WHAT?
Drama Queens (DQ) is an intensive two week training on Theatre of the Oppressed (TotO) focusing on the LGBT+ issues. It has been supported through the Erasmus+ mechanism. The training will provide us with knowledge and skills to be able to use TotO it in our activism and education. You can find more DETAILS below.
WHEN? WHERE?
12 - 20 September 2017 &
25 November - 3 December 2017
The Czech Republic & the Slovak Republic
WHO?
youth workers & educators & activists on LGBT+ issues
from BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, GREECE, GERMANY, ITALY, ROMANIA, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, THE NETHERLANDS,
Requierements :
NOT required:
- sufficient English language skills to participate
- experience and practice in a human rights education (HRE) of any shape or form;
- interest in using TotO method in your work;
- ability to perfom in front of an audience and communicate with the audiance;
- interest in perfoming;
- team work – we will be building TotO together;
- ready for the intensive work;
- basic information about the Theatre of the Oppressed;
- commitment to participation at the both phases;
- participation fee - 50€.
NOT required:
- theatrical skills;
- acting skills;
- TotO experience;
Details
Drama Queens is a 14 day training (divided into two week long phases) in the techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed (TotO) with a focus on the method of Forum Theatre. This method offers empowerment to disadvantaged groups through the innovative cooperative theatrical expression.
Practice of TotO facilitates communication of dividing topics and resolution of fuelled conflicts. It allows transformation of audience's understanding of the topics by active involvement of spectators into the process. It is an effective tool for a social change.
The goal of the training is to provide 22 participants, who work on LGBTIAQ+ issues, with knowledge, skills and experience that will allow them to build and conduct a Forum on their own and independently use it afterwards.
The training is mostly build around practical exercises. We will learn through the experience of building the Forum together during the training. We will examine together various essential techniques and roles under the professional supervision. We will also learn about historical and theoretical background of the method and it's relation to wider human rights education methods/tools.
the TRAINING
The training consist of two 7 day phases with a compulsory practice between the phases.
The first phase (13 - 19 September 2017) will focus on the knowledge/skills/experiences of the TotO method necessary for each of us to build a Forum on our own during the interval between the two phases.
Interphase (October - November) We will be encouraged to build our own small-scale Forum between the phases the 1st and 2nd phase. This practical experience is the main input for the second phase and development of our skills. We will be provided with an online supervision during the preparation process.
The second phase (late November - December) will continue with a feedback on the practice and its improvement. We will deepen the knowledge base and add more techniques to our TotO repertoire. We will also perform a Forum that we build together during the trainings with a live audience, at the end.
Training hours Training consists of 60 hours on the Theatre of the Oppressed led by the trainer Martina Čurdová.
40 hours of practical exercises, including performances.
20 hours of theory, history, reflection of practice and planning for the individual Forum building, etc.)
The cost Food and accommodation are covered by the organiser and participants will receive a grant to cover their travel up to 180€ for participants from Czech Republic and Slovak Republic and up to 275€ for participants from Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Romania (per each phase).
the TRAINER
My name is Martina Čurdová. I am a theatre director, performer and lecturer. I studied at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. In a search for different approaches to theatre I went to Spain and Brasil to learn Theatre of the Oppressed and other forms od social theatre. I studied at Centre Cívic in Barcelona and at CTO in Rio de Janeiro, working with excluded communities in Latin America and Spain. Back in CZ I founded an NGO called Theatre of the Oppressed Laboratory, applying theatre as a tool of personal liberation and social transformation. I works mainly with marginalized communities, using diverse techniques ranging from TotO to new circus. You can find a few more words from me on the Drama Queens training below.
Theatre of the Oppressed
Theatre of the Oppressed is a set of theatre techniques that Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal has been elaborating throughout his life, initially in Brazil and later in Europe. When the dictatorship started in Brasil in 1964, he begun to search for theatre forms to make people aware of the situation and motivate them to take action in their everyday lives. Boal's techniques use theatre as means of empowering communities and promoting personal, social and political change.
During our training we will focus on Forum theatre. It's creative, fun and powerful technique which explores different solutions to problems or conflicts we all deal with – in family, in relationships, at school, in a community or in public spaces. During Forum performance actors reveal a problem and invite the audience to come up and search for solutions on stage. In this way people learn together and train themselves in safe space of fiction to solve conflicts and deal with difficult situations in their own lives. The process will be divided in three parts: two residential trainings with practice in between them.
The first phase will be interactive and practical, with solid theoretical background. We'll start with games to energize our bodies and minds and connect with each other. Next we'll go through theatre excersises and Image theatre technique that help you to know better the community you work with and to see what are the possible conflicts and oppressions they face. We will then share stories and build Forum performances, using various rehearsal techniques. We'll also try out to facilitate the audience interventions to see how it all works together.
We will make every step conscious through reflection and discuss all the questions or doubts that might emerge during the process. We will go through all the aspects of building the Forum theatre, so that participants will get ready to design, run and evaluate a workshop with their own community as a practice between the two trainings.
During the the second phase we will share and reflect our practice experience and have a closer look at other techniques, such as Newspaper theatre or Aesthetics oft he Oppressed. We will also perform in public together and search for possibilities how to implement TO in everyone's work.
You don't need any acting skills or theatre experience to join this workshop, Forum is based on the idea that everyone can make theatre, even the actors!
See you soon,
Martina
During our training we will focus on Forum theatre. It's creative, fun and powerful technique which explores different solutions to problems or conflicts we all deal with – in family, in relationships, at school, in a community or in public spaces. During Forum performance actors reveal a problem and invite the audience to come up and search for solutions on stage. In this way people learn together and train themselves in safe space of fiction to solve conflicts and deal with difficult situations in their own lives. The process will be divided in three parts: two residential trainings with practice in between them.
The first phase will be interactive and practical, with solid theoretical background. We'll start with games to energize our bodies and minds and connect with each other. Next we'll go through theatre excersises and Image theatre technique that help you to know better the community you work with and to see what are the possible conflicts and oppressions they face. We will then share stories and build Forum performances, using various rehearsal techniques. We'll also try out to facilitate the audience interventions to see how it all works together.
We will make every step conscious through reflection and discuss all the questions or doubts that might emerge during the process. We will go through all the aspects of building the Forum theatre, so that participants will get ready to design, run and evaluate a workshop with their own community as a practice between the two trainings.
During the the second phase we will share and reflect our practice experience and have a closer look at other techniques, such as Newspaper theatre or Aesthetics oft he Oppressed. We will also perform in public together and search for possibilities how to implement TO in everyone's work.
You don't need any acting skills or theatre experience to join this workshop, Forum is based on the idea that everyone can make theatre, even the actors!
See you soon,
Martina