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Photo: David Diamond
Theatre for Living has evolved from Augusto Boal's "Theatre of the Oppressed" and David Diamond's interest in and commitment to a 'systems view' of the world. If we embrace the idea that a community is a large, living organism, how do we consciously work with that larger consciousness, using a primal language (the theatre) to help it tell its stories? Once the story is acted on the stage, the living community engages in interactive, Forum Theatre, creating a true community-based dialogue. Theatre for Living is about empowerment - about people being the experts in their own lives and being able to use theatre as a means of creating change. The process gives a community the opportunity to develop "emotional intelligence" — using a symbolic language to investigate alternative approaches to hard-to-talk-about issues. This is a first step towards dealing with difficult topics — moving towards open communication and realities that living communities want in an active and entertaining way.
About Headlines Theatre
Headlines is a professional theatre company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada under the artistic direction of co-founder, David Diamond. Since its founding in 1981, Headlines has been working in the area of community-based, issue-oriented theatre. We have performed extensively throughout B.C., Canada and internationally with traditional style plays such as Buy, Buy, Vancouver, Under the Gun, The Enemy Within, NO` XYA` (Our Footprints), Mamu: the currency of life and THIR$TY as well as mainstage Forum Theatre (audience-interactive) productions such as ¿Sanctuary?, Out of the Silence, The Dying Game, Squeegee, Corporate U, Don't Say a Word, Practicing Democracy, Here and Now, and Meth, which was renamed Shattering for a western Canada tour.
Since 1985 Headlines has facilitated over 430 Theatre for Living projects! Theatre by the community and for the community. The company has worked with many groups including: First Nations, refugees, women's groups, environmentalists, street youth and clerical workers (to name just a few) in many countries around the world. We were also commissioned by the Federal Government to work in School Districts across Canada doing Power Plays around issues of racism and violence. In 1996/97 the Company toured into eleven First Nations communities throughout BC (in partnership with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and Native Families in Crisis) training counselors in Theatre for Living techniques and creating community-specific plays on issues arising out of Residential School issues. This project was called Reclaiming Our Spirits. In 2004 Practicing Democracy was used to put over 90 recommendations forward to Vancouver City Council that dealt with issues of chronic poverty.
Theatre for Living gives workshop participants the opportunity to experience theatre in a different way - not as something that is outside their lives, mysterious and inaccessible, but as a natural language. Culture, after all, used to be ordinary people singing, dancing, painting, carving and telling stories. If we can reclaim cultural expression as part of our everyday vocabulary - a common language that we use to tell our own collective stories - we are one step closer to being balanced both as individuals and as communities.
"I would like to thank you for changing my life. Yes, changing my life. I only wish I would have gone through this as a teen. I was so shy, timid, low self-esteem, just waiting and hoping to change and I did by taking risks throughout your Headlines' Theatre for Living training . You made me realize I can act and have fun without making a fool of myself and feeling stupid. Everyone else in that hall did the same as me, we were as one."
Bev Stacey, workshop participant
"Being trained in the Theatre for Living work has opened the world to me. As a Child and Youth Programmer and a group facilitator, with TFL Training I have been able to work with youth and use these techniques to help youth explore their own struggles and find ways of defeating them. TFL techniques empower youth to see how they can achieve success or simply stand their ground. I have seen youth come together to brainstorm, find solutions and even just better understand their surroundings. All of which are important to the growth and development of any teen."
Nicole McRae, Youth Worker
Components of Theatre for Living
Rainbow of Desire (three hour conference or one day)
As a one-day workshop, after a half-day of warm ups and group building work, the Rainbow of Desire explores our own internal voices that complicate our relationships with other people and stop us from achieving our goals. This series of transformative techniques allows us to see how we contain many different desires and fears at any one time. The exercise is not a psychoanalysis of an individual, but rather an exploration of a metaphor that reflects the group consciousness as the particular relationship offered becomes a symbol for the entire workshop group to investigate blockages around a certain issue. By learning to identify these internal voices, we begin the process of understanding ourselves and each other. We learn how to navigate multi-layered moments in complex relationships.
• Rainbow of Desire is also available as a three hour event. In this case an audience of up to 300 comes into a performance space. The Rainbow comes from them.
"I often think about my participation in that phenomenal Rainbow of Desire process at the CAPACOA Conference in Ottawa; the experience started me down a different path here at Arena Stage. Even in my own life I am thinking about my own motivations, the subtext that underlines my personal speech, and how I couple physical expression with speech. And it all started with that evening in Ottawa."
Neill Roan, Director of External Affairs,
Arena Stage, Washington, DC
Cops in the Head - and their Anti-bodies
(three hour conference or one day)
As a one-day workshop, after a half-day of group building work, Cops in the Head addresses those internal voices that have embedded themselves in our psyche. It is not always external forces that we struggle against - sometimes internalized voices that originate from other people are equally powerful. Cops in the Head are the voices of people who put up stop-signs and say, "you can't do that", "you're stupid", "no good" etc. — people who have somehow blocked us and over time have taken up residence inside us, affecting the way each of us listens, sees and acts. This workshop helps participants and communities identify these voices and liberate themselves in a creative and entertaining way.
• Cops in the Head is also available as a three hour event. In this case an audience of up to 300 comes into a performance space. The Cops comes from them.
"The work that Headlines accomplishes, not only in Vancouver but all over our province, restores my own faith that change for the better can happen for youth who, at the moment, feel there is no future for them. The work done here with Cops in the Head will substantially effect how these young people will deal with confrontation in their futures. New ways to deal with their anger and frustration can lead them toward of feelings of success rather than failure, power rather than powerlessness and "I have a choice" rather than reacting with rage. It is hard to find the brilliant words I need in order to express my thanks enough."
Wendy Wood, Youth Programmer, The Gathering Place
Rainbow of Desire or the Cops in the Head are included as part of a full Power Play session (see below) on the second or third day of the workshop.
2º of Fear and Desire (three hour event)
Cops in the Head is used to explore issues of global warming. We acknowledge that the environment is not something that is "out there", needing to be fixed, it is us. We are a part of the environment and our patterns, (our behaviours) contribute to the global warming crisis. Even though we have a deeper and deeper understanding of the issues, why do we continue to make daily decisions that contribute to the problem? What are the blockages we face to core behavioural change? A 2º of Fear and Desire event is not about convincing "others" to change their behaviours; the event is about convincing ourselves, whether "we" are environmental activists or the uninitiated. An audience of up to 300 comes into a performance space. The exercise emerges from them, with no play, no actors and no script.
" 2º of Fear and Desire was the most profound activism I have ever witnessed."
Molly Caron, audience member
Image Theatre uses image-making to help the group analyze where solutions exist and ways to manifest them. This workshop will not go to public performance, but will use the games and exercises of Theatre for Living to explore moments of struggle out of workshop participants' lives. The depth of exploration depends on the duration of the workshop and the willingness of the group. Especially in instances where there is not enough time or interest for performance, an Image Theatre workshop is a good way to introduce a community to Theatre for Living.
"David really knows what he's doing from years of practice with many kinds and sizes of groups. He swept the rest of us into a form that was not familiar to most of us. I was so overjoyed to watch the wisdom and brilliance of previously unconnected individuals made available so fast and so deeply."
Anonymous participant quoted from a letter from
Wendy Ceccherelli, Executive Director, Seattle Arts Commission
Your Wildest Dream (2 - 3 days)
This innovative workshop uses Image Theatre and Polaroid photography to help a community do positive visioning. Each day starts with group building work. Day 1 focuses on how the community may manifest dysfunction. A distilled image of the dysfunctional community is photographed and put on the wall. Day 2 distills the wildest dream of the community. This image is photographed and put on the wall, far away from the first image. On day 3 the group creates images that exist somewhere between the image of dysfunction and the dream. Each image is photographed and then a discussion ensues about where it fits between the first two images. A natural analysis takes place; as images move around, the symbolic journey becomes apparent. The community is then left with this highly symbolic "map" that leads from the image of dysfunction to the wildest dream.
Power Play including Forum Theatre (6 days)
A Power Play incorporates either Rainbow of Desire or Cops in the Head and Image Theatre and play creation to explore issues and create community-specific theatre. The end product is an audience-interactive Forum Theatre event.
Through various theatre games and exercises a Power Play builds trust and understanding within the workshop group. To a large extent these games and exercises are non-verbal. Using Image Theatre we ask participants to look into moments of struggle in their own lives. Having asked the community-based sponsor organization to pre-determine general subject matter (violence, racism, gender roles, etc.), the participants make their play(s) about issues they have identified as most important to them and their community within the subject matter under investigation.
We do not tell them what to say or what to make their play(s) about. They are the experts in their own lives — we provide investigative theatre tools and help them make the clearest and most theatrically effective plays possible. The participants do the work, empowering themselves and finding both an individual and group voice in the process - often identifying issues that restrict the development of both themselves as individuals and the living community.
Participants also learn some basic acting skills for the Forum Theatre (audience interactive) event which takes place at the end of the workshop.
"I was inspired and moved and ultimately I was changed by the (Forum Theatre) evening."
Dorothy Dittrich, audience member at a Street Youth Forum
Forum Theatre is a unique type of participatory theatre. The play that develops out of the workshop is usually quite short — perhaps 3 - 5 minutes in duration. It is run once, all the way through, so the audience can see the situation and the problems presented. The play builds to a crisis and stops there, offering no solutions. The play is then run again, with audience members able to "freeze" the action at any point where they see a character struggling with a problem. An audience member yells "stop!", comes into the playing area, replaces the character s/he recognizes is in a moment of struggle, and tries out his/her idea. We call this an 'intervention'. The Forum Theatre event is vibrant and empowering for all concerned. From a group of 20 participants there will usually be 3 short plays. The entire community event is, ideally, 2 - 21/2 hours long.
"Now I understand why theatre fundamentally exists and what it can do. Communication for a reason—to help, heal, and activate people. Thank you for revealing that to me."
Karen Rose, audience member at OUT OF THE SILENCE Forum
"I was impressed with the way Don't Say a Word created a space for people to grapple with issues of violence in very real and meaningful ways. It was fabulous to see the engagement of the audience, particularly the youth, in creating new possibilities. I was struck by the multitude of openings for change highlighted in the production, and it prompted me to consider the opportunities I have in my life to make 'insightful interventions'. I left the production feeling very hopeful and inspired."
Desiree Sattler, audience member
" Practicing Democracy provided its audiences and workshop participants with lived experience of democratic process linked to fierce, compassionate art practice, and that's the sort of experience that can be habit forming. Once again this courageous theatre company has expanded the boundaries of what we can expect from theatre and from our political masters. Headlines Theatre continues to be one of the nation's hidden cultural treasures."
Tom Sandborn, Columbia Journal
Theatre for Living Training including Forum Theatre (6 days)
A six day intensive training, valuable for anyone who is interested in using the language of the theatre as a part of their everyday vocabulary — artists, activists, social workers, educators, etc. The only way to give people Theatre for Living techniques is to do the work with them subjectively. Be prepared to use your own life experiences (as someone who works or is interested in working "in community") as subject matter. We will spend one hour each day (starting on day 2) looking objectively at the previous day's work.
"It is wonderful to be in the presence of a teacher who has worked with the same set of techniques for decades, and honed them sharper and sharper. David's work is inspiring because it is both great theatre and great activism, and comes from a deeply thought out philosophical position."
Robin Davidson, workshop participant, Brisbane, Australia
"David's workshops are a great place to play and learn at the same time. I found the process challenging and yet gentle. There was space and opportunity for a diverse spectrum of people with a range of experience and skills in performance."
Neil Simmons, workshop participant, Brisbane, Australia