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These are some of the words that were used by the audience of the last performance of Relationship Status, a forum play inspired, created and performed by young people. There are more: funny, relevant, interactive, professional, eye-opener, awesome, stimulating, thought-provoking, frustrating, original, real…
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging.

Remember a forum play is a play in which some of the characters face struggles forced upon them by someone’s behaviour, the play is left open so that the audience can stop the action at any time and jump on stage and enact a possible alternative action that may lead to better outcomes for the character feeling powerless.

I have taken a few of the comments that were made about it by the audience and expand on them to reconnect readers with the power of forum theatre:

1. “It got people thinking about their position” - an audience member may identify with a character in the play that has power over someone or who feels powerless. This may be the first time they have been made aware of this position. It may be the first time that they have looked at a situation and seen a character like themselves in a situation they relate strongly with. The power of this work lies in its collective relevance. Even if that person does not get up and offer a possible alternative action on the stage, he or she may watch someone else do something which make them more aware not only of alternative possibilities but of the role they may be playing in disempowering someone in their lives.

2. “Empowering – great stuff guys” - forum theatre is created using stories that come out of the lives of real people. In this case the stories that were shared came from the lives of the young people in the play or lives of people they know. Being listened to, encouraged and supported in creating a play and performing it to peers and the public and then having the confidence to improvise on stage in front of a live audience is a dynamic and empowering combination for the participants of a project like this one. At the same time, an individual sitting in the audience who gathers the courage to jump on stage and enact a possible liberating action will also be empowered. Perhaps the action will serve as a rehearsal for the same action in real life or perhaps it will serve to create confidence and build capacity.

3. “The way it expresses and relates to us teenagers /true to the facts/ working for other young people” - Relationship Status was inspired, created and performed by teenagers. They contributed the language, they contributed the scenes; they owned the play. It was by them and about them and their lives. When performed to their peers it carried a lot of influence and power because it is not a version of their reality as perceived by someone else, it is what they perceive. The young participants embody the characters powerfully because each of the characters embodies parts of them. The engagement of an audience of peers is immediate.

4. “Great audience engagement, presenting issues through theatre, open discussion” - one of the ways a forum theatre performance engages an audience is through the breaking down of the fourth wall. There is no ‘us and them’ in forum theatre. Forum plays tackle issues which an audience relates to, in this case it was young people and their experience of respect in relationships. As a result, the actions in the play trigger responses that an audience can then express; is invited to express on stage. Nobody is preached to or judged. What ensues is a dialogic exchange between dynamically engaged individuals. It is an effective and participatory way to problem solve and at the same time generate a feeling of enjoyment and collaboration.

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Augusto Boal, Omaha 2008

One of my favourite Boal anecdotes is when he was working with about 80 homeless kids living in the streets of Brasilia, the Brazilian capital.

He had spent some time discussing with them what theatre meant to them and wondering what theme they should look at during their short time together. Some shouted ‘violence’ and others shouted ‘family’, as Boal recalls after a short pause there was agreement and someone said “family and violence, it’s all the same thing”

A fourteen year old girl, Debora, described the family characters and the actors took on the roles as frozen images: a drunken father, a drug addicted brother, a religious brother who spent all his time talking to God and a housewife mother. All the kids agreed that this was an accurate tableau or description of the main characters in their families.
He then had his actors speak the thoughts of the characters while they were still in frozen images. Then again without movement he asked the actors to dialogue between characters. Lastly he had them depict with their bodies some of the thoughts and wishes that were present. He had one of the kids stand next to each actor to remind them of their thoughts.

Then they were ready to do a short Forum Theatre with the religious brother as the protagonist (the kids identified him as the one who could have the most impact on the family). Forum Theatre is a short play that has no resolution and many points of struggle for the protagonist. The audience is invited to stop the action and intervene with what they consider would be better possibilities for the protagonist.

The short skit got under way and then the kids started to intervene and offer alternatives. Boal asked the ones watching to say what that intervention had contributed to the play. The kids watched and offered their interpretations.

‘He made the boy talk to his relatives instead of God who doesn’t hear us’

‘He made that the priest brother talk to each of the family personally, instead of offering advice to everyone at the same time’

He yelled at the father until he finally made him talk’

Then a girl went on stage and took the character of the drug addicted brother and jumped around with him, danced with him, did somersaults and generally goofed around. Boal spoke out trying to object as he thought she had been mocking the whole process. But the kids protested and told him to let her continue. He asked the group what the special contribution was because he could not see it.

And Debora, the girl who had suggested treating the theme of family, explained to him:

“He made her brother smile”

As Boal says, it was so little but for this group it was so much; sometimes we cannot see how a simple difference to some can mean so much to others.

In Playing Boal - Theatre, Therapy, Activism - Mady Schutzman and Jan Cohen-Cruz

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‘Knowledge acquired aesthetically is already, in itself, the beginning of transformation.’

Augusto Boal, 1995

Augusto Boal believed in the power of theatre to transform systemic social and internalised personal obstacles into opportunities for positive action. From the 1950s right through to his death in 2009, Boal continued to develop theatrical techniques that draw on the collective power of a group to rehearse possible solutions to shared struggles.

Forum Theatre is one of the many techniques Boal developed. Originally, Boal and his group of professional actors performed plays treating social issues meaningful to specific audiences.

For example, a play about the failing public health system might be performed to a group of doctors, hospital staff, politicians and community members.

Then the audience would suggest different actions for the characters that were most affected by the struggle and the actors would enact these.

The shift to the next level occurred during a performance where a spectator grew more and more annoyed because the actors did not understand exactly what she wanted them to do. Boal, asked her to step onto the stage and demonstrate.

That was the beginning of FORUM THEATRE as we know it today.

The spect-actors are now activated and involved in presenting their ideas through a physical and aesthetic enactment on stage.

ACT OUT’s first public forum play will be performed at KULCHA in Fremantle on 30 June. It is a play that deals with RESPECT IN RELATIONSHIPS.

The performers are not professional actors but young people and the content of the play was created by them based on their beliefs and attitudes towards the issue as they experience it in their communities. For the last two months the group of young people ranging in ages from 14 to 17, has met twice a week to workshop and create the performance.

The result is Relationship Status – a play about relating and respecting – or not!

The short play will be performed once without interruptions; it is then performed again. The second time, the audience in their role of spect-actors can stop the action and step onto the stage and offer an alternative action to rehearse a different outcome.

The plays will be performed at Katanning Senior High School, Melville Senior High School and South Fremantle Senior High Schools. The audience will be young people whose experiences are shared with those of the performers.

All the performances will be documented in a DVD and distributed among the students who participated as audience and cast.

One of the goals of this community development project was to give young people a creative space in which to take some leadership around issues to do with respect and relationships among their peers.

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Imagine you have access to a diary entry that someone you care for has written. The words on the pages give you clues to their state of mind and situation - you are able to intervene before they do something tragic.

This is the ultimate aim of Act Out’s latest workshops, to stop a young person from taking their lives by examining the range of situations that are present at any one time in a young person’s mind.

These new workshops centre on diary entries, text messages and voice mail messages left by the person of concern. The group of young people are then invited to break down the possible points of intervention that could save a friend’s or a relative’s life. This, of course, is done using Act Out’s personal brand of engaging and playful theatre based techniques that enable the exploration in a light and accessible environment.

What might be going on in a person’s life that could tip them over the edge? What are some different scenarios that could be the trigger for such extreme measures? Who is involved?

The group is asked to construct possible scenarios and the characters present in someone’s life that may be contributing to the stress making the person consider suicide. Some of the scenes are then enacted and the participants rehearse approaching the character and extending their support, understanding and help to avoid the tragedy of suicide.

At a conference organised by Family Pathways in May 2011, Act Out presented in conjunction with Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council (KAMSC) manager, Kate Hams. Ms Hams is also the Assistant Network Coordinator for One-Life in the Kimberley. One Life is a state wide Centrecare-run suicide prevention strategy across Western Australia that has committed $13 million over 4 years to address the high level of suicide rate in WA.

During the presentation four areas of possible trauma present in a young person were identified: the incidence of sexual child abuse, family breakdown, peer pressure (e.g. around male identity) and relationship breakdown. Many young people have experienced trauma in all four areas and as Ms Hams explained, it only takes a small amount of rejection, say a girlfriend ending a relationship, for a person’s whole world to seemingly collapse.

Act Out hopes to play a significant role in working with various organisations to assist in the engagement of young people through a creative approach.

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Alberto Perez, affectionately known as Beto, was a popular aerobics instructor in Colombia, who rocked up to his busy class one day only to find that he had forgotten his music. Thinking on the spot he went to his car and retrieved the sexy Latin music he had in his CD player and adapted the routines to the hot Salsa, Cumbia and Merenge rhythms.

The result: ZUMBA – a multi-million dollar enterprise that over the last ten years has spread across all continents and has revitalised the fitness class industry.

Innovators are not always the white-coated, single-minded scientists supported by funding bodies to create breakthroughs in their various fields.

Sometimes innovation happens through a totally unplanned, unforeseen and ‘in-the-moment’ connection of a product or idea that is waiting to manifest and a mind that is open and receptive.

Sometimes, the innovation is not even related to the field the innovator is active in and it is fuelled by dissatisfaction and accident.

Take Chester Carlson. Who gave us the Xerox machine. From a young age he was fascinated by all things printed; however he studied physics and later patent law. During his legal studies he grew impatient with hand copying the documents he needed so he turned to his earlier passion and after many experiments and trials he invented the photocopier.

Likewise, sculptor Ladislao Biro is less remembered for his sculptures than for the creation of the ball point pen; J.B. Dunlop the creator of the pneumatic tyre was a vet.

However, while there will always be the Edisons and the Zuckerbergs, innovation is largely a focused, encouraged and nurtured effort within or without an organisation.

Our inspiring friends at New & Improved, a leading innovation consultancy company in the US, write a regular newsletter on innovation.

According to them there are 10 main drivers of innovation in an organisation – I have summarised them here:

1.    Individual – they are the basic building block of innovation;

2.    Team – individuals do not usually have the range of skills needed to make innovation happen;

3.    The enterprise – to keep innovation teams from getting stuck in ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’ thinking;

4.    Processes – always aim to improve these at all levels: individual, team and enterprise;

5.    Offering – to view innovation as more than ‘product’. Equally important are innovative business models, alliances, processes;

6.    Psychological climate – what’s going on in the mind of the individual?

7.    Physical environment – everyone has different needs around this, and it has a huge impact on innovation;

8.    Organisational culture – what does the leadership of the organisation uphold as success? This matters;

9.    Economic climate – not too much fear and not too much confidence – this is the ideal balance for thriving innovation;

10.  Geopolitical culture – what cultural strengths can I leverage and which cultural weaknesses do I need to overcome?

For the full article and many more GREAT tips go to http://www.newandimproved.com/newsletter/2125.php  

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Act Out is currently working on a Youth Forum Theatre Peer Education Project funded through Community Arts Network WA’s innovation grant.

The Fremantle-based project combines Forum Theatre and Youth Peer Education on issues affecting young people.

7 young people are being guided and mentored to create a play that they will perform to their peers and their community at four different venues: two high schools in the Cockburn and Fremantle areas, Katanning Senior High School and a public performance at Kulcha, a multicultural arts venue.

Exploring the issues of peer pressure, relationships and respect from their perspective offers the participants a chance to contribute towards building awareness around issues. It is a capacity, confidence and resilience building event that will promote the use of theatre in tackling tough and persistent issues. Further, it is also a non-judgmental medium for creativity and self-expression.

At the same time it is a rare opportunity for the community to listen to young people and alter their perceptions about the capacity of young people to take leadership and ownership of issues affecting them and their communities.

Act Out is also excited about fostering the use of forum theatre and creative arts-based practices in synergy with community development approaches to engage and generate discussion and ideas that raise awareness about issues and possible solutions.

The sessions so far have aimed at familiarising participants with the various tools and techniques for expressing and communicating. They have also been getting to know each other and bonding so that they can work together in a safe and open environment.

In addition, participants are being mentored in filming and editing, blog design and social media, photography, stage management and marketing and promotion – in effect they are learning other skills that are involved in producing community theatre.

A number of WA artists, including playwright David Milroy are contributing to the production – a public event will be held at KULCHA on 30 June @ 6pm. Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door.

We are also grateful to the Cockburn Youth Centre and the Hilton PCYC or the use of their space.

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According to Otto Scharmer the essence of leadership today is the ability to facilitate a shift from the current model of operating from past experience to operating from ‘a future space of possibility’.

His social technology for leadership, Theory U, premises that in order for there to be transformation we need to access, understand and be comfortable with the quality of leadership that is unseen.

In other words, not the processes or the actions but their origin; the inner place from where these originate.

This is precisely the aim of the creative techniques employed at Act Out to work with groups. They aim at stirring up what is underneath the actions – what inspires them; what are the fears and the desires that drive all our actions; or prevent desired actions?

Scharmer invites participants of his workshops to enter into a dialogue with each other about the issues they want to tackle. But to go beyond the usual polite, disconnected or inauthentic listening; past the tough-talking, debating, competitive, divisive listening; even past the more empathic inquiring listening to a generative listening. This is a listening that enables individuals to ‘operate from the highest future possibility that is emerging’.

It is not an easy proposition. Looking at our inner motivations is hard enough, but to do this collectively is even tougher. His Theory U delineates seven leadership competencies essential for transformative leadership:

1. Holding the Space: A leader invites others into a space the she or he holds and the key to ‘holding’ is listening; a deep, attentive listening.

‘Listening to what life calls you to do’, not only listening to oneself and to others, but also to what becomes apparent through listening to the collective.

1. Observing: This requires ignoring the voice of judgment which blocks access to our minds and therefore our creativity.

1. Sensing: This requires leaders to connect with the heart often by ignoring the voice of cynicism. This voice prevents us from being present to our vulnerability and authenticity and from acting from an innate knowledge rather than a cognitive knowledge.
2. Presencing: this is a capacity to connect to our deepest source or will and not listening to the voice of fear which blocks our access to being willing to step into the unknown and let go of the past ways of acting.
3. Crystallizing: This is when a leader accesses the power of intention of a small group of committed key people. This group, through its intention and actions creates an energy field that attracts the necessary elements for the project to take place. This creates momentum until it is past the tipping point.
4. Prototyping: This is leadership capacity which calls for integration of the head, heart and body; calls for action. It is a difficult step during which leaders will become accosted by the usual ways of being: reactivity, endless analysis and what he technically refers to as ‘blah blah blah’.
5. Performing: This is the last step in the layers and it involves acting and listening constantly from a space that moves in and out of the self; it is through you that the action happens but its origin is beyond the self.

This may all sound like it’s easier said than done – it is! Much easier; but in his inspiring book, Scharmer and his colleagues, describe moments that have transcended great obstacles.

From the transformation of Oxfam GB’s African HIV/AIDS program, to huge systemic changes in doctor-patient relationships by the German Health Care Ministry to the extraordinary work done by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This is the kind of leadership transformation we aim to create at Act Out.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Albert Einstein

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A few weeks ago in Geraldton, WA, a group of community service providers came together for training on how to use Boal tools and techniques to enhance their work practices with their clients.

Over two days we explored a range of activities and their relevance to the work they do. Here are three of them:

“The Sun Always Shines On Anyone Who…” This is a circle game, like musical chairs, that serves as a ‘getting to know you’ activity. Participants sit in a circle with one person standing in the middle. He or she says the above sentence and completes it with something that is true about him or her.

For example, ‘the sun always shines on anyone who…has been to Fremantle… or has a tattoo or…is wearing black underwear!’ When those seated around hear something that is true about them they have to get up and quickly change chairs before the person in the middle can take a seat and leave someone else standing in the middle!

While it may seem like a simple and childish activity, this has often served to generate a lot of warmth and unity, as well as information about a group. It always brings people closer together and is a gentle way to encourage people to participate in a group. It can also reveal more hidden aspects of participants that can be important in the transformative process.

Blind Cars This is a trust exercise that can be done in pairs and then also in groups of four. The pair stands one person in front of the other facing the same direction. The back person is the ‘driver’ and the front person is the ‘car’. The driving commands are all given by touch. Touching the centre of the back indicates going forward, the right shoulder turning right, the left shoulder turning left and the back of the head is reverse.

The trust, of course, comes when the ‘car’ has to close his or her eyes! All they have as direction are the touch signals given by the ‘driver’. It is an exercise aimed at highlighting the way we communicate while at the same time generating a sensory alternative which triggers the right brain. It is a wonderful springboard for creative and holistic examinations of leadership, communication, teamwork, trust and power.

Slow Walk ETC – This is a series of exercises that aim to explore alternative ways of using our bodies by making changes to the way we walk; in other words changing the familiar way we do something to an unfamiliar way.

One very popular version is the slow walk race, which is a race where the last person to get to the finish line wins! The rules are that the body must always be in motion with one foot always off the ground as if running but in slow motion. Other variations include the three legged race, where in pairs A & B wrap one arm around each other and intertwine their inside legs and race. This means the leading ‘leg’ has to move the partner’s body as if it were her own leg. Leaning against each other, the pair leans against each other trying to keep their feet as far away from their bodies as possible while moving forward. Races can also be held by having participants walk as different animals: crabs (sideways on all fours), monkey (hands always touching ground), elephant (on all fours with right foot and left hand at the same time, and left foot and right hand at the same time). These warm ups help participants explore their bodies, break the ice and spark new connections in their brains that lead to more creative ways of accessing greater learning and problem solving. Oh…and they are fun!

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In her fabulous book, From Workspace to Playspace, Pamela Meyer, extols the benefits of developing a play culture within an organisation.

As a facilitator and consultant using applied theatre techniques, games and activities to help organisations innovate and transform, I read her book joyfully!

I am often asked, how will playing help this organisation? How can it help create better leaders? And my answer is that it is not just playing as in setting up a ping pong table for use during breaks, or a few balls of colourful play dough during meetings – although these can be great fun!

It’s about the mindset. A mindset that welcomes experimentation, new possibilities, spontaneity, safety to express ideas, plenty of room for failure and adaptation, humour, all part of an indispensable skill: improvisation.

Improvisation is ‘…the ability to react honestly, in the moment, at the top of your intelligence,’ says Bob Kulhan, CEO of Business Improvisation (www.businessimprov.com), a US company that specialises in corporate improvisation programs. Kulhan, an adjunct professor at the Fuqua Business School at Duke University makes clear connections between improvisation and the skills needed by leaders and change agents in organisations.

With many organisations struggling to adapt to the relentlessly shifting economic environment and accommodate the increasing expectations for personal fulfilment of employees, improvisation is an important skill.

The ability to be ‘nimble, flexible, adaptive…to tweak focus…get the best out of people in mid-stride,’ says Kulhan, is unquestionably valuable.

Meyer agrees. Referring to her research she writes that executives and managers reported being called to improvise as much as 2/3 of the time. As she rightly points out, this is an enormous amount of time on a task for which most people are inadequately trained.

Playspace, or what can also be called the aesthetic space in theatre speak, offers the opportunity to develop the leadership skills offered through improvisation.

First, to improvise it is necessary to be able to listen and to be flexible; to be present and to recognise what is in the space and allow it to emerge.

Otto Scharmer, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is an award-winning designer of leadership programs. He calls this kind of awareness ‘presencing’. A ‘letting go and letting come turning point’ in which there is a consciousness of the real obstacles and awareness of the willingness to work together and co-create a desired future.

A mindset welcoming of play offers the safety necessary for this to occur. This is a space where it is safe to take risks, step into unknown areas and experiment.

In improvisational theatre there are certain principles adhered to in performances, one of these is that ‘mistakes are invitations’. In other words, there are no mistakes, only opportunities for players to be more creative and break patterns. Similarly, in a culture that nurtures a mindset of play, looking beyond existing patterns and embracing challenges, are approaches that will lead to innovation and transformation at all levels of the organisation.

In terms of leadership this may mean giving up the power, control and status that comes with an assigned role, and allowing the ‘true force’ of transformation emerge.

Second, the more chance to improvise the more confidence arises in individuals to deal with the unexpected. Conversely, the more confident a person feels, through practice, the more willing to improvise and explore ‘alternate possibilities’. It is a win-win scenario that reinforces itself with time.

The fact is that in spite of a dominant belief that all has been analysed, planned and is ‘under control’, improvisation is an integral part of strong leadership and successful organisational development.

“Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process”

Harold S. Geneen

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