© 2008 - The Drama Centre Malta , All rights reserved.
Abstract:
"All the world's a stage,
And all men and women merely players"
(Shakespeare: 'As you like it' - Act II Scene VII)
Life is like a 'stage' where in everyday life we take on different roles that are ascribed to us in a variety of ways. Organizational members are also role players on the organizational stage. Corporate actors feel the necessity to adapt their work roles to changing environmental conditions making change possible. Training of human resources is thus a rehearsal for the daily performance. The theatrics metaphor allows analyzing organizational behavior and opens for a different understanding of everyday organizational life.
Organisations, nowadays, have recognised the important role that training plays in contributing to organisation effectiveness. Training is vital for the transmission of knowledge and for furthering human learning and development.
For training to be effective, it must not concentrate solely on content but must take into account the various ways different people learn and adapt methods to facilitate their learning.
One aspect of effective adult training is active learning. Facilitators need to do away with the old image of talk and chalk and teacher-centred methods. Participants have to be active in the learning process in order to break the 'ironclad bonds of conformity' described by Rogers (1993). Researchers in adult learning emphasise the need for participation in the learning process in order for learning to take place (Suanmali 1981, James 1983). For many people, learning is a dynamic process.
Therefore, participative training methods are a very important aspect of the adult training repertoire. There exist a variety of such methods that can be utilised for effective learning. One such medium is the use of drama. Drama-based training is both accessible and experiential. It is a medium that facilitates the learning experience through which the individual acquires the necessary abilities to perform better. This medium is becoming a prime means to training and educating the workforce. Theatre techniques are increasingly being used to help employees understand the variety of issues that arise in their organisation and to enable them to adapt to change.
Theatrical interventions in organizations are not as new as it might appear. In a way, organisations are re-discovering the wheel. They are reverting to educating techniques, which have been effective since time immemorial. The techniques and the imaginative potency of theatre have been applied over the ages for educational purposes. Even in the ancient world there was a tradition of using theatre to express concerns, to reveal conflicts, to reflect plans and to initiate discussions on topical issues. Theatre was a natural element of the political life and public discourse in the Greek Polis; a forum for forming an opinion and for keeping the system open to changes. Playwrights from Sophocles to Brecht have used their plays to teach, to convey facts, political attitudes or moral instruction to their audiences. Moreover, throughout the ages, many people acknowledged the transforming effects of drama. In a somewhat similar way, organizations in many countries have recently started to use the medium of theatre. Many organizations (in particular corporations) are currently considering working with organizational theatre.
When doing organisational theatre, the audience (department, division etc.) experiences the performance. In doing so the people do not observe primarily actors and a (good or bad) play, they observe the result of observations others have made in their organization, i.e. the observations of the author, the director, the stage designer and the actors. Through these plays, members of the audience watch their daily work routines, their conventions, conflicts between departments etc. performed on stage from the angle of the artists resulting from their (professional) observations and their construction of the observed reality. These observations, communicated on the stage confront the members of the audience (the observer of the observations) with a new reality, which differs from their usual construction of reality. It enables the audience to view different and simultaneous realities and thus it initiates a process of reflection: Why do we do what we do the way we do it?
Organisational theatre confronts the members of the audience with a different perspective of their own reality and thereby initiates a closer examination of the habituated patterns of behaviour, established perceptual constructions or prejudicial views.
One of the medium used in organisational theatre is Forum Theatre which was developed by Augusto Boal, a Brazilian theatre director. Boal experimented with many kinds of interactive theatre, in an effort to transform theatre from the 'monologue' of traditional performance into a 'dialogue' between audience and the stage. Boal used the word 'spect-actor' to describe a member of the audience who takes part in the action in any way. The spect-actor is an active spectator, as opposed to the passivity normally associated with the role of audience member. Boal uses the word 'theatre' in the sense that the spectators are active participants.
Forum Theatre is a process that allows the audience to become directors and scriptwriters with a team of professional actors and/or an experienced facilitator/theatre director. It is an exciting and innovative way of exploring sensitive issues and opening up discussion for people to discuss freely.
In Forum Theatre, the problem or issue is encapsulated in a written script which allows the participants to explore the characters, personalities and issues which underline their organisation's problems. These are then 'acted' out by the group to an audience (other colleagues) who attempt to make interventions to alter the course of the dramatic action by proposing solutions using the Forum Theatre technique. Predictions are made in the written script as to when and what these interventions could be. These are then matched to the interventions that were actually made, and through reflection the audience have the opportunity in a safe, creative environment to analyse their predicted choice of actions/reactions as opposed to those that actually took place in the 'renactment'. This provides subjects with the opportunity to learn about their behaviour and attitudes in action, as well as those of others, when dealing with real organisational issues.
Forum Theatre technique’s pedagogy is based on all participants learning together, protagonist, actors and audience alike.
For Boal theatre is a form of knowledge. It should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre of the Oppressed is about acting rather than talking, questioning rather than giving answers, analysing rather than accepting. Theatre can help build our future, rather than just waiting for it. Theatre is a form of change.
Typical problem situations dramatized in organisational theatre plays are: sexual harassment, gender issues, conflicts management, communication barriers between middle and lower management, discrimination, etc.
This method of learning is effective mainly because the presentations are realistic and therefore participants can identify with the situations that are presented. The discussions that follow after the presentations help the participants to analyse and challenge the issues and implications raised during the presentation and in the discussions that follow. Two aspects, which are accented in these presentations, are participation and involvement.
Learning takes place because participants can follow through and maintain their engagement during the presentation. They can reflect and analyse the issues presented because they are detached from the event and therefore, they could take an objective view of what is being presented.
References:
James W B (1983) An Analysis of Perceptions of the Practices of Adult Educators from Five Different Settings, Proceedings of Adult Education Research Conference No 24 Montreal: Concordia University/University of Montreal
Rogers C (1993) The Carl Rogers Reader, London: Constable.
Suanmali C (1981) The Core Concepts of Andragogy, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Higher and Adult Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Pauline Attard – DPA, M.Ed in Trg & Dev (Sheffield) is involved in the planning, organisation and delivery of training programmes. Her key research interest lies in the use of drama in training (particularly in the form of role-plays, forum theatre and creative dramatics) and how this method dynamises the learning process. She has published on the use of drama-based training in Malta - Attard P (2003) ‘Drama-based Training’ in Managing People in Malta eds: Baldacchino G, Caruana A and Grixti M. Millers Distributors Ltd.
The Malta Drama Centre will be introducing a new unit entitled ‘Organisational Theatre’ in its curriculum. The first course in this series will be on ‘Sexual Harassment’. The course will be of 30 hours duration and sessions will be held every Thursday from 06.00 – 08.00 p.m. as from October 2010 For more information and booking call Malta Drama Centre on Tel: 21 220665 or e-mail: malta.drama.centre@gov.mt