Educational Workshop: Forum Theatre for young people
May 28, 2023
This workshop forms part of our Refugee Week Malta Programme and aims to provide creative and accessible opportunities for children to raise awareness about seeking safety, inclusion and community-building while nurturing spaces for discussion, debate and problem solving.
Refugee Week Malta is part of a global movement that seeks to celebrate the creativity and resilience of people seeking refuge. We, Dance Beyond Borders, are the local producers that work in collaboration with others to curate a week-long programme of activities in line with the yearly theme. The theme for 2023 is Compassion and we wanted to include an Education Initiative as part of this year’s programme. We seek to explore innovative educational initiatives that nurture critical thinking and discussion around the social issue of Migration amongst young people.
A two hour workshop that will present an overview of Augusto Boal and Forum Theatre (to introduce the methodology we will be presenting), we will engage in a warm up and then experience and engage with the Forum Theatre piece. Forum theatre is exciting and interactive for all participants, as well as being a great form of engaging and educational entertainment. It highlights sensitive dilemmas in a safe environment and provides positive solutions. It aims to stimulate debate and most importantly develop learning and alter behaviour.
Boal was a Brazilian play writer who created the Theater of the Oppressed; a form of interactive theater intended to transform lives as spectators become performers, acting out solutions to social problems. In Forum Theatre, actors perform a short scene based on an event involving oppression. Spectators are encouraged to suggest and enact solutions to the problem in the scene.
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