Before introducing this training manual, let me first thank the wonderful staff at the Interactive Resource Centre, and especially IRC’s artistic director Mohammad Waseem, for inviting me to facilitate a Theatre of the Oppressed Joker’s training in Lahore in 2004 and for affording me the opportunity to gain a glimpse into Forum Theatre work in Pakistan. Working with theatre activists from all over rural Pakistan, on issues ranging from bonded labor to honor killings, my belief in forum theatre’s capacity to effect social change became even more devout during our week together in Lahore.
As a theatre director and forum theatre trainer in the United States, I frequently witnessed interactive theatre’s transformative capacity on issues of domestic violence, police brutality, hate crimes, deterioration of civil liberties, sexual abuse, etc. However, rarely did my theatre company address issues or conflicts as seemingly devastating as slave labor and/or honor killings. I was curious to observe forum theatre’s efficacy as a tool for social change in a context where the oppression – an essential aspect of any forum theatre presentation – was so culturally ingrained and structurally supported.
What I found in Lahore, amidst the prevailing negative stereotypes in Pakistan vis-à-vis Art, and in this case, Theatre, was a committed cadre of theatre activists with ample success stories of how theatre is transforming Pakistan. To be a theatre ‘activist’ in Pakistan is, for some traditionalists, a misnomer since theatre is typically associated with dancing, frivolity, and general irreligious behavior. Deconstructing that stereotype and legitimizing art as a respectful form of communication within Pakistan is a feat on its own – one that these theatre activists constantly strive for within their own communities.
Forum Theatre: Does it work in Pakistan?
Assisting in the legitimization process of theatre activism in Pakistan are, thankfully, the international non-governmental agencies. The aforementioned success stories have reached the ears of Pakistan’s most powerful NGOs who are now equipping their activists with a creative and practical communication tool that can effectively reach 500-600 people in a short period of time. International NGO ActionAid, for example, in their three-year report summarizing peacebuilding and development initiatives in Pakistan, listed Interactive Theatre as one of the most effective and valuable tools currently utilized by the NGO. Clearly it is working!
The most ubiquitous success story shared during the Joker training in Lahore had to do with women’s rights and gender equality. Villages that traditionally excluded female participation in public forums (or any public sphere) were now allowing and/or actively integrating women into the public arena. Serving as the emotional and psychological fuel for the forum theatre movement in Pakistan, these motivational examples were also laying the foundation for a substantiated arts-based social change movement in South Asia. How fortunate I was, as an outsider, to witness the evolution of art-activism in this religiously, socially, culturally, and politically complex context. Interactive theatre is working in Pakistan as a tool for public discourse, emotional catharsis and spiritual transformation, conflict resolution and creative problem-solving, and sustainable development – and how inspiring it is for non-Pakistani theatre practitioners (like me) to witness the phenomenal endurance and resilience of art-activists committed to social and economic justice in Pakistan. (This cross-cultural sharing of stories, approaches, and methodologies must continue – we have much to learn from each other!)
The Workshop
I entered Pakistan at an undeniably tumultuous time in international relations with the US government breathing down Pakistan’s neck vis-à-vis the ‘war on terrorism’. Amidst the political turmoil, however, the theatre activists who gathered in Lahore for the Joker training were extremely generous with me, immediately accepting me as one of their own – a gift for which I am profoundly grateful. Interestingly, I found that my North American origin was beneficial in one conversation specifically when I was asked if women in my country are victims of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. My response, of course, was an effusive and affirmative ‘Yes’, replying that it was equally prevalent in the United States. This was a heartening yet disappointing realization for my comrades at the Joker training who previously perceived Pakistan as the only country with this problem.
An equally profound and insightful moment for me as a trainer occurred during an Image Theatre session where the theatre activists were instructed to sculpt images representing different themes/subjects/ideas. ‘Honor’ was the theme chosen for this specific sculpting session and the products (i.e. sculpted images) were anything but synonymous. Not surprisingly, the men found ‘Honor’ to be something noble, worthy, and respectable, while the women associated ‘Honor’ with shame, revenge, and violence. For the female participants, ‘Honor’ was immediately connected with honor killings and, as a thematic idea, failed to resemble anything positive. The session illuminated for us the powerful impact of the theatrical image and the negative/positive perceptions our audience would also inevitably experience in future forum theatre presentations.
The entire week’s training was packed with illuminating moments like this. And thankfully so, because we convened in Lahore for this very purpose: to problem-solve some of the conflict scenarios faced in the field, in the community. Consequently, this training manual is simply an extension of that problem-solving process; a tool for current and future art-activists interested in the strategic application of an effective, creative, community-based, conflict resolution methodology.
Sections of this manual have been adapted from Augusto Boal’s book Games for Actors and Non-Actors and several sessions from the Theatre of the Oppressed training in Lahore are also documented in this manual. I hope that it is useful for you in your work and I look forward to hearing more success stories in the coming years!
- Michael Shank 2004
Art-activist Michael Shank integrates creative communication approaches into the social and environmental justice movements, primarily through arts-based peacebuilding initiatives and innovative media-based campaigns. For the past decade, Shank worked as a communications consultant/trainer for non-governmental organizations in the Philippines, Singapore, Pakistan, India, Syria, North and South Korea, and the United States. Trained as a theatre practitioner, with a Masters degree in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding, Shank uses theatre to facilitate community-based dialogue on local, national and international conflicts. Presently, he is working for the World Culture Open, an NGO with offices in New York City and South Korea promoting arts-based approaches to peacebuilding.