theatre is a form of theatre where the script originates not from a writer, but from
collaborative, usually improvisatory, work by a group of people (usually, but not necessarily,
the performers).
Forum Theatre
An interactive form of theatre in which a problematic scenario is shown and then replayed,
with audience members (spect-actors) encouraged to enter the action and attempt to positively
change the outcome.
Image Theatre
A series of silent exercises in which participants create frozen images of their feelings and
experiences using only their bodies. These frozen images are then «dynamized,» or brought to
life, through a sequence of movement-based and interactive exercises.
Improvisation
Improvisation, using words and gestures, involves quickly creating and reacting to a new
circumstance on the stage.
Intervention
An intervention is the moment during a Forum Theatre play when an audience member comes
on stage, replaces the protagonist and attempts to positively change the outcome of the play.
Joker
The host of a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop and performance. In Forum Theatre, the
Joker sets up the rules of the event for the audience, facilitates the spectators’ replacements
of the characters, and invites the audience to discuss the essence of each solution proposed
in the interventions. In addition, the Joker has the responsibility to not simply accept but
challenge the ideas that come from the audience. In that sense s/he is not a facilitator but a
‹difficultator’, a midwife giving birth to new ideas.
Legislative Theatre
Legislative Theatre is Forum Theatre for the creation of suggestions for legislation that
promote and protect the rights of oppressed communities. In Boal’s words, the aim is ‹To
transform desire into law’, in the process turning ordinary citizens into law makers and making
a contribution to the democratization of democracy.
Magic
A Forum Theatre intervention that radically changes the nature of the conflict depicted.
For instance, the main character has problems with alcohol and the intervention magically
transforms him/her into a staunch non-drinker.
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Mobilization
One of the fundamental goals of the Theatre of the Oppressed. Mobilization means providing
opportunities for ordinary people to actively take part in the discussion and resolution of their
community conflicts.
Powerless Observer
Additional characters in a Forum Theatre play that want to help the protagonist but often feel
powerless.
Praxis
The combination of both theoretical as well as practical activities in the search for transformative
change.
Props
Any object used on stage for enhancing the plot and making the play more beautiful.
Protagonist
The main “oppressed” character of a Forum Theatre play that fails to achieve his/her desires.
Rainbow of Desire
One of Boal’s main therapeutic techniques in which the protagonist has so many different,
often conflicting desires that s/he is not sure what she really wants.
Role
A dramatic persona assumed by the actor.
Side-Coaching
The verbal instructions given by the Joker to the actors during the exercises, games &
rehearsals.
Spect-Actor
The audience member who comes on stage and takes part in the Forum Theatre play.
Trust Games
Theatre games and exercises that aim at building trust among the workshop participants.
Warm-Up
Theatre games and exercises that aim at getting a group of people playing together in the
same space, to energize that space and to create a sense of comfort in the collective doing of
specific and structured activities. The goal is to demechanize body and mind and to promote
responses that are fresh and in the moment.
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RECOMMENDED READING LIST
Aristizabal, Hector: The Blessing next to the Wound
Babbage, Frances: Augusto Boal
Baim, Clark: The Geese Theatre Handbook
Boal, Augusto: The Aesthetics of the Oppressed
Boal, Augusto: Games for Actors and Non-Actors
Boal, Augusto: Hamlet and the Baker’s Son
Boal, Augusto: Legislative Theatre: using Performance to make Politics
Boal, Augusto: The Rainbow of Desire
Boal, Augusto: Theatre of the Oppressed
Cohen-Cruz, Jan: Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism
Cohen-Cruz, Jan: A Boal Companion: Dialogues on Theatre and Cultural Politics
Diamond, David: Theatre for Living: The Art and Science of Community-Based Dialogue
Duffy, Peter & Elinor Vettraino: Youth and Theatre of the Oppressed
Emert, Toby & Friedland, Ellie: Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of
the Oppressed
Fox, Hannah: Zoomy Zoomy
Fox, Jonathan: Acts of Service
Fritz, Birgit: InExActArt - The Autopoietic Theatre of Augusto Boal: A Handbook of Theatre
of the Oppressed Practice
Ganguly, Sanjoy: Jana Sanskriti: Forum Theatre and Democracy in India
Joffre-Eichhorn, Hjalmar Jorge: Tears into Energy-Das Theater der Unterdrückten in
Afghanistan
McCarthy, Julie: Enacting Participatory Development
Rohd, Michael: Theatre for Community and Conflict: The Hope is Vital Manual
Rowe, Nick: Playing the Other: Dramatizing Personal Narratives in Playback Theatre
Salas, Jo: Do my story, sing my song
Salas, Jo: Improvising Real Life
Sternberg, Patricia: Theatre for Conflict Resolution: In the Classroom and Beyond
171
Two chairs,
actions,Programme,
One Play Maldives
United
NationsThree
Development
UN Building
Objectives:
Collective Play Development
Buruzu
Magu
Male’/Maldives
Number of People: 6+
Email: [email protected]
Duration:
60-20 min
Tel:+960
332-4501
Fax:+960
332-4504
Material:
One chair per participant
www.mv.undp.org
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ŽŽ This exercise is used to start developing the Forum Theatre plays.
ŽŽ The Joker asks the participants to lie down with their eyes closed. Then, the Joker
asks them to think of a moment in their lives in which they were struggling with
something/someone. S/he asks them to picture (relive) the moment in detail,
remembering the people, the place, the colors, smells, sounds, eventually trying to
identify the strongest emotion felt in this moment.
ŽŽ The Joker then proceeds to ask each actor to find a sound that best symbolizes their
strongest emotions. Depending on the size of the group, the Joker asks 3-5 actors
to share their sounds and invites the rest of the group to join the person whose
sounds most resembled their own sound and/or emotion that informed the sound.
The actors then divide into groups according to their sounds.
ŽŽ The person who made the sound has no special responsibility in the group. However,
s/he should speak first about the feelings that went into his/her sound. S/he may
also tell the story behind the sound but what is most important is to talk about the
feelings. Afterwards, the other members of the group also speak about the feelings
that informed their sounds.
ŽŽ As they talk, the participants will realize that there is a reason why they are together
in the same group. Once they have identified what it is that links them (Anger,
Sadness, Frustration), they should decide on a topic they would like to work with.
ŽŽ Next, the Jokers asks them to make an image of the strongest, final moment of the
theme the group has decided on.
ŽŽ The Joker then proceeds to dynamize the image. Afterwards, s/he asks the group
to make an image of what happened before the final moment, dynamizes the image
and then asks for another image of what happened before that moment, etc.
ŽŽ After the basic skeleton of the Forum Theatre play has been developed, the Joker
may use different rehearsal techniques to strengthen both content and form of the
play.