A World of Dialogue
Nine projects from across the globe

Rotterdam/Paris/Rio, May 2003: ITO lives! In the passing months, many colleagues reacted very positively to the birth of the ITO. It is regarded as another step to tie the world of TO more closely together, to create opportunities for a wider use and to achieve recognition on every possible level. We have been working hard to prepare a document that will be sent to governments, international organisations and foundations, to convince them to support and stimulate the practice of Theatre of the Oppressed. The document contains the declaration of principles, published in Under Pressure 12/13, and a list of what we called exemplary projects.

Exemplary Projects
This issue of Under Pressure presents you the full text of these projects. They represent a cross-section of what Theatre of the Oppressed has already achieved in many areas of global society: human rights, health, education, prisons, democracy, rural areas, civil war areas, sustainable development and therapy. The list is not exclusive, we could have taken in many more successful projects, but a choice was made to select one project from every region of the world. We hope this list will encourage others to send in information about their projects as well, so that we can publish them in the following issues of Under Pressure. The most important thing about ITO is exchange. It can be very stimulating and inspiring to learn about the activities of others, it can create networks and even projects developed in collaboration.

Ambassadors
We are also sending the document to potential ambassadors of ITO, people of public renown who want to contribute to the development of Theatre of the Oppressed both in their country as well as internationally. Among the first ambassadors are Jack Lang, former French Minister of Culture, Adriane Mnouchkine, artistic director of Theatre du Soleil and the famous journalist and photographer Sebastião Salgado. If you know any people in your country we should contact, please let us know! If contacts already exist, you can present them this issue of Under Pressure, along with a copy of the Declaration of Principles in the relevant language.

Flying Jokers
In the following weeks, the grant applications for the Flying Jokers project will be distributed to international funding agencies. The preparations for this first ITO project (see Under Pressure 12/13) have already commenced. A meeting in Mostar, the designated location for the project, will take place this summer. ITO is also involved in the development of an HIV/AIDS prevention project in Ethiopia, which has a significant TO component and could boost the implementation of TO in Africa.

The condensed version of the project outline of Flying Jokers is also part of this issue. If you would like to become one of those Flying Jokers, please let us know. We are especially looking for emerging TO practitioners from countries where the number of training facilities is low.

You can contact us in the following languages through:
julian.boal@libertysurf.fr (French and Portuguese)
lucopdebeeck@formaat.org (Dutch and English)
ramatthyssen@formaat.org (German and Spanish)

Please forward this issue of Under Pressure to as many people as you can!

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I. Forum Theatre and Human Rights

Human Rights in Africa
Amnesty International Special Programme on Africa, Amsterdam
in association with Amani People’s Theatre, Nairobi, Kenya

Summary
The project’s aim was to encourage the use of forum theatre as a tool in raising human rights awareness among the rural population in Africa. The training package consisted of a practical written manual and a video film, illustrating an example of a forum theatre event in a Kenyan community. In Kenya, representatives from 4 communities in two different parts of the country underwent a 2-week forum theatre training by APT in Nairobi. The theme was 'Violence against women'. Subsequently, the participants performed their forums in their local communities, within the context of the Good Governance programme of local NGO’s. The project was carried out in 2002.

Number of participants (only Kenya)
Participants attending the training: 12
Spect-actors during performances: 200

Techniques used
Image Theatre, Forum Theatre.

Follow-up
Three of the 4 Kenyan community representatives have formed amateur theatre groups in their own communities and the partner organisations are developing now plans to integrate forum theatre in their on- going projects and are constructing follow-up forum training activities for the groups. In Sierra Leone training was provided to representatives from 4 amateur theatre groups under coordination of Conciliation Resources and Amnesty International Sierra Leone. In this case the issue was 'Access to justice'. A draft of the manual was tested in spring 2003 in Mali with 3 amateur theatre groups under coordination of the Centre Djoliba and Amnesty International Mali.

Publications
1. Video Forum Against Violence aimed at African human right organisations, ngo’s and theatre makers
2. Manual (2004)

Organisations
Amnesty International SPA
Dutch Section
Jet Vos (consultant)
PO Box 1968
1000 BZ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone +31 30 2393317
jet.vos@theater.hku.nl

Amani People’s Theatre
PO Box 13909
Nairobi
Kenya
Phone +254 2 577892
apt@alphanet.co.ke

Funding
Dutch Lottery Fund

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II. Forum Theatre in Rural Areas

CTO India
Jana Sanskriti, West Bengal, India

Summary
In 1986, Jana Sanskriti came into being with a deep commitment towards building up of a cultural movement. Firm belief in the strength and efficacy of theatre as a tool not only of communication but also of empowerment has resulted in the formation of as many as 30 theatre teams active under the banner of Jana Sanskriti today. Each of these teams comprises men and women from agricultural worker families who have to depend on daily wages for a livelihood.

Activities
• The Jana Sanskriti teams rehearse and perform theatre on a regular basis. They also meet for workshops every other month. While there are women members in all Jana Sanskriti teams, in 1996 Jana Sanskriti began work with only-women groups and today there are 8 all-women theatre teams active in rural Bengal, each meeting regularly for theatre rehearsals and workshops. They also put up performances regularly.
• Jana Sanskriti has been campaigning for construction of a Mukta Mancha in every village since 1995. The Mukta Mancha is an open stage built for Jana Sanskriti by the people, it is a symbol of collective achievement as much as it is a space for meetings, rehearsals and festivals.
• Maasanta Parab (monthly cultural festivals in rural areas), cultural campaigns on local issues are some of our regular activities
• Jana Sanskriti is working towards the formation of Human Rights Protection Committees in its core area in West Bengal. These Committees are envisaged to be the foundation of civil society, a society based on cooperation, humanity and non-violence.

Number of participants
At present Jana Sanskriti is working in 7 states of India and has a membership of a little over 500. The 30 teams reach more than 3.000 people on a regular basis.

Techniques used
Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, Legislative Theatre

Follow-up
Jana Sanskriti's theatre has thus played a significant role in empowering individuals as well as communities. It has dealt with a variety of issues ranging from payment of equal wages to women and men, alcoholism and atrocities on women to citizens' rights, awareness on women's health education, corruption within the political system, the common man’s right to information etc.

Organisation
Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed
‘Girish Bhavan’, 42A Thakuhat Road
PO Badu, North 24 Parganas
West Bengal. Pin – 700 128
India
Phone: +91 33 2538 4540/ +91 33 2538 1768
email: theatre@vsn1.com

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III. Forum Theatre in Civil War Areas

Abu Shaker 2002 – the Instructor
Ashtar Theatre, Ramallah, Palestine

Summary
Every year since 1997 Ashtar Theatre has been producing a Forum Play that targets the local audiences, especially those in rural areas; women, marginalized groups and school students in accordance with the topics dealt with at the forum production of that year. The theme of the play of 2002 is the vicious circle of violence that has been observed developing at schools - due to the political, economical and social injustice imposed on the Palestinian people. Oppressed societies – if they turn pathetic - usually grow a tendency to abuse their members as an unconscious defence mechanism, unaware that through such mannerism they internalize the characteristics of their oppressors.

Number of participants
Spect-actors during performances of Abu Shaker 2002: 2,698 students from November 2002-February 2003 (tour continues until June 2003)
Spect-actors since 1997: 83,370 people in 55 villages, 17 cities and 9 refugee camps in Palestine and in Jordan.

Techniques used
Forum Theatre

Follow-up
In accordance with the creation of a national school curriculum by the Palestinian National Authority, Ashtar Theatre initiated a two-year “Drama Teachers’ Training” program to carry out the new curriculum. Last year the pilot project started with a number of 22 teachers trainees, and the number will be tripled by next year.

Publications
1. Forum Theatre Empowers Palestinian Women, by E.C. Green PhD. – research report on Abu Shaker 2000
2. Various articles in Metaxis, international magazine for Theatre of the Oppressed, published by CTO Rio
3. Website www.ashtar-theatre.org

Organisation
Ashtar Theatre
PO Box 2127
Ramallah, Palestine
Tel. 2980037
fax 2960326
email: ashtar@p-ol.com

Funding
CARE International

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IV. Forum Theatre and Sustainable Development

Corporate U
Headlines Theatre in association with Check Your Head Vancouver, BC, Canada

Summary
Corporate U was a Forum Theatre production that was developed with anti-globalization activists in Vancouver. It's purpose was two-fold: 1. To interconnect and energize the activist community in Vancouver and, 2. To create a global dialogue, using Forum Theatre, about the connections between people's lives on a grassroots level, the corporatization of education, and issues of globalization (corporate relationship to developing nations). We turned a local theatre venue into the "Corporate University Campus". We broadcast one of the Forums live and interactive, on local community television and the web, taking Forum interventions live from around the world, including one from Croatia. We also know that people in Turkey, Australia and Japan participated in the online discussion. The project generated an increased awareness of development issues both in Vancouver and around the world.

Number of participants
Participants attending the various activities: 30
Spect-actors during performances: > 25,000

Techniques used
Image Theatre, Forum Theatre, Corporations in Our Heads, live video streaming.

Follow-up
There was no specific follow-up on this project. However, it was the first Forum web cast in history and we are continuing to develop our use of this technology.

Publications
1. Final Report Corporate U
2. Various articles in local Vancouver newspapers, Globe and Mail (national)
3. Website www.headlinestheatre.com

Organisations
Headlines Theatre
#323-350 East 2nd Ave.
Vancouver, BC
Canada V5T 4R8
604-871-0508 (ph)
604-871-0209 (fax)
info@headlinestheatre.com

Check Your Head
503-207 West Hastings St.
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6B 1H7
604-685-6631 (ph)
604-688-5756 (fax)
info@checkyourhead.org

Funding
Canada Council, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, Melusine Foundation, Rogers Community 4 TV, Donner Canadian Foundation, VanCity Savings Credit Union, Columbia Foundation, BC Ministry of Multiculturalism and Immigration, Vancouver Foundation, BC Federation of Labour, BC Gaming Commission

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V. Prison Theatre

Staging Human Rights
People’s Palace Projects – London, UK
CTO Rio de Janeiro
FUNAP – São Paulo, Brazil

Summary
Staging Human Rights/Direitos Humanos em Cena was a one year-project carried out in 34 prisons in the State of São Paulo, Brazil in 2001. The aim was to create effective means to improve the conditions of implementing human rights and citizenship for prisoners and staff of the Prison System in the State of São Paulo. The project culminated in the presentation of three Forums by female and male prisoners and prison guards at the Carandiru Prison. Staging Human Rights included a research programme which gave evidence of an increased consciousness of human rights for a vast majority of the participants.

Number of participants
Participants attending the various activities: > 2000
Spect-actors during performances: > 2000

Techniques used
The programme consisted of a series of activities and events that gradually establish spaces for dialogue between the prison and civil society. These were human rights workshops, human rights dialogues, Public Forums, Regional Forums and State-wide Legislative Theatre Forum.

Follow-up
The method employed in the described project is currently implemented in over 100 prison all over Brazil.

Publications
1. Interim Report Staging Human Rights 1
2. Various articles in Metaxis, international magazine for Theatre of the Oppressed
3. Website www.peoplespalace.org
4. Website www.ctorio.com.br

Organisations
People’s Palace Productions
School of English and Drama,
Queen Mary, University of London,
Mile End Road.
London E1 4NS,
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)207 882 7823

CTO Rio de Janeiro
Av. Rio Branco 179 6° andar
Centro – Rio de Janeiro RJ
Brasil
Phone: +55 21 2220 7940

Funding
UK Community Fund

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VI. Forum Theatre in Education

Jus’ Once
Arts-in-Action, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago

Summary
Jus Once! was initiated in order to encourage Trinbagonians to look inside themselves and their environment for answers and strategies to reduce and control the growth of all sexually transmitted diseases, but particularly HIV/AIDS which is known to be at epidemic levels in the Caribbean. Jus Once! seeks to present interactive and participational productions that explore the reasons and forces behind the continuing growth of HIV within rural and urban areas in Trinidad and Tobago. It attempts to correct negative stereotypes and myths about HIV/AIDS and to address the taboos applied to this disease. The audiences include school children in classrooms, youths and community members at diverse rural ‘limeing spots’ (for example, outside a village bar, on a street corner, or in a community basketball court) and urban corporate businessmen and women

Number of participants
Spect-actors during performances: > 10,000

Techniques used
Image Theatre, Forum Theatre

Follow-up
“Jus' Once" and it's follow up production are now in the repertoire of Arts-in-Action shows and is continually being performed for schools and communities, and at events such as conferences, special workshops or congresses, etc.

It has also been put forward to other funding agencies, and recently a modified version was featured at the Regional UNESCO & National Commission of T&T - International Year of Water Conference for the National Human Development Launch.

Organisation
University of the West Indies
Centre for Creative and Festival Arts
Arts-in-Action
St. Augustine
Trinidad & Tobago
email: artsinaction@tstt.net.tt or festival@tstt.net.tt

Funding
The Canada Fund

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VII. STI/HIV/AIDS

Wan Smolbag Theatre
Port Vila, Vanuatu

Summary
For the last 14 years Wan Smolbag has been doing work on STI/HIV/AIDS in Vanuatu and in other Pacific countries.

Number of participants
Participants attending the various activities: > 2000
Spect-actors during performances: > 20,000

Techniques used
The programme uses various techniques; drama videos, stage dramas and interactive sketches or ‘walking biological diagrams’ in which actors portray sti germs, sperm, eggs. These sketches are stopped and the spect-actors asked to comment on them suggest alternatives, ask for changes. The group also works with nurses, teachers etc on using innovative techniques for discussing sensitive Reproductive Health topics. These have been collected in a guide, Drama in Reproductive Health. The group has also built a reproductive health clinic on to the back of the theatre staffed by 2 nurses and 8 peer educators in order to office improved service delivery to settlement areas.

Follow-up
Nurses, theatre groups using the methodology around the Pacific. Wan smolbag employs 2 full time research officers who follow up on the group’s tours and activities

Publications
1. Drama in reproductive Health, a guide.
2. A volume of 4 plays on Reproductive health
3. Website http://www.wan-smolbag-theatre.org/
4. Video production: Positive
5. Research office reports

Organisations
Wan smolbag theatre,
Port Vila
Vanuatu
South Pacific
Tel 678/27119
Email smolbag@vanuatu.com.vu

Funding
UNFPA.
New Zealand Aid.
Ausaid.
Packard foundation.

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VIII. Legislative Theatre

Rehearsal for Reality/Agora 2002
Theatr Fforwm Cymru, Cardigan, Wales

Summary
Rehearsal for Reality is a 4-year programme involving an introductory phase, in which the method was presented to the communities by a legislative piece, an affiliation phase in which 14 organisations joined the programme, a Forum and Joker training phase and a development phase in which each community developed a piece of legislative theatre. The Agora 2002 event, which took place in front of the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff, showed the 14 performances, along with the interventions by the spect-actors, during three days. A total of 65 policy proposals were derived from the performances and will be taken into the National Assembly of Wales in the year 2003.

Number of participants
Group members: > 150
Spect-actors during performances: ± 500

Techniques used
Forum Theatre, transforming into Legislative Theatre

Follow-up
Agora 2003 will feature the Metabolising Cell phase, in which after each Legislative Theatre piece, the Joker chairs a meeting between actors, decision makers, legal experts and the scribe. The specific aim of this meeting is to draft a Policy Proposal.

Publications
1. The Agora Report (manual)
2. The Agora Report (CD-ROM)
3. Website www.agora2002.org

Organisation
Theatr Fforwm Cymru
New Hill
Goodwick
Pembrokeshire
Wales SA64 0DR
Phone: +44 1348 873805
Email : fforwm@aol.com

Funding
National Assembly of Wales
Arts Council of Wales
Lankelly Trust

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IX. Theatre in Therapy

Le Bocage
Centre for child psychiatry

Summary
Since 1985, Serge Saccon (specialised educator) and Jean-Pierre Pichon (psychiatric nurse) gathered a team of professionals in mental health around the idea “how to use the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed in child psychiatry”. The group was created to acknowledge two different types of interventions:
- in the context of schools, with children of all ages and their teachers, aiming at prevention
- in the context of hospitals, with psychotic or autistic children, or with other symptoms, e.g. inhibition, hyperactivity, personality disorders and suspected abuse.

Number of participants
- More than 400 children practiced Theatre of the Oppressed under the responsibility of 16 animators
- More than 200 persons from different hospital professions (nurses, care assistants, psychologists) were trained in the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed, which resulted in doctors in the region prescribing Theatre of the Oppressed as a therapeutic method
At the moment, some 60 juveniles (between 7 and 17 years of age) participate in Theatre of the Oppressed workshops as part of their therapy.

Techniques used
Forum Theatre, Rainbow of Desire, Cop-in-the-Head, games and exercises.

Follow-up
The medical follow-up, confirmed by the doctor or psychologist in duty, points at significant improvement in the condition of the children in treatment, which has lead to a large increase in the demand for training by the hospital staff. This treatment method was recognized as innovative by the French Health Ministry.
A document is being prepared which evaluates the impact of our activities in primary prevention work, carried out in public education from Kindergarten age until the age of 16-18. The report will be based on evaluation grids, collected during the passing 5 years.

Publications
« Les soins pour enfants et adolescents» in :Soins Psychiatriques, Guide des Innovation, published by the «Mission nationale d’appui et Santé Mentale», editions Heure de France, Paris 1996.

Organisations
Fondation Bon Sauveur
50630 Picauville
France

Le Bocage, centre de psychiatrie infantile
309, av. de la Banque-à-Genêts
50470 La Glacerie
France

Contact:
jeanpierre.pichon@wanadoo.fr
saccon.serge@wanadoo.fr

Under Pressure 14, May 2003