In December 2019,
I had the wonderful opportunity to work once again with community champions in
Mukuru, Nairobi.
Having created
forum & legislative theatre with them in the past, this time our task was
to create a celebratory theatre piece based on Kenyan Folktales.
The drama
contribution to the inception & sensitisation workshop held in Nairobi
had two aims:
1) To
create new Kenyan folktales that addresses air pollution as well
as eliminates false tropes that are often within folktales about 'why
things are' [eg why one ethnic group is subservient to another; why women are
subservient to men; children to parents; etc...]
2)
To train Kenyan drama facilitators to scale up the drama output as appropriate
for Tupume.
These new
folktales utilize metaphor as the focus is on school children and their lived
experiences around air pollution: what is currently being done and what could
be done to improve the situation and to challenge the status quo rather than
support the status quo.
Folketales were
used because:
a) They are
familiar to the audience and it is easy to emphasise intended parallel lessons
b) They are short,
making it possible to pass on the message in a short period of time
c) They are
precise and effective, making it possible to identify the specific message
intended
d) They use
characters with qualities which are diverse, but which can be quickly
identified
e) Though animal
characters, and even human ones, are used, the intention is to give a specific
frame of reference that the audience can easily draw from and make specific
connections with their own lives and convictions through metaphor
f) They challenge
the audience to think more deeply and draw their own conclusions and even
initiate lines of action
g) The children
will engage more thoroughly with
folktales than the more verbal & cerebral forum theatre /
‘docu-drama’.
There were three
steps in the folktale development:
a)
Read the old folktales and unpack the themes, characters & situations
presented
b)
Discuss with the children their experiences of air pollution where they live,
go to school, etc
c)
Based on the group’s experience of air pollution as well and the old folktales,
create a new folktale
On
the Monday following the Saturday workshop, I worked with each of the Kenyan
drama facilitators in order for them to be able in the future to scale up the
drama project in a selected school or community centre.
o We reflected on
the Saturday process and what worked well and what could be improved
o We discussed
Story Structure:
§ Set Up & Inciting
Incident - establish the main characters, their relationships and the world
they live in. Later, a dynamic incident occurs[catalyst], that confronts the
main character (the protagonist), and whose attempts to deal with this
incident
§ Confrontation -
depicts the protagonist's attempt to resolve the problem initiated by the first
turning point, only to find themselves in ever worsening situations. Part of
the reason protagonists seem unable to resolve their problems is because they
do not yet have the skills to deal with the forces of antagonism that
confront them. They must not only learn new skills but arrive at a higher sense
of awareness of who they are and what they are capable of, in order to deal
with their predicament, which in turn changes who they are.
§ Resolution -
The climax is the scene or sequence in which the main
tensions of the story are brought to their most intense point and the dramatic
question answered, leaving the protagonist and other characters with a new
sense of who they really are.
It is hoped that
the Kenyan drama facilitators now take their new training into local schools or
community centres and create a much more in depth and longer drama piece based
on the children’s lived experiences of air pollution and the characters from
Kenyan folktales.
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