Theatre games in the corporate world

So my job, it appears, entails me to learn many new skills. I am learning organisational (or is it industrial) psychology theories; a little bit of graphic design; website management; and how to be a drama... a drama person.

Yes, indeed, eventually, after having been repeatedly (for the four years at University) introduced as "Lauren, a drama student" I am actually, really and truly for the first time, going to be doing drama. In the corporate world in fact. I am going to heading drama games workshops with management and other employee teams. For interest, sake bellow is the workshop brief #1 that I am presenting to the company.

Listening with all your senses

– theatrical workshop for Exxaro leadership and/or employees

Games for actors and non-actors, based on the work by Augusto Boal and his work in forum and images theatre (Theatre of the Oppressed). All games are aimed and breaking down barriers between people, to encourage creative thinking, facilitate group bonding, deeper understanding of behaviours and most importantly to have fun.

A. Workshop Session Plan 1:

1. Introduction of all participants and facilitator to each other – who am I, who are you (building momentum to a shout – imagine an army situation with the commander in front demanding an explanation, striding purposefully up and down and the respondents answering loudly and confidently)

Games

1. Warm up games
   – Names and gestures: standing in a circle each person says their name accompanied by a gesture. The whole group repeats the name and gesture. This goes around the whole circle until everyone has done. Then it is repeated just with the gesture. The each person steps forward and the rest of the group do the gesture associated with that person. (Listening and watching)
   – Bombs and Shields: each person chooses someone to be their bomb (without telling anyone). Then the purpose it to move around in the space, filling the open areas, always moving, but staying as far away from their bomb as possible. When the coordinator says STOP they are supposed to be as far from their bomb as possible. Then everyone has to choose a shield. Now they must stay as far away from their bomb but as close to their shield with their shield between them and their bomb. When STOP is called they should be far from their bomb, behind their shield. (Quick thinking, generating energy and excitement, watching and being conscious of space)
   – Rhythm with chairs: Everyone has a chair. Five people are chosen and each creates an image with their chair. Each image is given a number. Now everyone moves around the space and when number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is called out everyone must strike that pose. For a more interesting take, more than one number is called out at a time (generating energy, creative thinking, memory)
   – Colombian hypnosis: divide into pairs. One (A) is the hypnotist. The hypnotists holds their hand a few centimetres away from B’s face. At GO! A begins moving and B needs to stay connected to A’s hand. Be creative in your movement, up and down, and over and around. At some point the roles are switched. (Encouraging people to use muscles rarely used, loosening up body, the importance of concentration and following) (http://africanstorygatherer.blogspot.com/search/label/columbian%20hypnosis for video of Colombian hypnosis)
2. – Highway of Balls: all stand in a circle. You need three small balls like tennis balls or even just paper crumpled into balls. Begin with one ball. The facilitator starts and throws the ball to someone and that person throws it to another person. It is important that each person remember who they received the ball from and who they threw it to. The last person throws back to the facilitator who starts the route again. Picks up the pace. And then the second ball is thrown into the mix. And then the third. (Concentration, energy generation, working with other people)

(Length: approximately 20-30 minutes)

5 MINUTE BREATHER ONLY (So as not loose momentum) Information session

1. Soldiers and the skipper: 4 people are asked to march in a line from one side of the room to the other. Their objective is to keep marching at all costs. A fifth person is made the skipper and begins to skip and dance around the soldiers. As the skipper gets in the way of the soldiers they beat the skipper down and leave her/him for dead, continuing on their way. The marchers represent the oppressor and the skipper the protagonist. Having watched this repeated once or twice, the rest of the group are invited to take the role of the protagonist and try and prevent the oppression from happening.
2. Introduce basics of forum and image theatre
3. Brainstorming of stories and anecdotes and deciding of two short stories to play (can divide into groups)

(Length: 30-40 minutes)

Games honing Playback and Improvisation skills

1. Exercises for engaging:
   o Accepting game – creating a scenario where on person can only respond to the others with “I agree”, “Great idea” and “yes let’s go it”. A way to promote positive relations and agreement, in an environment where we often instinctively say “No”.
   o Complete the picture – an image is shown and participants need to fill in the story behind the picture and what will happen.
   o Advancing game - starting with a basic action each person chooses something to do and does it. When the facilitator calls “advance” they have to make their action more interesting but they have to keep with their action. This continues. For example – scratching your nose and then make that more interesting. Encouraging spontaneous creative thinking.
   o The adjective game - taking a story decided in number 5,, play the scene using different adjectives (sad, hyperactive, emotional etc)

(Length: maximum 20 minutes)

Playback and Forum Theatre performances

1. Listening to the stories again and assigning roles to “actors” and “spectators” and beginning the process of Play Back and Forum theatre
2. Final discussion

(Length: 30-45 minutes)

Total time for workshop: approximately 3 hours

An ode

To Darajani Spice Market. As we cook with her spices, drink her vanilla tea and cardamon coffee, may we always remember where we bought it, and the heat we had to endure under those tarpaulin sheets to buy it all.

A Return

So I find myself in Pretoria again. It's like my other blog posts:

"I have returned to Zanzibar!"
"I am back in Nkhata Bay and working at Butterfly"

Now I am back in Pretoria, staying (for free?) at home. Here is the story:

I was planning on going to Maputo (again; do you see a pattern forming) to practice me some Capoeira Angola and to be taught some lessons in Argentinian tango, with an Afro theme. I would have had to have taken a bus to the Malawi/Mozambique border, then a chappa (minibus taxi) from the border to the first border town. Then I would have had to spend the night and catch a VERY early bus trip from Tete (said town) to Chimoio (horrible dusty bowl) and then spend the night. And then take a chappa to the Inchope junction and catch the bus on its route from Beira to Vilanculo (hopefully getting there in time!). Spend the night in Vilanculo (or three because I would be exhausted). Then catch the chappa from Vilanculo to Inhambane and maybe I would have been able (if I left early enough) to get the chappa from Inhambane to Maputo. Or I would have stayed the night in Inhambane and left for Maputo the next morning.

And suddenly the last thing I wanted was to have to make that tiring journey. Plus I hurt my hand and my back playing Capoeira the one day and the picking up and loading and unloading of my backpack was causing me body pains!

So I decided to catch the Lilongwe (Malawi) - Johannesburg Bus which would have taken from 6am one day to 4pm the next. Then I would have waited until 10pm that night to catch the over night Johannesburg-Maputo bus, arriving 3 days later as opposed to over a week.

I was still in Nkhata Bay when the response to a spur-of-the-moment email to a previous possible employee came through - get back to South Africa by the 7th of February and I can head up a project they are doing. 3-5 months. Perfect, I took it.

And that is how I found myself in Midrand on the 1st of February, with my backpack and hand luggage basket calling my baba (swahili for father) with a "Hi dad, I am back in South Africa, Midrand in fact. You think you could come by on your way home from work to pick me up?"

Now I am working 5 days, 8 hours and I am happy in knowing that I am working my way back to Stone Town.

Top 10 ... of Malawi. Pepani!

So let me try and put together a top 10 of Malawi - quirks maybe, characteristics possibly. The top 10 hit-you-in-the-face-you-are-now-in-Malawi facts:

1. Food. Simply there is not much, or it is very expensive. There are hundreds of kilograms of tomatoes for sale, onions, bananas, a local type of spinach, rice, nsima (maize), casava, ... yep, that's pretty much it. Then you can buy white bread, and I sourced out some local good yoghurt. In the bigger cities there is more of a variety of fresh vegetables (debatable whether more expensive). Anything else, expect to pay through your teeth. According to consultants and such people, the lack of food is due to a) poor farming methods and lack of crop variety and b) lack of staggering of crop planting meaning when there is food there is too much food but no planting is done to ensure food during winter/the dry season etc.

2. Nali. The best thing about Malawian food - hot, spicey flavourful Nali sauce. In flavours hot, vey hot, garlic, curry.

3. Power's No. 1. A little sachet of alcohol spirits. Costs between 10 and 15 Malawian Kwacha (about 50-75c) and gets your powerfully drunk at 40% spirits volume.



4. A drunk country. According to independent sources (other travellers I met) it is agreed that a large part of the Malawian population is at some pint in the day 1)smelling of old alcohol or 2) drunk. I know this sounds like I am hating on the country. I am not. Malawi is truly a lovely country. But there is a lot of alcohol consumption.

5. They have Lake Malawi. Well I needn't say anything else really.

6. Two in one. Did you know that the whole of Lake Malawi is not actually IN Malawi. Yes, a portion in the north is in Tanzania and in Tanzania they call that part of the lake Lake Nyasa. But Malawians don't speak of this ;)

7. No dolla. There is a dire shortage of foreign currency in the country (after the president kicked the English Ambassador out of the country and thus England cut off aid money). And therefore there is a dire shortage of fuel in the country. Beware you can get stuck in place because vehicles cannot get fuel. Also the British money was used to pay the salaries of among others, Policemen. Now they are not being paid. Now they have been told to get their salaries from fining vehicles on the road.

8. One, two, three. Yes indeed, when I asked people in Malawi what the Chichewa words for one, two three etc were, I was simple told "one, two, three".

9. Rasta (non) loving. Apparently, and this I heard in Lilongwe, Malawians are not the biggest fans of Rastafarians. Therefore, thus and in conclusion, it appears that most if not all of the Rastafarians in Malawi now reside in and around Nkhata Bay.

10. Peanuts. Malawi probably makes some of the best roasted and salted peanuts (called groundnuts, or G-nuts) that I have ever tasted

Malawi, the warm heart of Africa

(PS which is true. It is the only country where, on being stamped into Malawi, the border official said "Welcome to Malawi, we are a country of warm-hearted people. Enjoy your stay". Therefore, in light of my sometimes harsh seeming quirks of the country, I wish to molify all readers by saying that while the above are my 10 quirks that I noticed in the country, all fits under the unbrella tone of warmth and friendliness as I experienced with the border official. And anyone who has ever crossed a border will know just how surly and sulky border officials can be if they choose so!)