theatre of the oppressed

One of my goals while in Montreal has been to expand, explore and develop some of my existing skills and passions. And I’m finding that education and community building are both continual themes in this journey.

So following these themes, I recently participated in a two-day facilitator training workshop on Theatre of the Oppressed techniques.

Using theatre as a transformation tool, Theatre of the Oppressed is a style of community-based education empowering groups to explore social issues, resolve conflict and build community.

Augusto Boal – a Brazilian politician, actor and activist – developed this form of theatre in the 1970s. And one major goal of Theatre of the Oppressed is the transformation of audience members (traditionally passive observers) into ‘spect’-actors where they actively participate in not only creating dialogue and finding solutions to problems but also acting itself.

Boal says that: “Acting can be done anywhere, even in theatres and acting can be done by everyone, even actors.”

I first came across Theatre of the Oppressed last November at the NASCO conference in Michigan State, US where I attended a shorter workshop on the method in relation to power, privilege, space and cooperative living.

Upon arrival back to Montreal, I facilitated a workshop based on what I’d learned at Coop Sur Genereux’s 2009 Skill Share event. Around 15 people participated and we had great fun exploring some of the techniques together.

It would be a gross understatement to say I’m excited about the technique. I’m hooked! It is such a creative way to explore social issued both at the personal and community (local/global) level.

Our instructor – Jessica Bleurer – is also going to send me some material for using these techniques for environmental justice issues as well.

Alongside, a plethora of new warm up and ice-breaker games, over the course of the weekend we explored three different styles of Theatre of the Oppressed: Forum Theatre, Invisible Theatre and Image Theatre. We also looked at street theatre.

Jessica is one of the best facilitators I’ve ever experienced. I feel so lucky to have studied (if briefly) with her. Her insight into group dynamics, ability to modify course material to suit specific groups, ability to facilitate discussion and guide groups to probe into deep analysis was outstanding. I’ve learned so many new things about both myself and facilitation.

Using creative tools such as theatre for social change appeals so much to my psychology. I’m really excited to explore these new tools in my own education and community building practices…

dub poetry, theatre and a major crush on ani difranco

I’ve found it difficult to keep my finger on the pulse of music and theatre gigs in Montreal. There is just so much going on. It’s probably one of the reasons I’ve not managed to leave yet: a constant stream of interesting things to experience.  Mind you, I’m constantly discovering gigs that I missed by just a few days AFTER they’ve taken place. Sooo annoying!

Over the last two months, I’ve managed to squeeze in a decent amount of gigs though. Here’s a brief summary of the highlights:

Jazz Club – Dieze Onze
I finally got around to visiting my local jazz club (literally ten minutes walk from my apartment). It was one of those spontaneous nights between friends. Having no idea who was playing at Dieze Onze, we took our chances and trotted down the road to find out. We were certainly not disappointed! The Eric Hove Trio (with Tom Gossage and Adrian Vedady) was playing.  So our night rolled out into a delicious evening of sangria, local cheese platters, chocolate cake and high quality free jazz…

Dub Theatre
With February being Black History Month, Montreal’s theatres, art galleries and music halls were buzzing with activities celebrating this international event.

La Chapelle Theatre presented the premiere of Toronto-based d’bi.young’s anitAFRIKA! Dub theatre ‘Benu’.  Her performance – combining theatre, dance, multi-media, poetry, and dub – told the story of a 28 year old woman suffering from unexplained headaches after the post delivery of her first child. Exploring themes of motherhood, abandonment and mental health, the performance was rich in socio-political content while powerfully revealing the magic, rhythm and sacredness of storytelling.

D’bi.young describes herself as a biomyth-monodramatist, which is a theatrical solo-performance work that is written and performed by the same person. It employs aspects of the performer’s life experiences to guide the creative process and then weaves poetry, music, myth, monologue and dialogue to tell her story.

I find the power of storytelling so enriching, but even more so when the boundaries between reality and myth are blurred. Or maybe it’s just the blurring that I like! Coz other dichotomies were also interestingly blurred: the post-performance conversation, for example, enabled the storytelling to continue long after the performer had finished placing the audience (intentionally) in the role of storyteller.

Ani DiFranco

Seeing Ani live at Club Soda was without a doubt the highlight of my music experiences over the last two months.

I’ve not actually followed her music production over the last few years, but it seems that motherhood has encouraged her to move away from the angsty drive of her earlier songs and explore a delightful mellowness in her newer stuff.  Discovering her more positive reflections on life during my first live show (!) was a delight because they resonated so deeply with my current life perspective.  (“…If you’re not getting happier as you get older then you’re fucking up” – it’s so true! Maturity can give you a much wiser and positive perspective on life. We relax more. Discover what really matters. And so find happiness in smaller but more meaningful things).

Her dynamic stage presence not only served to enhance the strength and creativity of her lyrics, but also showed off that unique ‘staccato’ plucking guitar style as she performed both new and old songs with vigour and dynamism.

All this said, I’m aware just how biased I must be…

Listening to Ani always sends me reminiscing down a delicious side path of memory lane, her music serving as a ‘sound track’ to a crucial developmental time in my life. Giving a more objective perspective on her gig is therefore impossible, but I really don’t care! Who wouldn’t want warm fuzziness for a night?

Kalmunity Vibe Collective + El Jones
El Jones was another highlight this month. A spoken word artist from Halifax, L Jone’s work is intense and powerful stuff largely due to the content of her work, which spoke very bluntly about the injustice of women of colour, particularly the way they are treated by black men. However, I was mostly inspired by the way she manipulated the rhythm and flows of language weaving words around each other to create a solid strength in her utterings.

Alongside her performance, members of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective performed funk and soul-inspired improvisation.

In/visible Unicorn
A trip to Toronto to visit friends saw us head to In/visible Unicorn, an eclectic mix of performance exploring themes of imagination, bodies, accessibility and representation. Performers included Eli Clare, Onyinyechuwu Udegbe, Jorge Vallejos, Kenji Tokawa, Griffin Epstein, along with video screenings of Big Appetite (formerly fat feme Mafia) and GIMP Bootcamp

It was exciting to be at a performance that was accessible to as many people as possible. It was wheelchair accessible. It provided audio description and sign interpretation and was scent free.

IglooFest

The winter dance party of the year! Igloofest is held downtown in “old montreal” and runs for two whole weeks straight. I was so excited by the prospect of ice-inspired décor and winter dancing that I forgot to do my research on the performing DJs. As a result, I found myself dancing to a kind of techno/house kind of music. Not my cup of tea at all. Dammit! However, with a backdrop of giant colour ‘icecubes’, ice sculptured bars and benches, fire pits and giant beanbags, I was content without my good ole psytrance or drum ‘n bass.

sunday mass

A visit to Montreal just wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Notre Dame Baliscia. And if you’re free on a Sunday morning, I highly recommend popping along to High Mass where you’ll witness a breathtaking performance by the choir and organist. A Sunday morning well spent!

radical clowning

Clowning has always intrigued me. Adults dressed in wacky costumes with exaggerated gestures and cheeky humour. Fun, light-hearted play generally reserved for children. But it wasn’t until last week upon attending Paula’s clowning workshop that I discovered concepts of clowning I didn’t know even existed.

Paula is a radical clown. She doesn’t believe in performance, preferring the idea of experimentation. You’ll find her in metro stations and other public places experimenting with concepts of clowning that allow her to comment on society through fun, silliness and laughter. She also finds clowning a powerful means for self-discovery, expression and creativity – stretching our boundaries of expression and training for imaginative stimulation… We are invited to imagine the impossible, to play, feel, scream, laugh, loosen, enliven, and shake awake. It’s a practice of engagement with every day, being conscious in every moment of life, infusing this with imagination and allowing for spontaneity.

During the workshop, Paula had us engaging in laughter therapy (continuous laughter for a set period of time), writhing on the floor and talking to ourselves using baby talk, prancing about the room doing idiosyncratic yoga (random movements to jibberish sounds), dressing each other up in costumes while talking jibberish, pulling strange faces during partner work and transforming props into new imagined objects

I was amazed at how liberated I felt playing like a child for two hours straight. The clown within me emerged quite easily and I think this was mostly due to the nurturing space that Paula created for the group… frustrated with how other forms of theatre perpetuate the oppression existing in society (‘but it’s ok that she just said that. It’s just a play”), she insisted on the idea that we should feel safe while experimenting with our clowning. And talked about the importance for asking permission before interacting with your audience…

Paula is touring North America at the moment and if she comes to your town, I strongly encourage you to say hello. She’s one cool person!

women displaced, women trafficked…

Last week I stumbled across a weekly discussion forum called University of the Streets Café. With an attempt to draw people from diverse backgrounds and realities, the initiative aims to enable continued learning through public conversation. Community building in an ‘old fashioned’, face-to-face kinda style…  And isn’t this something that is rapidly disappearing amongst the roar of cyber chatting, text talk and passive, mindless entertainment… Of course, this blog is a dead giveaway of my cyber advocacy, but I’ve come to realise nothing can completely replace the warm sense of connection found in a good ‘real life’ conversation.

The first conversation for the fall program was called Women Displaced, Women Trafficked: If art is political can it also be poetic?, and it stemmed from a public rehearsal of Columbian-born choreographer Carmen Ruiz’s multimedia performance À la limite.

Using inspiration from Columbian folklore, Ruiz’s performance wove a striking story of the emotional upheaval, despair and invisibility felt by the millions of women displaced by war and political conflict.

I found the opening, in particular, extremely powerful due to its play with ambiguity of form. As my eyes adjusted from the darkness of the start, I noticed a moving object silhouetted far stage left. It took me a while to realise it was actually the dancer. With her hands and feet close to each other on the ground and backside twisting and contorting in the air, the dancer had created an unidentifiable shape that seemed to be directly symbolic of women’s disempowerment and objectification.

For the first few sections of the work, the dancer didn’t show her face.  And when she finally did – making direct eye contact with the audience – it was a strong moment… As though by crashing down the fourth wall of the stage, she was boldly regaining the power lost from women and reinstating their rightful place….

Drawing elements of both Columbian and contemporary dance, Ruiz shifted between different emotional states as the work progressed gradually moving into a more upright position. Heavy breathing, gunshots, news report samples and music juxtaposed the dancer’s movements, while images – silhouettes of women, wind swept grass, abstract shapes – intersected and enabled smooth transitions between each section.

As Ruiz mentioned in the subsequent conversation, she is interested in exploring the bridges between folklore and contemporary life. The Afro-columbian influence ‘gives it a context, a root into history, a certain reality, she said. ‘A part of me cannot create art away from this context actually’, she said. This history, it seems, is firmly a part of her identity.

The conversation moved on to explore the intersection and collsion between political and poetic elements of performance. As a group we pondered the way performance can be used to transform difficult, challenging and harsh themes to create poetic works of art.

The idea that dance can transcend language was one of myriad discussion points. This seemed particularly relevant in the context of a trilingual audience! Yet while we might be able to construct a dialogue with dance due to its abstract nature, the question arose as to whether a political work like Ruiz’s should be imposing a particular point of view or allowing the audience to make their own conclusions. Opinions were mixed. Ruiz mentioned that she doesn’t want to impose anything on the observer, but simply wants to communicate in a new way.

One speaker, however, pointed out that the news report samples provided a strong objective message and therefore her work did impose a particular message on the audience. Another speaker encouraged Ruiz to be more overt because dance allows us to communicate deeply about issues that are harsh realities in our everyday lives. Another pointed out that the role of dance – particularly in Africa – has traditionally been used to express violence present in society. ‘Don’t be afraid to sweat’, he said. Given this historical context, perhaps Ruiz might push the boundaries even further.

In true Montreal style, the bilingual conversation ebbed and flowed naturally between French and English with a dash of Spanish (the dancers native language). For monolingual audience members such as myself, whispered translations were established to ensure all our linguistic needs were met.

Rather than interview-style, the conversation was a two-way stream where the performer was invited to ask questions along with the audience… It was an interesting dialogue and along with learning more about the displacement of women, I left feeling inspired by the knowledge that art is creating social change and that initiatives like this are bringing people together to build connections and discuss important topics…

Carmen’s final work will be presented at the Montreal Art Interculurels in March 2010…

cycling adventures with madame m. fox – part one

Vancouver – Victoria (and surrounds)
Distance Covered: 80km

Since arriving in Canada, Madame M. Fox (my well-loved mountain bike) and I have been aching to hit the road with panniers full of camping goodness. But where should we head?

All roads leading out of Vancouver beckoned with promises of beautiful scenery and adventures on the road. To the east, roads wound their way through thick coastal forest and up into the silvery, snow-capped mountains. Beyond the mountains lay the rugged prairies. The coastal mountain range, lakes, inlets of the Sunshine Coast were just north west of Vancouver, while the rolling hills, rainforests, old growth forests (well, what was left of them!), and scenic coastal lines of Vancouver island were just a short ferry ride from south Vancouver… so many choices! what to do?

But when we heard about Victoria’s 2009 Bike Prom, our decision was made. Who could resist an event that not only celebrates bikes, but promises to lure you back to the wonders of your high school graduation. hmmmm I was a tad curious….

So my plan evolved into a month of cycling up Vancouver Island and back down the Sunshine coast to arrive back in Vancouver around the beginning of June.

But first stop: Bike Prom! Bike Prom is an annual event hosted by bike-loving extraordinaires in Victoria – a city on the southern most tip of Vancouver island, the capital of British Columbia.

Held over three days, the event included bike races, art shows, moonlight mystery rides, bike polo games, bike films, and culminated in a massive masquerade-themed ball that seemed suspiciously similar to my high school prom (or ‘formal’ as we’d call it in Australia) only on bikes. One highlight of the evening was the pre-ball mystery ride which saw over 60 dressed-up cyclists weave their way through the streets of Victoria, whizz along the southern coastline of the island and scamper up a small hill to watch the sun go down where we were serenaded by local gypsy band Orkestar Slivovica.

Another highlight of the evening was seeing a performance by the Velovixens – a local bike-themed physical theatre group. Using theatre, dance, music, and imagery, they performed a simple yet effective and provocative piece called the ‘rat race’, which provided commentary on society’s obsession with materialism. With an astounding stage presence, these girls were an absolute hit with the audience who cheered and screamed wildly when they finished their number. It was so clear that the performers were enjoying every minute of being on stage and this enthusiasm, fun, energy and focus trickled back to the audience. We felt it. And that’s what the Velovixens are about. They aren’t interested in producing slick, polished high end art; they’re out to have fun, with a mind to educate and inform their audiences about varying ‘sustainability’ issues as they perform.

And so this was my introduction to Victoria. A sneak peak into the bike/art/activist scene. Quite a fun scene too.

Getting to Victoria from Vancouver was simply a ferry ride and a 30km bike ride from Swartz Bay along the Lochside Regional Trail – a cycling/walking trail that runs parallel to the highway. I was excited. Not only was I finally getting away from the chaos of Vancouver, I was able to do avoid the busy highway! The trail was formerly an old railway line and meanders through farmland, alongside beaches, and wetlands, down cute tree-lined lanes and through the outskits of Victoria’s suburbia. What luxury!

Victoria itself was originally home to several communities of First Nations peoples (including the Songhees) before the English and the Spanish came along. The english began using it as a Hudson Bay Company trading post in 1843, but once the gold rush started (1858) it became the main port of entry to colonies all over the island and british columbia. It became the provincial capital in 1871. It now has a regional population of 326,000 and given its moderate climate and scenic setting attracts hundreds of retirees and tourists alike each year.

May is possibly the best time to visit Victoria. Bright coloured tulips, dafodhils, roses and many more flowers are sprinkled all over the city. Maple trees are slowly uncurling new green leaves. Birds are chirping. People are out walking, cycling with big smiles on their faces. It has a bubbling energy that seems to have just sprung to life… so this is what spring is…

Thanks to the lovely Jenny (and Otesha connections!), I’ve been staying in a cute little apartment near Fernwood. There’s been lots of cozy chats and tea drinking, which has made me feel that home isn’t so far away. And with Jenny being in the middle of her teaching practicum (middle school), I’ve made an excellent guniea pig for various school activities and have learnt many things about the digestive system, life expectancy, the functioning of lungs and more!

next stop? Salt Spring Islands. Stay tuned!

(photo by Chris Davis)