The HATS Manual -> The Methodology -> Activities

From Monologue to Dialogue: Action Theatre Activities or Workshops

The eight stages in the Action Theatre process are:

• Theatre games include warm ups and theatre exercises designed to challenge participants to distinguish between hearing, listening, feeling, and seeing.



• Sharing stories and identifying issues, for example: elder abuse, problem gambling, substance abuse, seniors' safety.



• Developing the story and creating a play which depicts the anti-model. The anti-model shows the problematic situation, or a situation of oppression to be corrected before potentially becoming more severe.



• Performing the play in front of a large group of spect-actors, audience-players.



• The forum will engage participants in the discussion of the issues depicted in the play, inclusive of any issues not explicitly referred to in the play, but emerging from the discussion itself. The construction of a shared group experience provides a non-threatening environment allowing participants to openly reflect on their experiences.



• Interplay between players and audience of the possible solutions to the problems and analysis of each intervention (for its practicality and identification of barriers that can prevent people from acting upon the possible/chosen solutions).



• Determination of the conditions and tools, which may need to be in place in order for people to be able to tackle the problem(s) for example: more language/translation resources, culturally appropriate services.



• Reflecting on the workshop, including lessons learned and practical next steps.