Theatre for Living Report The Gagged Voice #1, Vancouver Organizers: Angelo Lam, Catherine Ho Sponsor: S.U.C.C.E.S.S. on their 25th Anniversary Focus: Diversity and Youth violence Facilitator: David Diamond Dates: March 19 - 21 Participants: 13 Others present: Shin Lee from L.A./CTO Korea Forum(s): at the Roundhouse, aprox. 120 attendance March 19, 1998 point and turn balancing hypnosis blind magnets lead the blind blind cars complete the image energy clap sculpting partners groups of 4 image of the images circle This is the first of three workshops that look at issues of youth violence and diversity, and culminate in a public Cops in the Head session. There were about 20 youth from various origins registered for the workshop. 13 showed up, all Asian. Today was really hard. The title of the work is 'The Gagged Voice' so I guess it shouldn1t be a surprise that there was so much silence -- but it was a silence of non-committal, I think, not a silence of oppression. The core problem we have is recruitment for the workshop. In the opening, over 90% of the participants said that they were there because their mothers had brought them. Wrong reason to be there. These kids had no idea what they were coming to. A workshop like this isn't daycare or spring break camp. They have to want to do this. After talking with Angelo and Catherine it seems that part of the problem that SUCCESS has is that they do not have a youth group. Communication went from the adult organizers to parents. The parents made decisions about attendance. The impulse did not come from the youth themselves. Perhaps through this workshop a core of youth will remain who want to work through SUCCESS. In the middle of the day I stopped the proceedings. It was like pulling teeth. I am used to working with deeply oppressed groups, youth, and Asian youth, too. This doesn't feel like a cultural silence. I talked with them about how the work needed to be a dialogue. A number of them mentioned that they thought that the workshop was going to be me talking and them listening....... Some of what happened today (after our chat) was really strong. Images of people being trapped in situations they don1t want to be in.... (hhmmmmm -- maybe this is them in the workshop...)....of a 'girl fight' -- hot in the news right now -- of very lonely violence. There is a core of them who do want to work. I am hoping that we are going to lose about 4 or 5 of the group by tomorrow morning. It will make it harder numbers wise, but easier investigation-wise. Our task isn't to make a play, so the numbers are not such a big issue.   Next Back to Headlines Past Work