Methods for Social Change by Andreea-Loredana Tudorache - HTML preview

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2-Intro to the Forum Theatre Method and

Preparatory Exercises

Suggested activities

Introduction (explaining the context and what will happen in this session) – 3 minutes
Energizer (look at the resources area for examples of materials where you can find lots of examples of energizers)– 5 minutes
Carousel-getting to know each other – 20 minutes
Introduction of Forum Theatre - Movie simulation FT -1h1.5h
Forum Theatre process-remarks -10 min
Preparatory exercises 1h/1.5 h

3-Carousel-getting to know each other

Aims- to provide space for participants to know each other better; to create a warm and friendly atmosphere for the day.

Description- participants stand in 2 circles – one inner, one outer. Each person faces another person from the other circle. The facilitator gives various topics/subjects for discussion-the discussions happen one on one (between the person in the inner circle and the one from the outer)-so everybody will talk at the same time. After the time allocated for one discussion (usually 3-4 minutes) is up, the facilitator asks the outer circle to move to the right or to the left 1or 2 steps. The facilitator can play with this movement of the circles – the result has to be that for a new topic of discussion there will be new pairs all the time. The topics of discussion should help the group discuss deeper things about themselves with each other and they should be adapted to the context and background of your group.

Suggestions for discussions/topics

What is the most exciting thing that happened to you from our last meeting?
How long was your longest romantic relationship?
What are you most proud about in your life?
Share one funny /strange story from your life
Say something you don’t like about yourself
What is your opinion about religions in general? Are you religious?
What behaviours of other people really annoy you?

4-Introduction Forum Theatre - Movie /simulation FT-1h/1.5h

Aim- to familiarize the participants with Forum Theatre method – its main outline, aim and structure

You can also improvise a performance with the more experienced volunteers from your organization – just with the purpose of showing it to your group.

You can explain to your group that the best way to introduce the method to them is a real life experience so they will be the public of one such performance. Then you may proceed.
If at that time your organization is performing a forum theatre play in the community – you can invite the group there and in this session you can have a discussion based on their experience as members of the public.

You make a brief introduction about the background of the method in simple terms (where it was developed, why and that it has been transforming itself all these years)
You show them a movie – or movies – depending what you have on hand (that could fit your group)

This movie tells little bit about history of Forum Theatre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGGnHyH5iVM .

On A.R.T. Fusion YouTube Chanel you can find some movies about Forum Theatre in English or with English subtitles – including the movie developed in “Act for What You Believe” project-http://www.youtube.com/user/artfusiontv

If you have movies from your own performances you can show those. Bear in mind that showing 1.5 hours of video material from a performance (the whole process) is not going to have the same effect as when they are in the public – because it is not participatory for the group –and they will not experience the process. You could maybe show parts of the movie and provide explanations for the missing ones.

Use flipchart or power point presentation (if you prefer so) for your introduction. Here you need to improvise in order to send a simple, attractive and clear message to your group. Bear in mind that excessive details in this format are not going to help you.
Focus on the main elements that you want them to take out of your presentation – the main aim and features of this methodology, the structure and the process of forum theatre
It will be very good if you can give them a concrete example (preferably from your work) or make it interactive with them-ask them one social problem from their community, extract the main characters from it and put it in the FT format and then explains what is happening once you go to the public.
It is good to let them know that the whole process will surely become fully clear only after they either being a public or they will have done it themselves but this presentation had the aim to give them a picture of what they will have to have in the end.

For any of the options used you need to allocate enough space for their questions and to have a clear vibe in terms of their understanding of the method after your introduction. You need to check they didn’t misunderstand some aspects so you could ask them some questions to verify this.

5-Forum Theatre process-remarks -10 min

Aim- to introduce to the group the main aspects of the process on which they will embark and that will lead them to the final performance

Description – the facilitator explains to the group that in order to have the performance and the kind of impact that was mentioned in the previous part there are several steps that need to be pursued and some features that will be constant in the process. It is important to talk now:

About the preparatory phase (full of games that aim to prepare them for acting in general but in particular in such settings (of forum theatre). This phase will be very active and very experiential and it is not planned to provide theory in advance but rather to discuss after they have experience and to draw the theoretical conclusions –you can remind them (at the beginning of the next part of the session about this aspect)
About the fact that each meeting will include such games which will target various dynamics necessary for them to work together and with the method-and will facilitate the group work as well
That there will also be a phase allocated to the reality exploration-the research and study for the performance (in terms of social issue/s that are going to be the subject of the performance)
That the process is 100% inclusive and each member is equally valuable and that the decisions will be made by consensus from the whole group
Feel free to add any other information that you think is relevant and should be included in this part.

6-Preparatory exercises

Aims- To warm-up the group, to develop their coordination, focus, attention, rhythm and synchronization, to explore and work with the space and the group in different setting, to practice working with their body; gestures and expressions; To develop group trust in each other and in the FT process.

Description – the time allocated for this part depends largely on the option you choose to introduce the method-for example option 1 will definitely take long and you will not have time at all for this part of the session – and in the case of option 3 – you will have more time. In any case depending on your time you can do these exercises in this session or in the next one-and it should be just fine. You just need to readjust the number or the structure of your meetings.

It would be good if you have at least one hour of games and exercises – preferably 1.5 (the suggestions included here refer to 1.5 hours of preparatory activities – with some discussions included as well).

Briefly introduce this part and remind them about the fact that it is planned to be an experiential approach and they should let themselves go with the process – and after the games we will discuss their experience

Description of exercises

Pass the beat-10 minutes

Electric current – 10 minutes
Space exercises – 20 minutes
Back dancing – 10 minutes
Blind shake – 10 minutes
Mirrors – 15 minutes
Processing/ Discussion on all the exercises -15 minutes

The group stands in a circle; the facilitator explains that this exercise will be done in silence and has eye contact as a key element. The facilitator can start by “passing the beat” which in fact represents a clap – 2 people look into each other’s eyes and they have to clap (their own hands) at the same time-so we can hear only 1 clap and not 2. The beat will be passed on in the circle from person to person – trying to keep the same rhythm and play with it – to become faster or slower. The first round (a complete circle) will be more of a trial round until the participants get in the mood-then more beats could be introduced – all the time trying to synchronize with the rhythm developed.

Electric current – Develops group coordination, attention and focus, warms-up the group

The group stands in a circle – it is explained to them that an electric current will be travelling among them - 2 signs will be used to express “receiving the current” and “sending the current” (you can create your own signs-usually by using the hands) – the idea will be to make a loud sound and also to show with your body that you are electrocuted – before you send it to somebody else in the group. Eye contact is required between the giver and receiver. More electric currents can be introduced (by the facilitator) and the group can be encouraged to focus on the group-so they can be ready to receive at any time (usually the tendency of the group is to follow the currents, not to look at the others).

Space exercises- Stimulates the participants to reflect on how they feel in the group and in the space provided, to work with different types of space in different ways, different speeds; Increases their flexibility and group awareness level.

Participants are invited to explore the space – at the beginning by themselves-without talking and interacting with each other.
During the time they walk the facilitator can encourage them to go to places in the space that they didn’t pay attention to before, to try to go to every corner/square of the space, to use a different route all the time (not to go in circles); to explore how they feel in this space-which part of the area they like the most and why – they can be invited to go to the place they prefer the most in the space and also the place they dislike the most;
The facilitator can continue to provide guidelines or questions for reflection for the group: they should now pay more attention to the people around because they are sharing the same space ; to make eye contact with the people they meet and smile at each other; to reflect on how they feel in their presence in this specific space;
The group can be asked to walk backwards for a while (and in this time to reflect how easy it is, how they feel, how they take care of each other – if they do..) – it can be alternates between backwards and forwards in terms of walking to feel the difference and also to become easier to shift between directions.
The facilitator can introduce different settings for exploring the space –for each of the following suggestions (feel free to use a setting as diverse as possible for the participants to experience) leave the group to walk a little bit in that specific setting - to get in the mood and the atmosphere (to imagine the sounds, the smells, etc.)

Examples: to imagine they are on a hot floor; in a forest; in a market, on a train; underwater; on top of the mountain; on another planet; that they are in the middle of the storm; they are in a soup (or some other food dish); trapped in a box; in a room full of mosquitoes;

If the group is not tired you can also work with them on different speeds – 1,2,3,4 – 1-slow motion; 2 - regular walk; 3 - hurry; 4 - super hurry and agitated (but not running) – they are just different speeds of walking) (you can also use colours instead of numbers – use your imagination as you want).

And while they are asked to walk with a specific number different guidelines can be addressed (How do you feel? How easy is it for you? In which situation do you find yourself walking like that? How much are you still able to focus on the group or are you more focused on yourself? Etc.

You can say at some point: 0 – they stop and you can ask them to make a circle in order to explain the next activity.

Back dancing – Develops group cohesion, synchronization and rhythm; facilitates close physical contact between the participants; Challenges participants’ personal limits

The group stands in a circle. They are asked to look in the middle of the circle and the facilitator counts to 3-after that they have to look at somebody in the group (only one person). If the person returns the look then both participants become a pair in the next exercise (and they go out of the circle). The game continues until everybody has a pair. “Back dancing” can also done in 3 (so if you have an uneven number of people one group can be of 3).
They will have to stay back to back and they will be dancing. There will be different styles announced by the facilitator. There will be no music-each pair will have to find their own way in dancing. From time to time you can ask them to find some other pair to dance with. Based on how much fun they are having and how relaxed the group is you can adjust the time for each dance. Suggested styles for dancing: Salsa, Waltz, Hip-Hop, Free Style, Contemporary, Some ethnic dance (if relevant for your group), Bollywood dance, Hard Rock, etc.

Note-this exercise proved to be quite challenging for some pairs/people (that’s why it is recommended to keep an eye on the group –if they don’t look relaxed enough you can make shorter rounds and change the pairs more often)

Blind Shake-Develops coordination in unknown places and trust in different spaces and people; Supports the group in growing closer to each other;

The facilitators asks the last pairs of the dancing exercise to stay in pairs for the beginning of the next activity as well (they will change pairs during the exercise).
The facilitator demonstrates how the exercise goes and then all the participants replicate in their pairs and then they change pairs and do it with other partners as well.
The activity goes like this - the 2 people in the pair shake hands and then stay still; they close their eyes at this moment-then they have to “unshake” and keep the hand in the position (as it was in the hand shake) and take 3 steps backwards.
Then they can check with each other if they are ready, because they will have to come back to the initial position.
The first few times participants usually find themselves in different positions from the initial ones but then they learn how to assess the space and their own coordination with eyes closed.

Mirrors - Encourages the groups to expressively use their body in different ways; to release their creativity, to work on coordination and synchronization among group members.

The group is divided into pairs (you can use the last pair of the “blind shake” activity if you want to). In these pairs they have to mirror each other-one person has to do the actions (but rather slowly, and to focus more on expressions, various gestures and mimics) and the other person will have to copy in real time as accurately as possible.
They switch roles after 5 minutes – the facilitator will announce the time. Mention to the group not to make sudden movements-as it will be impossible for the mirror to follow in real time. If you still have time you can try the next level which implies that the whole group stands in a circle and one volunteer goes in the middle – now each of the persons from the circle is the mirror of the person inside-according to the angle they are positioned towards the person in the middle.
For the person in the middle it will be a strong sensation to have so many mirrors reflecting him. It will be little bit more challenging for the persons standing behind the volunteer - that’s why it is advisable to ask the volunteer in the middle not to face just one direction but to be more dynamic.
You can ask some volunteers who would like to be in the middle to do it and then you can close the activity and also the session.

Processing/ Discussion of all the exercises Usually this first session of games and exercises is perceived as fun, active and very engaging. It is important now to help the group to reflect on their experience and to understand in which way it actually prepared them. You could use this set of questions as suggestions for facilitating this small discussion.

How do you feel now at the end of the exercises?
How do you feel in the group? What are your comments on how you are as a group?
What activity was most challenging and why?
What did you gain from this session?

3-Preparatory Exercises – part 2

The preparatory process includes various types of exercises which need to help the group members work on various dynamics for themselves individually, but also for the group process and also for learning the forum theatre method. Many of these activities are also found in other types of theatre or drama groups.

In the Forum Theatre process the focus is not on developing high theatrical skills and therefore the time allocated for such kind of preparation might look shorter comparing with the professional groups.

In Forum Theatre groups the aim is to establish a strong basis/foundation in this sense and to follow-up with Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre (in particular) specific activities.

This curriculum is addressed to beginners – of course for more experienced FT groups more time could be allocated to sharpen those “acting” or “theatre” areas that were not so fully taken care of in the early stages in their training process-but it will not be a condition for evaluation of their Forum Theatre competencies.

The important categories of preparatory general exercises that any facilitator should have in mind while working with a beginner group are the following: coordination, focus, concentration, space, speeds, body, relaxing, rhythm, trust, synchronization, emotions, expression, gestures, statues, imagination, creativity, expanding personal limits, improvisation, getting into the role, voice.

Some of these exercises (like improvisation and getting into character) will be implemented more when the Forum Theatre development starts. After these general preparatory activities, specific Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre exercises are implemented in the following sessions.

The suggested structure for this session (which will focus predominantly on preparatory exercises) is:

Introduction (explaining the context and what will happen in this session-following up from the last session)- 3 minutes
Exercises – 2-2.5 hours
Samurai – 5 minutes
Magnet – 10 minutes
Trust Dancing – 25 minutes
Bears and Princes (or adapted versions)- 10 minutes
Hey You! Who Me?- 10 minutes
1,2,3-4,5,6-15 minutes
Exaggeration circle-15 minutes
Statues and emotions – 15 minutes
Museum of emotions – 20 minutes
Processing the games and exercises/Debriefing Final circle – announcements

Preparatory Exercises Aims – to work on group coordination and focus, its members’ capacity to express various emotions with their voice, body and facial expressions; to stimulate the group to deal with various emotions expressed around them or to them, to prepare the group more deeply for acting and for analysing social issues.

Description of exercises

Samurai – Warms up the voice, Trains the actor to talk from the diaphragm (which is better when acting – because it projects a larger voice. The letter H always engages the diaphragm while talking - a good exercise before going on stage as well; energizing.

The group stands in a circle. They are informed that they are all samurai that will attempt to kill each other in the exercise. Every samurai has a sword (which is represented by both hands being close to each other (symbolizing the sword). When somebody wants to kill somebody else first he prepares by raising firmly the sword on top of his head (and also saying very loudly HA). Then the person chooses his "victim” and very firmly directs his sword towards that person (at the same time has to say very loudly HE).
Then the person targeted also raises the sword (to prepare for attack and says loudly HA)- at this moment the person standing on the right and on the left (of the person that is about to attack) will both attempt to cut him by going with the sword to his belly, both of them at the same time and saying very loudly HE-the middle samurai will bend as to avoid the attack and then immediately will attack somebody in the group – as explained before. It has to go very fast, very loudly and very firmly. Of course it goes without saying that in this exercise nobody gets hurt physically. In this version HA and HE are used – you can also use just one, like HA.
For more advanced groups you can use the order HA. HE. HI, HO, HU – for example: person attacking raising the sword HA-the neighbours attacking HE, the samurai attacking somebody HI, the victim preparing for attack HO, the neighbours HU, the attacking one HA ...and so on...- the people have to in fact just remember the order and to continue to do the exercise – in this version the work with the voice is much broadened.

Magnet - Develops focus in the group, coordination in space (while they are many obstacles), facilitates easier contact among the participants.

The group is divided into pairs; one group can be of 3 (if it will be necessary). It is explained to them that they are magnets and as they know sometimes magnets attract each other or they reject (depending on the polarization value). So they have to remember who their magnet pair is and the facilitator will give the polarization mode.
They walk around the space individually and the facilitator says loudly: ATTRACTION and they immediately (as magnets do) have to run and be in contact with the pair magnet and continue to walk around the space. Then the facilitator says REJECTION so very fast they have to run from each other (exactly as magnets do) and continue to walk around the space – keeping far from their pair. The facilitator can play with these 2 values (Attraction and Rejection) a couple of times.
Then you can go to the next level-having pairs representing one magnet and coupling them with another pair – so now you have 5 or 6 people that are in some sort of connection. The group continues to walk around the space (individually) but have to remember how they are magnet partners. The same now again, the facilitator uses the polarization values: Attraction, Rejection, Double Attraction (for the big magnets), Double Rejection. So participants either go in small magnets or big ones. You can optionally have one version with the whole group coming together as a Total Attraction /Total Rejection (for the end of the activity)

Trust Dancing – Develops trust among group members, helps the participants to extend their personal limits, to relax in the group. (It will be good if you can have music for this exercise but you could also work it out in silence).

Explain to the group that in this exercise they will have their limits maybe tested but in a safe environment and encourage everybody to take care of each other during this activity. They have roles-with eyes closed or open and when they have their eyes open they need to act responsibly towards the group.
Divide the group into pairs- (different from the ones in the previous activity). In each pair one person opens the palm of their hand and keeps open only the index finger. This person then closes their eyes.- this is person A. If you have blind folds it would be even better. The other person (person B) puts his own index finger on the other person (this is the only contact among the pair). They are not allowed to talk during the exercise. If you have music turn it on (it should be a calmer kind of music). Person B has to lead the other person around the space – he can dance with the person or just walk around. At some point the facilitator stops the music and ask persons A to continue to keep closed their eyes and asks the B-s to go to another A. They need to be silent so that the A-s don’t know who their new partners are.
The activity continues and the new pairs are allocated time for their dance/walk. Another change is made so in the end the A person will have had 3 B persons as partners. (if you want you can make it 4 times) After the last round you can allow the A-s to open their eyes and see who their partner was. Then the roles switch and now the B becomes an A and the A becomes a B-and the activity continues the same way. You can change the song for the second round.
After this specific activity it is important to have some debriefing/processing (because it is very personal and some people might have challenged their limits).