Summary of Week 3

Theatre of the Oppressed -- Week 3: Introducing Dialogue 

Opening Discussion

• Brief stretch and body scan
• Seated discussion of last week's homework and what came up
• Some themes from the discussion:
• Pace of our lives in global industrial capitalism; importance of rest
• Reimagining work, human capacity, and labor
• Home -- the complications inherent in the word
• You-get-what-you-give component to creating a home/sustainability
• Staying accountable to personal hopes and goals around consumption by making changes with coworkers/at the office
• Some reading that came up:
• The nap ministry -- Tricia Hersey's work creating somatic workshops and public installations and explore the revolutionary power and importance of resting: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Thenapministry/about/?ref=page_internal
• Plenitude by Julia Shore
• The Work That Reconnects by Joanna Macy 
• Emergenet Strategy and Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown

Exercise: "The Milling" (from Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy & Molly Brown, pg 110)

• Stage 1 -- Fast Pace Movement: Everyone and everything is an obstacle to you, time is money, you are very important, this is global fucking industrial capitalism, go, go, go!! 
• Stage 2 -- Return to Walking Pace: Soft focus and awareness, "oh, wow, I'm not alone"; we make eye contact with and acknowledge those we pass by
• Stage 3 -- Find someone and hold their right hand in yours:
• This person is alive at the same time as you and has chosen to be here today, the same as you. They looked at what’s happening in the world and made a decision to be part of this moment in this room with these people. Notice how you feel that they made that choice and now acknowledge this meeting however you wish and take your leave of one another.
• Stage 3 -- Find a new someone and hold their right hand in yours: 
• this person knows what’s going on in the world and hasn’t closed their eyes to it. They haven’t turned away, like you they are bravely looking for answers and creative solutions. Take a moment to imagine and honor their strengths. Honor their courage.
• Stage 4 -- Find a new someone and hold your open palms to theirs, around shoulder height, eyes closed: 
• Feel their presence near. This person, like you, inhabits a fragile and finite human body, vulnerable to violence, to man-constructed poison in the air and water, susceptible to disease triggered by pollution, but these common dangers didn't isolate us today. They can bond us to one another in mutual decisiveness. Look back in their face, allow yourself to feel the openness of the very real possibility that this person is going to play an important role in the project of creating the future of our world.

Image Creation: "Home"

• In a circle once again, eyes closed, we create an image with just our bodies inspired by the word "home." We open our eyes and see how our image compares with everyone's around us.

Image Theatre: Introducing Dialogue/Intro to Forum Theatre 

The following is a process of naming personal experience and performing it for the person who did the telling. 

This will get us comfortable expressing a scene with dialogue, preparing us for Forum Theatre going forward. 

This technique below (of sharing, clarifying, and performing the exact experience) is a technique I learned from a process called Playback Theatre. I can share more about Playback in the future if folks are interested.

• Guided Meditation: a time when you were with an intimate group (work, friend group, family) where there is a mix of comfortability and triggers. An act of oppression occurs either concerning you or someone you know or care about (so you, the imaginer, are either the Bystander or Target in your story). 
• Imagine at least these three people who you can feature in this story: Who is the Target (of oppression), who is the Agent (of oppression), who is the Bystander?
• One volunteer tells the whole group their story, from its start to its natural finish, giving us as many details as possible. After the person finishes, the group who will perform this asks clarifying questions (e.g. “Who said what, and at what time,” “What relationship to you does this person have,” “In who’s home did this take place” and any other details that the group thinks would be helpful in offering an accurate portrayal.)
• The person who shared forms an image from the story, selecting who in the group they would like to play specific roles. After the image is constructed, the sharer adds themselves in the image as themselves.
•  The remaining group discusses the image
•  The sharer creates a second image, from later in the story (or earlier in the story; this step can happen several times)
• The remaining group discusses the image, including notable changes
• The sharer and the selected actors engage in an improvised conversation, given the context clues the sharer offered during the story; the remainder of the group witnesses a version of what happened.
• The two involved in the improv (the sharer and the selected) debrief the experience; e.g. what came up for them as the actors?
• The group then also responds to the improvisation
• Intro to Forum: A different group member steps in as the Protagonist (the Target of oppression) and offers another tactic for this specific moment; a new improvisation unfolds that comes to a natural finishing point
• Both the original sharer and other group members debrief this tactic and this version of the improvisation; what changed? What new tactic was offered? Did it change how the narrative unfolded? Who's actions did it affect? In what contexts does and doesn’t this work? What comes up in the body for us during this improvisation as onlookers, and as those involved?

Closing

• Circle up, breath with hands held and eyes closed, then our claps