International Workshops on the Theatre for Development (TFD)

The growth of TFD worldwide and in Africa has followed a pattern that began with international workshops followed by a fall out of national organizations and CBOs.

The first international workshop that considered arts in development was the UNESCO workshop organizedin India in 1972 on the use of folk media in Development. Adult educators attending the workshop were dissatisfied with media packages (Kerr, 1995) and opted for the participatory bottom up approach

A second international workshop was Chalimbana workshop held in Zambia in 1979.Though attended predominantly by African delegates, there was representative from U.S.A. After Chalimbana, theatre artists and adult educators in Botswana. Swaziland and Zambia created informal networks that led to exchange of experts.

The third Workshop was the Thunder Bay workshop in 1982 held in Canada. This brought together artists from Africa, Canada, the USA. The workshop was galvanized by the slogan ‘We will turn the world bottom up” Out of that meeting rose the International Popular Theatre Newsletter which was edited by Zambia.

The fourth international workshop was held in Bangladesh in 1983 out of which emerged the International Popular Theatre Alliance. The Alliance became the umbrella organization for Popular Theatre workers. It was headquartered at the International Council for Adult Education. Other Popular Theatre Alliances such as the Nigeria Popular Theatre Alliance Zimbabwean Popular Theatre Alliance and later Zambia Popular Theatre Alliance bear the same name because of what was agreed upon in Bangladesh. The Alliance continued with production of the newsletter but on rotational basis. The International Theatre institute has not worked to expectation because it has been run on voluntary basis. When formed in 1983 it was attached to the Phillipino Educational Theatre Association and later to ICAE.

In August 1983, another international workshop was held at Murewa in Zimbabwe. Africa popular theatre activists and academicians from Eastern, Central, Southern and North Eastern and West Africa attended the Zimbabwe workshop. The workshop gave birth to the Union of African Performing Arts with Headquarters in Cameroon. The union was instrumental in organizing the Kumba workshop in Cameroon the country home for the Secretary General of the Union Dr. Ndumbe Eyoh.

The newly formed Nigeria Popular Theatre Alliance in 1989 organized an international workshop held in Benue State.In1990, the international Council Adult Education organized international workshop at Rehoboth in Namibia which brought participants from Africa. and theatre skills into local groups and together with local groups they engage communities in the theatre for development process. In theatre by the people animateurs/experts from outside train a select group of artists drawn from the community in the process.

It is an extension of theatre with the people. The target groups are the organizers, actors and disseminators of information. The role of animateurs is limited to that of trainers. Local groups identify and analyse problems, make and perform plays and conduct discussions under guidance of animateurs. The message is more important than the spectacle. Artists use minimal props and act more or less on empty stages and use their own physical and emotional resources to create spectacles that carry the message. At the end there is some plan for follow up to deal with identified solutions to the problems.

Theatre for the people predominated the work of TFD practitioners during the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, researchers and practitioners, particularly in colleges and universities, have been searching for TFD that should be controlled and’owned by target groups.

Methodological approaches

Methodology means a way of teaching and disseminating information. There are two methodological approaches: performance-based and workshop based.

Performance based approach

 In this approach a play, dance, song, puppetry or game drives the process and post-performance discussions. In most cases, research work is minimal and follow up is not emphasised.

Performance-based approaches are primarily theatre for the people, rather than theatre with or by the people. Performance-based TFD is hypodermic in nature and is based on an assumption that behaviour change would occur when the product is injected into the community.

Due to the emphasis on entertainment, performances can draw audiences together. Its weakness is that the performances are controlled and executed by outsiders, who put high premium on the visual and physical and less on the emotional and cognitive part of human life (Mwansa and Berman, 2004) Because of this the performance-based approach may eschew messages and may only be remembered as a spectacle.

Workshop-based approach

Workshop approach requires of animateurs and target groups or representatives of such groups to share knowledge and skills using a workshop as a methodology for learning. Animateurs make a conscious effort to involve the target group in the identification of problems or issues, analysis, play making, post-performance discussions and follow up. The message, audience participation and the product are all given equal attention The education part lies in the process and not in the product. The play is a mirror that extends the work done in the process. The product becomes an educational process when again it is accompanied by deep discussions and plans for follow-up.

Other methodologically oriented types of TED are “SimultaneousDramaturgy” and “Forum Theatre both types attributed to Augusto Boal, the Brazialian Theatre actvisk and a close colleague to Freire. Lambert has explained the methological approach of each one as follows:

“In Simultaneous Dramaturgy Professional actors perform a short scene suggested by a local person, halt the action at the crisis point, and ask the audience to offer solutions. The actors become like puppets and perform the actions strictly on the spectators’ orders. The “best” solution is arrived at by trial, error, discussion, the audience consensus. Thus the action ceases to be deterministic (scripted); everything is subject to criticism and rectification. Everything can be changed by any spectator at a moment’s notice without censorship. The actor does not cease his/her role as interpreter, but now instead of interpreting the solitary author, s/he has to interpret the whole group”.

“In Forum Theatre the spectator and actor converge. The participants tell a story with some social or political problem, then improvise, rehearse and present it to the rest as a skit. The audience is asked if they agree with the solution. Any spectator is invited to replace any actor and lead the action in the direction that seems most appropriate to him/her, not make speeches, but to act to evoke responses from others “on stage”.

This goes much further than “Simultaneous Dramaturgy’, as the spectator loses his/her safe seat; s/he cannot just talk but must act immediately, putting into practice what s/he thinks (which is always less easy than just saying it), hoping for (but not always getting) cooperation from the others both on and off stage”.

Others

There is continuous inventing and reinvention of terminologies. Other types include: “Conscientization theatre”, “Comgen” and “agitprop”

“Conscientization theatre”, is derived from the theory of conscientization attributed to Brazilian Paulo Freire. Conscientization consists of action and reflection. The term was first used by Lambert in his attempt to classify TED and later taken up by Mda (1993). Conscentization theatre fits more into theory and not type.

Comgen theatre: this comes from two wards “community” and “generated” to mean “community generated”. It was Mda’s coinage. It is a theatre that fits into theatre by the people.

Agitprop theatre: comes from two words “agitation” and “propaganda”. It was theatre that promoted propaganda in favour the course for workers course in Germany and Russia. It agitated workers to take action. Though no education is neutral treatment of education as propaganda is looked at with disfavour because it robs the learners of independent and impassioned decision making.