5-Power + Oppression Exercises and
Oppression in Our Community
This unit aims to further the observations that the people have made from their community, and to zoom in on examples of oppression and also into the structure of oppression in forum theatre. The exercises presented here aim to develop the capacity of the group to work easily with various examples of oppression, to have a deepening understanding of how oppression is approached in Forum Theatre Methodology.
This unit also aims to have as an outcome the topic for the performance but these activities could be used without this purpose as well-for practice and deepening the understanding and to have at a later stage time allocated for choosing the story. Depending on the flow of the sessions and the amount of input coming from the group it can happen that the decision for what topic to follow is taken in the next session.
There will be very often situations in your work as FT facilitator when you are requested or invited by third parties to work on a certain topic/subject – which in that sense will be imposed to the group. In that case you can adjust some of the activities from this session in order to be focused on that specific theme you have to work with. Definitely when the topic is given (maybe also the target group) less time will be needed for discussion and decision – but the side effect will be that the group could feel less connected /motivated to work with a theme that is given.
Depending on how personal the stories of the group will be you can allow more time for sharing and for creating a safer space in this sense for the participants to share among themselves.
Structure of the unit
2-Talk and Listen– 15 minutes
Aims- to increase the active listening competencies of the group; to make the group aware of the conditions needed for an effective communication; to make the participants take responsibility in terms of constructive communication in the group.
Description- The group is instructed to take a moment for themselves and to think about something they would like to talk about, something that they would like to share with the others (it can be some story of what happened to them on the way here, a book they have read, etc.) – anything they want.
After they think about it the group is divided into pairs (or according to the case one trio as well). Their task is to share their story or what they wanted to talk about to the other person-they will have to do that at the same time.
They also have to remember as much as possible from what the other person is saying. They do that for about 2-3 minutes. Make sure everybody respects the rule of talking at the same time. Then the exercise can be stopped and we proceed to the debriefing.
Debriefing/Processing the activity – Suggested questions
3-Group shower – 20 minutes
Aim- to increase the level of trust between group members, to strengthen the connection between the participants, to contribute to a safer environment for sharing between participants
Description – The group receives explanations related to the context of this activity and why it is being implemented. Then they are asked to stay in 2 lines facing each other, close to each other to leave enough space for one person to pass in between the 2 lines.
It would be good to have some calm music in the background; one by one the participants will walk between these lines of people (that look kind of like a tunnel) with their eyes closed. They have to walk slowly, slowly between the lines. The people on both sides will have to give the person walking a kind of “warm” shower – by touching gently, massaging their arms, back, legs, removing the bad energy, etc.
The aim of the group is to clean the person of stress, bad energy and tension and however they interpret this they can put it in practice BUT they have to be responsible acting towards each other and be kind. The person will walk through this shower (like a car at the car wash) and at the end they will join one of the lines and contribute to the shower of the others.
The facilitator can send people in the tunnel after the previous person has already made some steps forward. It is important for the walking person not to open her/his eyes and to take in the experience as it comes.
As an optional activity - If somebody doesn’t want/like to be touched by other persons they are free not to take the “shower” but to contribute to the cleaning process of the others. Optionally, at the end, you can ask the participants how they feel now.
4-Balance Statues-20 minutes
Aims- to make the participants reflect on what balance means in general and its connection with the power distribution; to develop analytical skills for the participants to identify ways of balancing certain aspects/situation; to prepare the group for intensive and deep discussions by activating their group awareness and attention to the group needs;
Description –Participants are instructed that they will explore and work with balance and what balance means for them. For the beginning they are in pairs and then the number grows to trios, groups of 6 and so on – and then with the whole group.
The exercise focuses on body postures and personal reflection = no talking among the team is allowed during the exercises. The pairs have to place themselves in various positions (for a couple of minutes) in which they find the balancing point (it could be leaning on their back and holding hands, it could be back to back, etc.)- the pairs are encouraged to work on different positions and postures and all the time to identify the point where they are in balance (as much as possible perfect balance). After a couple of minutes the pairs become trios (could be randomly divided again in the group so they are encouraged to work with as many people as possible).
When they are 3 – one person starts by taking a specific posture and then the second one will analyse it and try to identify in which way to be attached in order to balance the posture the initial person made. The same things are done afterwards by the third person.
Then another member starts this time and they continue the exercise. They are encouraged to try as many options as possible. They can also work out some of the positions in 2 persons (that they experimented in the previous leg of the activity) and then the third person has to analyse and see exactly where and how they can balance the image. They are allocated a couple of minutes before the group will grow again.
The same procedure will apply - starting with 1 and then the next person observes and tries to balance and so on. All the time a new person starts up by making a posture. It is important to mention to the group that they don’t need to rush into the exercise, but rather to observe as completely as possible the posture in front of their eyes and to be sure why they chose a specific posture to balance it.
Also another important mention to be made is that in fact every time a new person decides to attach themselves to the picture, they should look at the picture overall and focus not just on the first person in the picture but on all the persons, how balanced they are or not and if they need any support. It would be useful to do the exercise with the whole group.
The algorithm for increasing the number of people per group will depend on the total number of people in your group (for example: if you have 6-7 people you can have 3 groups, 2 and then 1 group – for a bigger group it will be of course a little bit different – maybe you start with 10 groups, then 8 then 5, then 2, then1) – just make sure you have a smooth growth and that the groups will mix often – all the time new people in the group.
Debriefing/Processing of the activity
Being a silent activity most probably all the participants gather many impressions and personal experience in it which has to be discussed with the whole group. The aim of this discussion is to help the participants understand what balance means, the connection with power and the relevance in Forum Theatre and also for their group process. Suggested questions that could be used:
5-Homework analysis - 50 minutes
Aims- to explore the materials that the participants collected from observing the reality around them, to deepen the understanding on oppression and its link with power, to put the foundation for the next step in choosing a subject for the Forum Theatre performance.
Description – The group is asked about their homework with warming-up questions
The group is instructed that now they will have the chance to share more details about their homework and they will work in the initial phase in small groups and then they will follow up with the others.
The groups is gently warned to share as much as they feel comfortable to share and if there are personal stories they can choose to tell them or not.
The facilitator should try to focus the group more on being responsible for the kind of trusting atmosphere that is in the group and to balance/support each other.
The group is divided in groups of 2-3 people, in these groups they will have to share the following
Each group will have to take notes on the examples (without the details) in order to be used further. Approximately 20 minutes could be allocated to this part of the activity. After this the small groups will gather together and they will share the examples.
In real time the facilitator will write on a big piece of paper (flipchart) in 3 columns their answers (examples of power imbalance, examples of oppression, and another for the number from 1 to 10 for the situation of oppression). – There can be a 4th column which will be used later in the discussion. The other groups are invited to comment on the examples provided or to ask more questions if needed in order to fully understand what was meant.
After all the groups point out all their examples a few questions could be addressed to the group
The group is informed that starting from this reality “diagnosis” that they delivered it is now time to narrow down and to focus on the areas of oppression which they consider as being the most important to tackle.
It is explained to the group that Forum Theatre methods should be used in order to address important situation of oppression in order to make a social change by empowering people affected directly or indirectly by oppression.
There are many problems in a society but we need to focus on those that affect the bigger number of people, that are urgent and with damaging consequences in the society (in the short and long term). The participants are invited to reflect individually and to analyse the examples of oppression mentioned and to mark the 3 most important examples of oppression (based on the criteria already mentioned) that should be addressed by Forum Theatre in this group.
They will come to the flipchart and put a dot/or an X/a mark in the 4th column on the line that corresponds with the oppression that they choose.
6-Images of oppression – 60minutes
Aims- to narrow down the potential situations that could be included in the Forum Theatre performance, to help the group to identify the key actors in a situation of oppression, to understand more deeply the most important type of oppression.
Description- Based on the “voting” the group is informed what the 3 top examples of oppression are, and they are invited to comment on this.
If there are people who consider that none of them should be in this top 3 and that other topics are rather more relevant they should express these ideas. This voting was done to see the perspective of the group but they didn’t have the chance to express the reasons behind their voting and they can do that at this stage.
So the group is encouraged to share their views – especially if they don’t agree that the initial 3 (resulted from the vote) are the most important. In this part of the discussion the facilitator needs to be very careful in his approach, as everybody in the group should feel free to talk at any time, nobody should impose his/hers opinion and based on the arguments they present the decision will be taken as a group (by consensus).
It is good to remind the group about the fact that in this stage we want to have the top 3 oppressions in our society and from these ones to choose later the one to work on but – only after we understand these 3 better.
Once a top 3 will be agreed on by everybody divide the group in 3 for each theme (if you can)- if you have a small group then you have to work on the themes one by one (with the same group), or 2 groups and then the last one with the whole group. They can choose the topic they want to work with in this exercise.
The facilitator explains to the group the structure of roles that we use in Forum Theatre (oppressor, oppressed, ally on each side, neutral persons) which of course are based on how the problem is reflected in reality. They go to their group and discuss the kind of oppression chosen. Now they can share more examples from the same category.
Their task is to make an image of one concrete example of the oppression where they have to portray all the characters/actors relevant for the situation – oppressed, oppressor, allies, neutral. They show this image to the others.
It is very important to stress the fact that all the sharing that is happening in the group has to come from reality and that the example they show in the image has to be a real example and not created/invented by them. For this part around 20 minutes are allocated.
One by one they are shown to the others (in the case of smaller groups where there is no public – they show and then discuss it). The public is invited to identify the roles, the context, and to make the connection with reality (if indeed cases like that are happening or not).
The facilitator has to guide this discussion with the public.
(These images were used in this session to better understand different types of oppression through very concrete examples and how different relevant actors are engaged in it-at later stage in the process of developing Forum Theatre the image of the chosen theme could be again used for the group work).
After all the images were shown a few questions could be addressed to the group:
At the end of this part of the session the facilitator mentions that what happened today is very important in the forum theatre process as it places the fundaments for whichever social direction the team will continue to work in.
Observations and sharing of the reality the way they experience it, from the angle of kinds of oppression that exist, are in fact the routes for making a decision on what topic to work with. Now they probably have many reflections in terms of how the oppression could be approached through this method and we had 3 concrete examples and they have to decide on only one oppression to focus on.
The main criteria they should have in mind are related to the needs of the community:
NOTE-there will be many groups that believe the ones who should change are the oppressors (because they are the ones that are abusing the power and so on) but in Forum Theatre we focus on empowerment (the oppressors are very powerful already-so we need to target the people involved in various situations that don’t have enough power to deal with these situations they are involved in).
The group is invited to reflect on these criteria and to think which one of the 3 types of oppression should be the priority for this FT group.
Depending on the time left from the session, this “reflection exercise” could be their homework (even to research a little bit more on these topics, find more relevant examples back home) and to come next week with their suggestions in this sense or it can be discussed now (until the end of the session).
Every group member should express their point of view and there should be consensus based on the arguments presented.