|
Theatre
for Living Report March 20, 1998 clap exchange What a roller-coaster of a day! We went down to 10 participants. Three boys left. It was not a surprise who left. The games went well, and glass bottle was a big deal for some of them -- trusting others to support them -- trusting themselves to 'give themselves' to others. Magnetic Image was very strong
and led to two Images: an image of isolation where an Asian girl
is separated from four others (Asian girls playing Caucasian
girls) who are pointing and gossiping......she has her face in
her hands, dying of loneliness and embarrassment. The other image
was an 'internal voices' image that turned into an exploration
of Asian experience in a predominantly white Christian church
in Vancouver -- and feelings of After lunch we started on Cops in the Head, as I thought it was important that they experience the exercise. Also the above Image was a good intro into Cops. I asked for three stories but
after a lot of waiting two were offered. Waited and waited. There
have been a few very active members of this group but the others
almost never speak, or do anything. Cops needs participation
of eight or so people.......we settled on a story from a boy,
who, against his better judgment, because he feels he must defend
his friend, gets involved in a 50 person revenge fight with baseball
bats. What are the We managed to get two Cops onto the stage.........then, we had all the people who have been participating on the stage and it became impossible to continue. The dynamic that had been building in the workshop came to a head. I had been spending a lot of time coaxing people to participate and really felt today that finally I became their oppressor -- forcing them to do things, look at things that they didn't want to do. The silence was deafening. I was in a place I really didn't want to be and stopped the workshop. It turned out that this was very shocking for them and created a crisis but it was the right thing. (I wasn't sure of that then but am now.) The way things were happening was just wrong, and unfair to everyone -- them and me. We went into a circle and I explained how I felt, being careful to tell them many times that I did not think any of this was their fault. Catherine, from SUCCESS then spoke in Cantonese and (from what I understand) said much the same thing again -- that the work needed to be a dialogue, not a monologue and their non-participation was a clear statement and we did not want to (and would not) force them to continue. Six of them spoke about how what
we were doing was very different than what they had imagined
would happen, but that they really liked it and did not want
to stop. The rest remained silent.......even after lots of coaxing
from I said that I would accept the
silence of the others as a statement that they did not want to
continue and assured them that this was OK and laid out a plan
for those who did want to continue. We took a break and finished
the I talked with Catherine and Angelo and mentioned that I thought part of the problem in this workshop is that they are all (100%) Asian and I (the facilitator) am white......Their response was that they have the same experience working with Asian Youth -- that there is such a deep training not to express anything that isn't well thought out, that the spontaneity of this work is very difficult. Maybe it needs adapting somehow? We have about 80 reservations for tomorrow. The plan is to get to the theatre, take 'possession' of the space with some games, decide on some images (I have been taking Polaroids of Images) to show the audience.......and then clarify the stories we will offer for the Cops exercise.......and hope for the best.
|