Metelica-Finding Choice Through Play: Applied Theatre with Afghan Immigrant Women
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Transcript of Metelica-Finding Choice Through Play: Applied Theatre with Afghan Immigrant Women
PLAY TO REIMAGINE: AN APPLIED THEATRE PROJECT WITH ADULT AFGHAN IMMIGRANT WOMEN
By
Marissa Metelica
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Applied Theatre to the City University of New York, School of Professional Studies
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Jan Cohen-Cruz
May 7, 2014
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Abstract
This thesis examines the use of applied theatre techniques in exploring moments of choice in real-life scenarios with a group of adult, Afghan
immigrant women. It evaluates the usefulness of play via the conventions of image theatre and mask to approach issues of choice, taboo, and silence-
breaking over a six-week, twelve-hour workshop series.
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Dedication
This document is dedicated to Brent Blair for introducing me to this work,
kindling in me the fire of passionate dedication to theatre for social justice. In
doing so, you held up a mirror through which I could better see my own
heart.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Preparation
I. The Thesis Project
Participants………………………………………………………………………...2
II. Context
Afghans in the United States....................................................................................4
Afghanistan’s Recent History..................................................................................4
Challenges for Afghans in the US...........................................................................5
II. Workshop Conditions
Safe Space and Agency............................................................................................8
Investigating Choice and Silence.............................................................................9
Choosing to Dispel Silence....................................................................................11
Using Applied Theatre to Name............................................................................14
The Applied Theatre Techniques...........................................................................17
Relevant Facilitator Experience ............................................................................19
Disclosure..............................................................................................................23
Goals and Objectives.............................................................................................25
Data Collection Methods and Analysis.................................................................26
Chapter Two: Implementation
Session By Session................................................................................................29
Chapter 3: Evaluation
I. Project Goal Achievement
Investigation of Choice and Consequence.............................................................46
Rehearsal for Revolution.......................................................................................53
Silence-Breaking and Naming...............................................................................54
Complex, Independently Developed Dialogue .....................................................55
Data Collection......................................................................................................56
II. What I Learned about My Research Focus
Negotiating Safe Space..........................................................................................58
Participant-Guided Facilitation, Dialogue, and Content........................................60
III. What We Learned about Applied Theatre
Masks.....................................................................................................................62
When Emotion Breaks Play...................................................................................62
Necessity of Play in Approaching Goals ..............................................................64
Translation ............................................................................................................66
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IV. Theoretical and Professional Implications
Many Roads to Agency..........................................................................................69
Time.......................................................................................................................69
Playing Across Culture .........................................................................................70
Creating the Impossible and Personal Change......................................................71
Works Cited..........................................................................................................75
Appendix A: Watercolor Image From Session Four............................................78
Appendix B: Watercolor Image From Session Four............................................79
Appendix C: Masks..............................................................................................80
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Chapter One: Preparation
Thesis question: Through what means can applied theatre create a safe space for
adult Afghan immigrant women to recognize and explore moments of choice in
their own lives and identify a variety of potential decisions and their
consequences?
THE THESIS PROJECT
To fulfill the requirements of our Masters in Applied Theatre at the City
University of New York, my thesis partner Olivia Harris and I implemented a
series of applied theatre workshops with the Afghan Women’s Center (AWC)1, a
decades’ old, grass-roots organization providing educational and moral support to
immigrant Afghan women living in the New York area. According to their
website, AWC is a second home for Afghan women. It is a space that prioritizes
the women’s safety and fosters a sense of community. Advocating for the rights
of their members through free classes and counseling, AWC aids their clients in
developing self-determination to maximize their potential and participation in
cultural, political, and economic spheres.
1 The name of the organization has been changed.
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Ms. Farnaz2, the director of the organization, approved a six-week
workshop, two hours per week, between January and March 2014. My partner and
I felt that the women’s participation in AWC classes in ESL (English as a Second
Language), citizenship preparation, and parenting were demonstrative of a desire
for personal and social growth. This population’s previous experiences and
general lack of access to the resources commonly afforded to US-born citizens
made them a fitting group with which to conduct an applied theatre workshop.
Furthermore, traditional Afghan culture is restrictive of women’s self expression.
We thought the women who attend programming at AWC might enjoy some time
to be expressive in a space that was removed from the gaze of those with the
power to limit their freedom of expression; namely men folk and government. We
believe the use of applied theatre can be a means of achieving self-determination,
the organization’s stated objective. My thesis partner helped plan a similar
workshop several years ago between Bond Street Theatre and AWC, which, due
to a lack of funding, never happened. This collaboration evidences that the AWC
community desired such a workshop.
Participants
2 The names of staff and participants have been changed to protect their anonymity. The
pseudonyms were chosen by my thesis partner and me at random from a list of common Afghan
women’s names.
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The women who participate in AWC programming are all adult
immigrants from Afghanistan, aged 23 and above, living in the US as residents,
refugees, asylum seekers, or undocumented individuals. The majority of these
women are housewives, 75-85% of whom have no formal education and,
according to AWC’s director, possess varying levels of English proficiency. The
applied theatre workshops took place within the AWC offices, which can
accommodate up to 50 participants.
Olivia and I conducted two recruitment “teasers” before our workshops
commenced in order to attract participants. During our first visit, we
communicated that we would cap the workshop at twenty participants, in the
interest of fostering a safe space, where people could develop trusting
relationships around challenging questions. For the same reason, we asked during
our recruitment sessions that those who chose to participate come to as many of
the sessions as they could, so the group would remain as consistent as possible
from week to week. We did this verbally with translation help from a staff
member. We also received support from the AWC staff in recruitment and in the
acquisition of a translator. An AWC staff member agreed to provide childcare
during the sessions so mothers of young children could take part. In order to
better understand the culture and community we were entering, we did some
research regarding the Afghan population in the US.
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CONTEXT
Afghans in the United States
We found that as of 2009, the latest year for which there is census data,
there were approximately 87,000 Afghan-Americans living in the United States
(“Place of birth for the Foreign-Born Population in the United States”
factfinder2.census.gov). Of that, between 5,000 and 9,000 are living in New York,
with between 1,000 and 3,000 in Queens (“2011 American Community Survey 1-
Year Estimates.” nyc.gov). Like many immigrant groups, most families of Afghan
descent that have settled in the US tend to do so in communities where other
Afghan families have also settled. This may be linked to a desire for familiarity
both in terms of a similar culture and, indeed, actual people whom they knew in
the homeland. The social structure for Afghans living in New York remains
similar to the way it was before immigrating, with close-knit clan communities
working together (Lindgren, Lipson 124). Nonetheless, like many immigrant
groups, Afghans in the US navigate the different expectations of American social
structure while tending to hold onto their Afghan identity. For a sense of how
Afghan identity has been shaped by political structures and the challenges posed
to immigrants negotiating both Afghan and North American cultures, it is useful
to review recent Afghan history.
Afghanistan’s Recent History
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Afghanistan has been the site of many decades of conflict. The Soviet
Union invaded Afghanistan and occupied the country from 1979-1989. During the
latter part of the Cold War, the US government provided arms and financial
support to the Soviet’s foes, the Mujahideen, and by proxy, Osama bin Laden
(Runion 112). In 1989, when the Soviet military withdrew from Afghanistan, two
million Afghans had died and another five million fled to neighboring countries
(Goodwin 75). Once the Soviet troops were retracted, Afghanistan fell under
Taliban rule.
Since that time, living conditions have worsened, especially for women
who are no longer allowed to attend school, go to work, and cannot be seen in
public unless accompanied by an adult male (Lindgren, Lipson 124).
Additionally, under Taliban decree, movies, dancing, television, and celebrations
in general have been banned (Goodwin 74). After the events of September 11,
2001, the US instituted a military presence in Afghanistan to seek out Osama bin
Laden and remove the Taliban from power. The continued US presence has
turned Afghanistan into an armed camp (Dossa 12).
Challenges for Afghans in the US
Since the Taliban rule, many Afghan families fleeing their war-torn
homeland have entered the US as refugees (Lindgren, Lipson 124). Afghanis who
have settled in the US face numerous, complex challenges. Scholar G. Uehling
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writes, "Refugee discourse has portrayed the process of flight and resettlement as
isolating, disconnecting refugees from family, friends, and all that is familiar”
(122). In addition to feelings of isolation associated with the traumas of refugee
flight and resettlement, individuals may experience residual emotional and mental
pressures associated with surviving military conflict. Afghanis must also navigate
traditional Afghan tribal and contemporary Afghan-American immigrant cultures,
which are often incongruous. Afghans in the US come from a country where both
private and public behaviors and attitudes are dictated by the Taliban or by
religious custom. The melting pot of cultures in the US creates a lack of cultural
uniformity, which poses a challenge to the Afghan immigrant, who must navigate
that cultural difference with a relatively small community of others who share a
similar experience.
Afghan women face particular challenges. Lindgren and Lipson report,
“These women are living and participating in two cultures that have potentially
incommensurable contradictions, and they have created a place/space that is
neither fully Afghan nor fully American” (128). Many experience moderately
more personal freedom in their US life; but many restrictive ideologies have
carried over from their homeland. For example, in an article evaluating the
progress experienced by women of Afghan descent living on the east coast of the
US, an Afghan activist observed that many Afghan men still restrict women to the
home and are not willing to allow them to go to school (Naili 2).
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The perceived role of Afghan women is still to serve as a support to the
males in their families (Goodwin 42). According to Afghan analyst Barnett
Rubin, “Control of Afghan women became a symbol of the power of men, and of
their honor” (qtd in Goodwin 79). An Afghan woman’s servility is perceived to
directly reflect the strength of her family’s Islamic faith. Goodwin observes that
women have become symbols of men's Islamic commitment (8) and are therefore
expected to uphold the family’s honor, which, in action, often means silencing
their own voices and foregrounding the desires of the men in their families.
An activist for Afghan women’s rights reported that "domestic violence
is a huge problem in the Afghan community, but it's hard to get the word out.
Women do not usually come and talk about it" (Naili 1). Many times, maintaining
the family’s honor means suffering in silence rather than seeking help from
professionals, or even from other women. An Afghan woman living in the US,
referring to persisting expectations placed on Afghan women, commented, “In
Afghanistan a woman who speaks out and seeks help is often seen as bringing
shame on her family and that reticence to report abuse persists here” (Naili 2).
Although the influence of US culture may begin to mix with her traditional
culture, the Afghan women living in the US may still experience pressure to
remain silent and sublimate her voice.
WORKSHOP CONDITIONS
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Our workshop foregrounded non-verbal collaboration, in order to
circumvent language barriers. Applied theatre skills build the individual’s
capacity for self-expression, communication, and self-awareness. These skills can
potentially benefit an English language learner who is relatively new to the United
States and whose prior experience has been largely home-bound.
We did not communicate our thesis questions to the participants, directly.
We framed the workshops instead as a space to play, express ourselves, and get to
know one another better. We asked the participants at several points during the
workshop sessions what meaning they were taking from our time together to see
if their discoveries were at all in alignment with our questions.
I would have preferred that my thesis question emerged from the co-
investigation of facilitators collaborating with participants, but due to the
constraints of the thesis project, it was necessary to have my question prior to
commencing the workshop sessions. The question emerged from the research
done prior to entering the workshop sessions, as well as from observations of the
group in the fall.
Safe Space and Agency
The creation of a safe space was a top priority for my co-facilitator and
me, due to the vulnerability of the potential participants. For the purposes of this
thesis, I define safe space as one in which the participants feel supported and
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witnessed without judgment, able to dialogue honestly and to comfortably express
themselves through physical play and other formats. Safe space was a prerequisite
for achieving our workshop goals. If honest exploration and dialogue are
occurring within the room, it indicates that a safe space has been created and was
being maintained.
In such a space, participants would have an opportunity to exhibit
personal agency, another idea central to our undertaking. The individual can
augment her sense of agency if she is able to identify a moment when there is a
choice, consider and weigh the multitude of possible consequences, and come to a
decision. This ability to think critically about her options and imagine the future
in relation is a demonstration of agency and voice, which enables her to become
more fully active in her own life. The notion of silence is also key. Silences are
present in every culture and community. Silences are a symptom of cultural
repression and oppression. Identifying silence, which is individually or
communally held, is itself an act of silence-breaking. Identifying silence in the
company of witnesses is an act of agency, even if the individual chooses not to
speak further. It makes visible that taboo or wound that is not supposed to be
seen; it names the unspeakable.
Investigating Choice and Silence
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Our interest in collaborating with AWC emerged from a continuing
curiosity about the power of applied theatre in creating dialogue where before
there was silence, particularly in post-conflict communities. Olivia and I are
interested in investigating cultural and community-held silences, which are
present in every society. Sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel notes, “The scope of our
attention and discourse is socially delineated by normative as well as political
constraints, and what we see, hear and talk about is affected by both normative
and political pressures” (Zerubavel 34). The topics and areas one must stay silent
about change according to the customs, beliefs, and hierarchies held by a society,
but what is certain is that normative silences exist in any given context.
"A conspiracy of silence presupposes discretion on the part of the non-
producer of the information as well as inattention on the part of its non-
consumers" observes Zerubavel (48). That is, silences are agreements between
complicit individuals. The topics one is taught to remain silent around are
transmitted to us through culturally-specific learned behavior. Silence demands
unanimous collusion that, when granted, can become systemic. The act of silence-
breaking is making visible what Zerubavel calls “the elephant in the room.” Since
different communities have different values, the elephants in each context will
look different because what is acceptable to acknowledge or discuss and what or
who must be silenced will differ.
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Zerubavel uses the analogy of the Emperor’s New Clothes to illustrate
the ways community is complicit in reinforcing silences for the sake of solidarity.
As the parable goes, it often takes a witness unsocialized to the norms of the
culture, in the parable’s case a child, to shed light on the presence of silence.
Choosing to Dispel Silence
In order to understand why agency and identifying choice are beneficial, let
us first weigh the values and disadvantages of silence. Sometimes we choose to
remain silent in order to protect another from the embarrassment of her halitosis
or to protect a child from a reality for which she is not developmentally prepared-
arguably good reasons. Cultural silence, however, even when the silence is
intended to protect, is often counter-productive. Zerubavel observes:
Ironically, partly in an effort to preserve group solidarity, conspiracies of
silence often undermine that very solidarity by impeding the development
of honest, trusting relations that presuppose open communication. Indeed,
in an attempt to “protect” groups, they often make them become
somewhat dysfunctional (85).
The intention of silence may be to uphold group cohesion but, in reality, silence
often breaks down community. If honesty leads to disclosure, transparency, and
feelings of solidarity and empathy, then silence can lead to omission, a breakdown
of solidarity, and the creation of taboo or othering. Othering is a divisive tool used
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to create distance or a disconnect between oneself and another group or
individual, and can be especially destructive when used to legitimize the suffering
of another as deserved treatment. Othering creates separation and initiates a
hierarchy, by which people become valued as “more than” and “less than.”
Similarly, those who commit a taboo act are negatively judged. Jan
Goodwin describes an example of a taboo leading to shaming and the breakdown
of the family: “It is not the Koran that compels Islamic women to be enshrouded
from head to toe or confined to their homes while men feel free to pester women
who do venture out” (30). Rather, Goodwin continues, it is the stigma from which
a taboo is created, that has become ingrained in the etiquette of the culture.
Stigmas are dangerous in that they can be manipulated to dire extents. Stigma
turned to embedded cultural practice makes it legal in Shari'a law for a Muslim
father, who feels shamed by accusations that his daughter has had premarital sex,
to commit an “honor killing” without penalty (Fisher 3). Stigma and taboo
support the agendas of those who have the power to create them. On a smaller
scale, the individual’s silence upholds the taboo by perpetuating the message that
“we don’t talk about that” or “that behavior is not acceptable.”
Just as silences are socially delineated, decision-making is also informed
by normative social pressures. Professors of neurobiology Kenji Doya and
Michael Shadlen cited experts “Seo and Lee [who] raise the possibility that social
cues can enter decision making both as costs/gains and as contextual cues bearing
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on the type of decision to engage in the first place” (2012: 2). Decision making, in
other words, is influenced by the social impact it will have on the speaker.
Contrary to the public world, where social cues determine and may restrict a
participants’ decision-making, our workshops aimed to create space where it felt
safe to explore freely, without the same concern for possible social costs or gains.
Our hope was that, in creating a safe environment together, participants
would feel removed from the normative pressures associated with the culture in
which they live, thus creating a space for silence-breaking to occur. While
breaking silence may pose danger to the individual who defies the norm, a safe
place may allow an investigation of that territory. It is difficult to safeguard
against the potentially negative repercussions that may arise when one decides to
break the silence; a workshop allows for what Augusto Boal refers to as a
“rehearsal” of an action that participants may or may not choose to take beyond
the workshop.
Applied theatre’s capacity to create such a space is partly a function of
“aesthetic distance” created by fictional role play. Aesthetic distance is described
by applied theatre practitioner and theorist Gavin Bolton as “self-spectatorship,”
wherein the participant experiences the “double valence of being an audience to
one’s own creation and being an audience to oneself” (Bolton 266). If applied
theatre techniques are successful at creating aesthetic distance from which to
reflect upon the world, participants may acquire a deepened sense of personal
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agency regardless of whether or not they follow the moment of choice with a
decision. Recognizing the presence of silence is an act of silence-breaking, just as
identifying a moment of choice demonstrates agency. Whether or not one makes a
decision is less important than the fact that she sees there is a choice to make.
The choice to address silences rather than promote dialogue in this
workshop intentional. It is based on observations of the potential participants
during an AWC parenting workshop. To enter the workshops with an expectation
that the group might be able to sustain dialogue around culturally held silences
would have been to disregard the level of awareness of the group. During the
workshop we observed, several comments from the participants made it clear that
they felt challenged to envision multiple possible behaviors for a given scenario.
One example was when a woman asking for advice about a situation with her
teenage son who watches too much television was advised by the facilitator to
turn off the tv. It seemed this choice had never seriously entered her
consciousness before from her bewildered response, “I can’t!”
The inability to recognize this as a moment of choice was indicative of
the presence of cultural silencing. Rather than ask the group to search for and
analyze culturally held silences from the start, it seemed more fitting and
achievable to explore individual participant agency regarding moments of
decision making in everyday life. Olivia and I made this choice with the intention
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of meeting the group where they were and hoped that by setting these goals we set
the group up to feel successful.
Using Applied Theatre to Name
In addition to my interest in using applied theatre to identify moments of
decision-making and choice, I am particularly interested in the power of naming.
James Frieze writes, "In naming something, the namer establishes it as a figure
against a ground that may or may not be visible before the act of naming occurs,
but which is thrown into relief by the act of naming" (2). Sometimes the
individual doesn’t know that she knows until she attaches a name to the concept.
Silences can become so ingrained, so unilaterally agreed to, that they become
invisible and therefore perpetually un-named; it often depends upon who within a
society has the power to name.
The act of identifying or naming a moment where an opportunity for
decision-making exists may throw into relief the invisible conventions that create
the illusion that choice does not exist. The participant then has an opportunity to
name her world with more clarity, thereby acquiring more agency in it. There is
agency in declaration and power in verbal articulation when witnessed by others
(Figure 1). As playwright Suzan-Lori Parks observes, “Words are spells in our
mouths” (Harvey 140).
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The Afghan women who have survived decades of war, been unable to
attend school, and are survivors of a variety of gender discriminations have, in
many circumstances, been denied the agency to control the narratives of their own
lives. The cultural norms that lead Afghan women to subvert their voices and give
preference to the males in the family may limit a woman’s ability to tell her own
story. The practice of applied theatre creates an opportunity to tell stories: one's
own, or the story of a fictional other who may face similar challenges. The act of
storytelling, both fiction and non-fiction, provides an opportunity to name the
world as one sees and feels it, as well as her feelings about it.
An expressed goal of the Afghan Women's Center is to develop self-
determination; applied theatre conventions create a space for individuals to
imagine and experiment with a variety of ways of acting, thinking, and behaving,
all from the safe distance of play. In the play space created through facilitator and
participant collaboration, the participant exercises personal agency, a process
which, when repeated over time, may lead to an increased sense of participation
in her world. Observing herself as a more active subject in her own life, her self-
confidence may increase.
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The Applied Theatre Techniques
Olivia and I intended to engage the AWC participants using applied
theatre techniques and conventions that build trust and self-confidence through
non-verbal storytelling. Among the most useful techniques we planned to employ
were image theatre and mask work. Boal describes his techniques of image
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theatre as “allowing people to communicate through Images and Spaces, and not
through words alone” (Theatreoftheoppressed.org). Image theatre offers the
participant a vantage point from which to view herself in the reality of her world
as it is, while playing at other ways of being in a context where whatever she says
or does is valued. The aesthetic distance created through play produces a buffer of
distance through which to reflect on the real world.
Theorist and educator Paulo Freire described the term, “metaxis,” handed
down by Plato and utilized later by Boal as “the state of belonging completely and
simultaneously to two different, autonomous worlds: the image of reality and the
reality of the image” (Theatre of the Oppressed 13). The player, in the midst of an
image theatre activity may find herself in a state of metaxis: reflecting upon the
circumstances of the world and her participation in it through the “make believe”
of the play space. Reflecting upon the fiction, if it has relevance to her own life
experiences, a participant may discover she is naming her experience.
The individual demonstrates agency when, reflecting, she can identify
moments of choice and their potential consequences. She has transported herself
from a passive spectator of her own experience to being the experiencing, pro-
active subject, a process which, according to Paulo Freire, makes her more fully
human.
Boal justifies working from images rather than words because
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Words are like trucks: they carry the loads you put on them. Words do not
exist in nature, they did not come into being like trees: they have been
invented by people, so it is important to understand that the inventors of the
words lived in concrete social situations…(Rainbow 174).
Words are inventions to communicate about their creators’ lived experience. We
use the same words across distances of time and culture yet, because their
meanings are related to the context, they can mean different things to different
people. The act of verbalization can therefore be liberating or treacherous, a risk
compounded when translating verbal meaning across languages. Images are not
more or less effective than verbal exploration. Images are an additional language
in which to communicate. Boal explains:
Images don’t replace words but they cannot be translated into
words either- they are a language in themselves... As objects
reflect the light that strikes them, so images in an organized
ensemble reflect the emotions of the observer, her ideas,
memories, imagination, desires... (Rainbow 175)
Image theatre can be used to create a picture of experience. Images are visual
translations which reveal the sculptor’s imaginative interpretation of her reality,
as well as her feelings about it. Once the participant’s perception has been
manifested through physicalization, she may be able to introduce language to
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compare her vision against the perceptions of others. It is at this point that naming
can be used to identify structures which may have been previously unseen.
Applied theatre practitioner J. Adam Perry describes image theatre as a
system of decolonization, writing:
…it is a cultural practice which highlights the primacy of embodied
knowledge where intellectual, emotional and spiritual encounters occur
physically between bodies, and the enactments and re-enactments of which
are fodder for reflection, dialogue, the articulation of counter-discursive
identities and the rehearsal of strategies for social transformation (106).
Perry asserts here that image theatre creates a scenario where participants rehearse
for revolution. The images created by the group depicting the real, ideal, and
transitional scenes creates a space where identities are rehearsed and re-imagined.
It is here that social norms can be named and brought to light, then discussed and
analyzed.
A collaborative investigation, image theatre reveals the “thematics” or social
themes and constructs specific to the group members’ prior experiences. Freire
asserts that the investigation of one’s thematics may grant her a more expansive
understanding and ownership of her reality. Freire says, “The more active an
attitude men and women take in regard to the exploration of their thematics, the
more they deepen their critical awareness of reality and, in spelling out those
thematics, take possession of that reality” (87).
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In mask work, a facial covering is designed to represent a character type -
- the father, the child, the teacher, the pupil, and so forth (Rainbow, 200). When
donned the actor can experiment with the behaviors or rituals of the archetypical
character. Other behaviors may then be applied to the same mask in order to
reveal internalized roles, norms and codes of conduct that may be invisible
without the juxtaposition of the symbol of the mask and the contradictory
behaviors. When a mask is donned, and a behavior demonstrated, sometimes the
dissonance can be identified, where in daily life it remained invisible.
Having dedicated much of their lives to the service of their families, the
women who attend programs at AWC are not likely to have had the time or
opportunity to reflect on their unique experiences and identities. From my
observation of the AWC parenting workshop, where suggestions of alternate
behaviors were met with declarations of impossibility, conversations about the
“image of reality” and the “reality of the image” were likely to be new to the
participants. Through our workshops, we hoped to provide an opportunity to
safely and honestly reflect on daily experiences and in the process, discover
moments of choice and consider their consequences.
Relevant Facilitator Experience
My partner and I both have used applied theatre to promote dialogue in
post-conflict communities. That experience informed and supported this project
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and assisted us in diagnosing and responding to challenges as they arose. Olivia
conducted applied theatre partnerships in Kabul with the Bond Street Theatre as
part of the Educating the Electorate project, intended to engage audience members
in finding alternate solutions to the issues presented. She also worked in post-
conflict applied theatre projects in Nepal and Guatemala.
In the summer of 2007, I traveled to Rwanda with my undergraduate
professor Brent Blair, Director of the Applied Theatre Arts graduate program at
the University of Southern California, to the University of Rwanda in Kigali, to
conduct an image theatre workshop with undergraduate genocide survivor heads-
of-households.
The ongoing iterations of this collaboration, in which I did not
participate, are documented in Theatre Topics, Issue 20.1 (Blair and Fletcher
2010), describing the role silence plays in culture and community. The authors
outline the limitations of some of Boal’s games, which were developed from
Freire’s theoretical findings based on the political culture of Brazil, and were less
applicable in Rwanda. Games where participants could move from embodied
storytelling into verbal discussion were found to be most useful. Participants also
found the “Museum of Images” to be of particular use in it that a multitude of
truths and incongruous perspectives could exist without disrupting the process of
dialogue. (Blair and Fletcher 27). Blair and Fletcher’s findings support the sort of
inclusive environment we hoped to engender in our workshops.
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In 2010, I spent two weeks touring Northern Ireland with an international
team of scholars from Swarthmore College and Eötvös Loránd University in
Budapest, Hungary, conducting interviews about challenges and best practices
with art-based organizations committed to peace-building and dialogue. The most
valuable aspect of this experience for me was witnessing successful theatre
projects and community dialogue conjoining families from opposing sides of the
conflict known as “The Troubles.” In Afghan immigrant culture, many instances
of domestic abuse occur between female family members, often wives and
mothers-in-law. Because we imagined that multiple members of the same family
could be present during our workshops, I was prepared to utilize asset-based
strategies that focus on empathy and the similarities of emotion carried through
dissimilar experiences and inter-familial conflict.
Prior to the thesis project I had little experience with mask work, aside from
a few undergraduate workshops. I knew from my own personal explorations that
masks have the power to create a feeling of freedom through anonymity, and
sometimes the use of a mask inspired unexpected feelings and moments of
expression. Boal also describes masks being a particularly useful tool in revealing
cultural norms and social roles, and for these reasons they seemed a potentially
pertinent tool for use in our workshops.
Disclosure
Metelica 24
As a queer woman of mixed European decent, from a middle class
suburb of Philadelphia, I know little about what it means to be an Afghan or an
immigrant in the United States. Although my research and reading provided a
solid foundation of knowledge around Afghan culture, the danger remained that
value judgments might cloud my perspective, compromising my facilitation. To
minimize the risk of compromising safe space, I committed to a rigorous praxis,
or action and self-reflection/analysis. Additionally, Olivia and I checked-in
regularly with one another, staff, and participants, to assess the integrity of our
facilitation.
My racial privilege, English language proficiency, US upbringing, and
education are all identities that set me apart from this community, and pose
potential risks when working with an Afghan immigrant population. For example,
the symbols which have cultural resonance for me are likely different than those
which hold meaning for the participants. When working primarily non-verbally
via images, symbols are an important medium for communication. As a
facilitator, it was imperative I be considerate of the imagery and symbols I
introduced, and that I constantly evaluated the meanings I perceived during
collaboration.
Bonds of relatedness between myself and the group came from our shared
gender. Our experiences of gender expectation became a point of connection and
Metelica 25
sometime, humor, which was instrumental in bonding the group and facilitators,
alike.
Goals and Objectives
The facilitator goals for this project were to apply theatre so that participants
would:
build confidence in self-expression;
develop self-determination through demonstrated use of imagination,
consciousness, and agency;
examine present actions and strategize for future action in relationships,
recognizing that in each act of decision-making there are consequences to
be weighed;
engage in imaginative storytelling, which is reflective of the participant's
experiences; and
demonstrate the ability to lead one another in conversation, thereby
reflecting a sense of ownership of the workshop space.
To achieve these goals, we as facilitators committed to:
encouraging the development of participants’ self-expression and voice;
creainge safe space in order to provide opportunities for participants to
honestly examine moments of choice, potential decisions and possible
consequences;
Metelica 26
positively reinforcing the value of participant discoveries;
aiding in the naming of described experiences; and
engaging participants in reflective individual and group storytelling both
in and out of role.
Data Collection Methods and Analysis
To evaluate the effectiveness of our methods, we committed to:
record and review both facilitators’ field notes; and
conduct regularly-scheduled reflection sessions with both the translator and
Yolanda, an administrator at AWC who has an intimate relationship with the
organization and its constituents spanning over three years;
In the place of written surveys, which would not be appropriate for a group
with illiterate members, we intended to use games which measure change among
the individuals over time-- repeating games such as “cross the line if...” or asking
a similar set of predetermined questions on several occasions over the course of
the workshop and recording the answers. We agreed to
conduct an exit interview with both staff and participants in order to collect
feedback on the value the workshops. As the most common first language among
the group is Dari, a Dari-speaking staff member conducted the interview for
participants. This measure was to maintain anonymity and support honest
responses.
Metelica 27
We intended to use the “Hierarchy of Information” from The Geese
Theatre Handbook for coding our field note observations. The form was
developed for work in Australian prisons, to evaluate the level of intimacy in
discourse. The depth of discourse in the room is an indication of whether a safe
space is being achieved and maintained (Baim, Brookes, and Alun 28). If, for
example, at the end of the fifth workshop dialogue remained at a surface level,
that would serve as a clear indication that the participants did not feel safe to
express deeper observations, opinions, or feelings.
We also planned to collect field notes as documentation. The participants
did not consent to audio or video recordings of our workshop sessions, which was
understandable as some of the participants were undocumented at that time.
The data collected was used to evaluate the level to which the goals and
objectives of the thesis project were met. In addition to the facilitators’ individual
observations, data was triangulated by comparing findings to those of the director
of the organization, as well as with the reflections of the volunteer ESL teacher
who attended many of our sessions. This was done to promote accuracy in the
conclusions drawn.
Chapter Two: Implementation
Olivia and I realized that we would need some time to develop a
theatrical vocabulary and some basic skills with the group in order to be able to
Metelica 28
physically present ideas that could be repeated or analyzed. So our workshops
consisted of two parts. During the first three sessions we focused on developing a
theatrical vocabulary with the group. We chose games that, in addition to building
a safe, open space, would promote physical and spatial awareness and develop
abstract thinking. In sessions four through six we explored moments of choice and
agency through activating images and scene work, and other theatrical
conventions including thought-tracking.3
For each session, Olivia and I planned which games and activities we would
use in order to approach our session goals. We built in reflection opportunities,
where participants could provide feedback about which games, topics and
activities they preferred. Although we were not always successful in ascertaining
their preferences through the reflection games and discussions, we tried to use a
combination of our observations and their reflections to develop the next session
according to their interests and strengths.
We were not transparent with the participants about our interest in
examining cultural silences, nor did we push the participants to speak (at all) if
they did not wish to. Rather, we looked for moments of conflict that the group
identified as commonplace to investigate. In this way we approached our research
goals while allowing session content to be participant-determined.
3 See the Games Descriptions in the Appendix.
Metelica 29
Session One
Our first session was postponed a week, due to inclement weather. Our
goals for this session were to get to know the group, to learn their strengths,
comforts, cares, concerns, to work physically, and to introduce to the participants
a variety of theatrical forms.
Georgia, a volunteer ESL teacher, wanted to sketch and observe our
workshops. We were concerned that her presence would adversely affect
participation, but the AWC staff had already approved her. We found that her
presence did affect the workshops, but positively. When Georgia joined an
activity, her commitment encouraged the participants to express themselves more
fully. Kamelah, a nineteen-year old student recently returned to the US from
Afghanistan, would be our translator. She had some knowledge of Shakespearean
theatre, an advantage. She also spoke Dari and Pashto, but with an accent as her
first language was English. In addition, we had Anahita, an AWC staff member
with the group. They decided that Anahita would translate to Farsi, and Kamelah
to Pashto. We started ten minutes late because only four people had arrived by
11:10. Folks continued to trickle in until by noon we had fourteen participants.
We played a few fun, get-to-know you circle games and then moved on
to activities to warm up the body and guide the participants toward abstract
thinking. To encourage a physical, representational investigation, we introduced a
storytelling improvisation based on things our hands have done. The activity was
Metelica 30
difficult for participants to comprehend. Most of the performances during our
share-back mimicked activities the participant accomplishes in the course of a
day. While impressed by the group’s commitment to their storytelling, many of
the pieces lacked emotional content or connection. There was no way to tell how
the performer felt about the things her hands had done.
The participants attempted to play "Four Corners" as a quick reflection
about which activities they most enjoyed. The game proved inconclusive because
those who seemed most shy or perhaps hadn't understood the task followed the
more assertive participants and soon everyone was standing in one corner. It was
therefore impossible to determine which activity the women had most enjoyed.
In the last minutes of our workshop we walked participants through the
consent form for our research. Due to the group’s illiteracy, we made our consent
form a game, asking participants to stand up or raise a hand if they has questions
about or did not consent to any item. Facilitator statements were translated.
Session Two
The cold and several inches of snow left streets and sidewalks icy and, as
a result, only four participants ventured out to our workshop. Again this week we
were joined by Georgia and our translator, Kamelah. We began our session
twenty minutes late, with three participants.
Metelica 31
In an effort to encourage participants to exercise agency, we asked them
to facilitate games throughout the session, when possible. We repeated
"Demechanizing the Brain," this time inviting participants who were present for
the first session to step in and facilitate. Everyone took a turn and there was a
great deal of laughter from the women when mistakes were made and everyone
cheered. Olivia introduced the next game by saying, “Now that we have practiced
using our bodies, we are going to be very specific with them.” Everyone was
directed to choose an animal and to demonstrate their choice to the group without
using words. Participants mimed lions and ducks. One of our participants, a
Bengali speaker, had not understood the instruction but performed a fully
committed imitation of swimming.
Next, Olivia led a brief reflection during which Maryam, likening our
play to psychology, reported that at home she thinks about what she should cook
or how she should clean, but in our workshop “it is for laughing and playing. It
changes the mind” (Metelica).
Machine-making was the main activity of this session. At the beginning,
the group had trouble understanding what a machine was as a theatrical device.
Olivia and I tag-teamed our facilitation to increase comprehension and participant
success. Although we had planned to break into small groups, we decided instead
to remain in one group to explore simple machines.
Metelica 32
Once the group demonstrated an understanding of the concept, we broke
into two smaller groups. As pairs played with repeatable actions, I compared
machines to an assembly line where each person had a job to do to add to the
creation of the larger product. This seemed to help clarify expectations for the
group, who may have found this analogy accessible and familiar.
Nearing the end of our time together, I asked the group if they discovered
anything during our session. Aliah said she was surprised that they had achieved
the impossible in becoming machines. The group noticed that the machines
contained no words, yet everyone knew what was being communicated. Aliah
also reflected that repeating “Demechanizing the Brain” two weeks in a row made
her feel successful because she was better at playing it the second time.
Session Three
This was one of the more challenging and sometimes frustrating sessions.
It occurred two weeks after session two because, once again, we had to cancel a
workshop due to the weather. The following week the AWC offices were closed
for mid-winter break. We recognized a need to better communicate with our
translator when, by our start time, she hadn’t arrived. Luckily for us, Anahita, a
AWC staff member, translated for us. That was a potential disaster narrowly
averted.
Metelica 33
We began on time with four participants and our translator for the day.
Two of our four constituents were new to the workshop. One of our goals was to
challenge the women to work non-verbally so we began by passing around a
baking sheet and demonstrating imaginative uses for the object which were not
ones for which it was intended. The group kept trying to explain what they
wanted the object to represent, rather than demonstrating it physically. Successful
nonverbal demonstrations offered were an umbrella, a mirror, and a handbag.
Samia ended the game when she couldn’t see any possibilities beyond what had
already been demonstrated saying, “We are out of ideas.” Rather than push the
group, we moved on.
The participants found the prompt to create auto-images of how they
behave in a place they felt they did not belong very difficult. They clearly
understood what was being asked of them because they could answer the prompt
Olivia gave verbally, but were hesitant to physicalize “nervous” and “sad.” When
one participant said, “We can’t do how we feel,” I modified the activity. Diverting
from our plan, I asked Olivia if we could spend more time on the activity but get
the group moving. Olivia seamlessly adjusted, asking the group to walk around
the space as if it were a hot summer day. The group played with a few other
commands, followed by a prompt to walk around as though in their own
neighborhood. The group was successful at expressing these scenarios without
speaking or explaining. In the last one, particularly, we saw a dramatic shift in
Metelica 34
their physicality and behavior- as their pace quickened, they smiled and greeted
one another, and Awa acted out opening neighbor’s doors to say hello, which got
everyone laughing.
Although we took far longer for this activity than planned, I was proud
that as facilitators Olivia and I responded to the apparent needs of the group- with
very little time taken for communication, we were able to adjust in the moment.
The next activity was the real “meat and potatoes” of the session. We
broke into small groups which were determined by similarities in gestural
responses to the prompt, “actions you perform in the place you feel most
powerful.” When exploring gestures, some intense feelings emerged from the
group rehearsing housework. Visibly upset, Awa asked why she should practice
making bread when she does it all day long at home. This was particularly
interesting to me, considering the prompt that got us here was to create a gesture
that represents something you do in the place you feel most powerful. When
asked to rehearse repeatedly, deeper feelings about these activities began to
emerge. Intrigued, I asked the group to show us how they do the housework while
feeling frustrated. Awa acted out making bread using short, violent gestures, her
face screwed into a grimace. I paused her in order to exemplify the moment as
extraordinarily theatrical. She had transcended the mimetic act and infused it with
contradictory emotion.
Metelica 35
During debrief, several participants commented that they felt they had
“progressed in acting.” I wondered if they were recognizing the complexity added
to the performance of housework when infused with an emotional reaction. Awa
commented, “No matter how much work you do at home, no one claps for you.”
This comment led me to believe the women found the group work affirming.
For our last activity of the session, participants wore masks and
physically inhabited a male in their family through a walk, gesture, and sound.
They performed these movement phrases individually for the group. Rather than
provide a performance order, Olivia asked the participants to negotiate the
sequencing of the sharing, to allow space for them to exercise agency. They were
generally hesitant. Not everyone performed with the masks, but the majority did.
Nasrin, donning a mask, imitated an angry husband. She stormed around the room
huffing and balling her fists. This elicited peals of laughter
During discussion afterward, many said how the masks allowed them to
more freely express themselves because they weren't seen.
Session Four
Olivia and I arrived at 10:30 to find that we did not have a translator.
Both our hired translator and the translator at AWC were absent. Luckily the
director of the organization had found Samia, a student who could translate for us
Metelica 36
in Dari. We had some time before beginning when we could tell the translator our
previous challenges around embodiment and imagination.
When we began our session with a circle game, there were three
participants. However, twenty minutes into the session we had eight participants
including Sara, a child of about eight years, who had come with her mother and
aunt. Two of our expressed goals for this session were to further explore
relationships through image theatre that would allow the participants to explore
choice, as well as to diminish the facilitator's role.
We moved onto “Demechanizing the Brain,” a game returning-
participants had become extremely familiar with, due to its near-weekly
repetition. This time we asked the participants to facilitate and to add some new
rules. Rehela quickly volunteered to facilitate and proved to be a great leader. She
added new instructions to the game to be silent or to laugh and to put your hands
on your hips or shoulders.
We introduced the creation of individual still images. I asked the group
to close their eyes and think about their mother. I urged the group to create a
statue in their own bodies to represent the feeling of watching their mother do
something she loves to do. Many of the women held out their arms or touched
their hearts. I invited the participants to add a sound to their statue and Aadela
sighed. Once everyone had created a statue I asked half of the group to relax and
stand next to a sculpture that was interesting to them. Then I asked this group to
Metelica 37
create a sculptural response in their own bodies. The mood of the room was very
somber and emotional and it was at this point that one participant, Laila began to
weep. Many of the partners began embracing spontaneously and comforting one
another. Tearfully, I commented on the tender images I saw around the room and
thanked the participants for sharing. This felt like a good time to take a break and
have a snack.
Over refreshments and a debrief I asked the participants how this activity
made them feel. Nasrin said it was good to remember her mother. I asked the
group why they thought we were making these images. Awa answered that this
activity transports the participants to a time and place where they can be with their
mothers. Rahela turned the question around and asked why we were making these
images. I agreed with Awa that theatre has the power to transport a person and
that personally, it helps me to learn about myself. I asked the group if anyone had
realized anything new or learned anything from that activity.
Olivia introduced a group image theater section with a discussion about
challenges or conflicts that arise within the family. Our original prompt was
conflicts that arise with your children but, because we had a child in the group,
Olivia was uncomfortable giving that prompt. Examples given by the participants
were a husband and wife arguing about how to discipline the children, and a
husband and wife arguing about how money should be spent. Other examples
were issues of trust between husband and wife, the husband not giving the wife
Metelica 38
any attention, parents favoring boys over girls, and a husband re-marrying
because his first wife could not produce a son. Rehela explained candidly that
these scenarios were all common in Afghanistan.
Intensity in the room rose as it became clear that the participants had
personal experiences with many of these situations. Laila shared something with
the group in Dari, which received a wave of tongue clicking. Our translator
Delara explained to us that Laila said she had not seen her children in three
months- since her husband, to whom she had been married for thirty-three years,
took them to Maryland because she could not produce a son. Other participants
tried to console her in Dari, offering suggestions about how she might reconcile
the situation. One participant offered that the laws here were different from those
in Afghanistan and she may have more legal right in the US to see her children.
Laila began to cry and Olivia and I tried to comfort her. We asked if she would
like to go upstairs and speak with the social worker. Laila said she would like to
stay and continue participating. We asked if she might like to use this scenario to
play and she responded that she was not ready. Acknowledging the feelings in the
room, Olivia urged the group on.
She then suggested we look at economic situations between a husband
and wife. Rehela volunteered to direct first. She chose two volunteers and masks
for them to wear as they played the husband and wife. She sculpted a man with
his hand raised to slap the wife who was requesting money. Rehela titled this
Metelica 39
image "Greedy Husband." Olivia asked for a new director to sculpt an image of
the ideal. There was a very long pause because no one wanted to get up. Finally
Rehela stood again and became an actor herself and chose Tara to play the wife.
Rehela showed the husband very theatrically digging in his pockets, taking out
money, giving it to his wife, and embracing her. It was clear that the participants
had not mastered the idea of a frozen image and were moving directly to scenes.
Observing this, Olivia urged the participants to create a frozen image. The frozen
version of this image Rehela titled "Kind of Rich Husband."
Olivia asked the participants how we could get from the image of "the
greedy husband" to the image of "the kind of rich husband." Tara observed that
tensions come from economic dependence where the woman relies on the man for
money. If the wife could earn money, she reflected, there would not be as many
problems domestically. Olivia asked the group how the woman could earn money.
Rahela offered that if she was educated she could get a job and if she were not
educated she could use her skills to help earn money. She then created the image
of a woman sitting at a sewing machine and handing her product to her husband
or son who sold it in the market.
Olivia and I had planned the session hoping to repeat this process with at
least two more directors making tableaux for other scenarios, but time had run
out.
Metelica 40
Session Five
We had a late start because the center was inaccessible until about 11:15.
With five participants we jumped right in. We played a quick game to warm up
our bodies and then we moved right into images.
We asked the participants to create an alternate image to show what was
missing from the series created the week prior. Soraya, a new participant, hearing
what we did, suggested that we reverse the roles so that the wife has the money.
We looked at the image of "the greedy wife" that they constructed and I asked if
this seemed realistic, to which the group replied affirmatively. I asked, based on
the image, if the wife had control of the money and the husband tried to hit her,
would she leave? They answered in the affirmative. I proded for further
explanation. They said that, in reality, if the wife makes money, the husband can
take it without asking. Someone commented that if both men and women have
money, they would spend less time arguing, thus reducing household violence.
Lucia, the new participant, seemed to become uncomfortable at this point. She
seemed nervous and shied away from the group to sit off to the side. I recognize
that this was a lot to expect from someone who had not been there previously to
establish safety in the group.
Olivia asked the participants in pairs to create a scene showing what life
is like if both husband and wife have a job. Working in four pairs, each with one
new participant, proved difficult. Some groups were apparently not clear that they
Metelica 41
were supposed to show what life was like at home when both husband and wife
are working. This may have been a result of unclear facilitation. Rehela
commented that the husband and wife need to trust one another and that, if she
controls the finances, she would spend wisely, eliminating conflict. She observed
that this is harder if the wife is not educated, however.
During the next activity, a “gallery walk,” participants had some
refreshments as they look at images that Olivia and I provided. They identified a
lot of arguments depicted in them, specifically conflicts between husband and
wife, at a family dinner, or between two girls who might be sisters. Dividing them
into two, Olivia asked both groups to use one of the images as inspiration to
create a short scene of three to five lines which clearly depicted a conflict. The
group decided to delve into a scene created about two sisters fighting over money
where the fight escalated to the point where the older sister chokes the other.
I stepped in to play the sister aggressor, and my actor partner and I put on
masks. Olivia asked the participants to place a hand over the victim’s head and
speak for her. The objective was to play with things you could say to stop the
violence. Again, Rehela wanted to dive into lengthy explanations about what
should happen, theoretically. We encouraged her to take on the voice of the sister
who was being strangled. Some suggestions focused on the inherent sister bond,
which should be stronger than an argument. A few threatened disowning the older
sister. Some rationalized with the aggressor. We were running out of time so
Metelica 42
Olivia suggested we create a lightning round where each participant would come
and give a sentence or two from the victim’s point of view. This was a very
beneficial adjustment as it gave every participant an opportunity to step in and try
out an idea in the little time that remained.
We had intended to get through one more round of activating images,
but, adjusting to what was in the room, we had to spend more time on the
investigation of spousal financial situations. Olivia and I both agreed that it was
better to be flexible in our plan, to speed up or slow down according to the goals
of our session and what arose from the participants in the moment. We thanked
the ladies and reminded them to bring friends to our final session the following
week.
Session Six
We began a few minutes past 11am with facilitators and staff
outnumbering the two participants. Farnaz told us that the low turn-out was due to
preparations for the New Year celebrations happening the next day. To warm us
up, we went around the circle twice, first offering one thing that we wanted the
group to know about us, the second time offering something we don’t often tell
others. The responses were a useful indication of the level of comfort and safety
the participants felt. Samia, who was present for all but one of our workshops,
shared that she doesn’t often tell her husband she loves him, but she does. At this
Metelica 43
point Ronda and Maryam joined the group bringing our number to four
participants.
We played a few games, including a fun and very silly clowning activity,
and from there we moved into choice improv. Having determined there was an
outstanding need to examine more open choices and rehearse multiple
possibilities and consequences with the group, we began the first main activity.
Olivia prompted the participants to close their eyes and imagine people
with whom they go to the mall. Together we explored their various objectives
discussing, too, the various desires a mother has when she shops, such as new
clothes for her children. We then explored a scene where the mother character
juggles the wants and needs of her children, her sister, and her friend. Focusing on
the mother, we examined different strategies she could use to make everyone
happy. Maryam suggested telling the child she could have what she wanted the
next time, hoping the child would forget about her desire. The participants
identified that there are often conflicting objectives in a situation and it is
sometimes difficult to juggle all of them. Olivia asked the group what ran through
their minds in the moment when multiple people needed something at the same
time. Maryam said she was sad and wanted her children to be happy. I asked the
group for the different ways they could say no when they must. Regarding a
child’s wants, Rhonda suggested putting off the purchase till next time, hoping the
Metelica 44
child would forget about the desired object. Maryam suggested leveraging a better
reward for the child if they could wait until a later time.
Attempting to push the conversation about decision-making further, I
asked the group how they decide when to say yes or no. Maryam said if it were
something educational or something that the child needed, she would say yes.
Rhonda said she gauged her decision on whether she had the money or if it was
something the child already had.
I introduced the next activity, which looked at different ways we juggle
conflicting needs and desires. Olivia and I performed three short scenes that
demonstrated what happens in a situation when a.) I get what I want; b.) I get
what I think I'm supposed to want; and c.) someone else gets what they want but I
do not. We did this by miming: a.) Olivia offered me a huge piece of cake and I
accepted then ate, voraciousl; b.) Olivia offered me a huge piece of cake and I
opted for a tiny piece of cake which I ate politely and with great comment on it’s
deliciousness; and c.) seeing that there is only one piece of cake, I offer to share it
with Olivia but then let her eat it all and take only the crumbs.
Instead of breaking into small groups as we planned, we worked with the
whole group together. We set the scene at the grocery store when several family
members want different things. Maryam played the mother going to the grocery
store with her sister and child. In the first scenario, she allowed them both to get
whatever they wanted and she also got what she wanted. In the second scenario,
Metelica 45
she demonstrated what she thought a good mother should do. She went through
the grocery store advising her child and her sister not to take certain items off the
shelf because either they weren't healthy, they couldn’t afford them, or they
would make them fat. In the third scenario, she allowed everyone to get what they
wanted except herself.
We all discussed what participants consider when making choices. They
identified money as a determining factor, as well as the positive or negative
impact the choice might have on them later on. Maryam expressed a concern for
immediate consequences as well as longer-term, future consequences which might
occur as a result of eating unhealthy food, for example.
Out of time, the group came together in a circle to share one emotion
they felt that day and to pass a hand pulse around the circle. Samia shared that she
enjoyed our workshops so much, she had disobeyed her grandmother's order to
stay home that day in order to prepare for the New Year festivities the following
day.
Chapter 3: Evaluation
It is difficult to isolate achievement of any one objective without
acknowledging the interrelation among our goals. For example, participant
agency could not be attained without safety and translation in place. Each moment
within an individual workshop proved fluid, moving in and out of deep dialogue
Metelica 46
as quickly as feelings of safety and agency shifted. Just as silence-breaking could
not be demonstrated without safety, each example contains many necessary
contingent conditions, which made the circumstances of that moment possible.
Each session contained scenarios which demonstrated the achievement, or not, of
our objectives. What follows are some moments when objectives and goals were
reached.
I. Project Goal Achievement
I begin by evaluating the degree to which we achieved our goals through
the games, exercises, and conventions we applied. I examine participant
exhibition of feelings of safety, agency, self-determination, and self-confidence,
while exploring issues of choice and consequence, the re-imagining of reality,
silence-breaking, and naming.
Investigation of Choice and Consequence
From observing this group prior to our workshops, Olivia and I saw an
apparent inability for them to identify multiple choices in everyday
circumstances. We thus sought to create opportunities for the investigation of
choice and consequence through play. But, during sessions one and two, some
activities failed to achieve the objective of allowing space for participants to
exercise choice. In session one, "Four Corners" was meant to show which
Metelica 47
activities the participants liked best and to discuss why. It may have been a failure
of translation or a desire to please the facilitators that all the participants ended up
in the same corner, unable to articulate why they had chosen to land there. This
taught us that we would have to assess which activities the group preferred using
our skills of observation as asking the question was not the best way to draw out a
conclusive answer. Perhaps if we had been able to make the question a game to
which they could respond through play it may have been more successful. For
example, if we had asked the ladies to mime the game they preferred, and then to
find others they thought were doing the same thing we may have better supported
their autonomous expression.
Games which asked participants to make abstract connections between
story and body were generally less successful than those which drew upon
concrete connections. In Session 2, for example, participants were introduced to
the theatrical convention of “Machines.” The idea was abstract and seemed
difficult for participants to grasp. The direction to create motions of cause and
effect did not communicate in a way that produced a collaborative gesture and
sound. When I introduced the idea of an assembly line, however, where everyone
performs a simple action in order to create a larger activity from the accumulated
actions, the group succeeded in combining their movements to create a car wash.
Participants were not able to demonstrate the skills necessary to complete the
theatre activity until the abstract idea had been made concrete with an example to
Metelica 48
which they were able to relate. They then responded creatively, imaginatively,
and collaboratively.
During the first several sessions, only when the prompts and questions
were similarly tangible did the women provide a clear response. When prompted
to react to seeing an imagined family member, the group participated fully. Poetic
storytelling about “the things your hands have done,” however, received
considerable mimicry of facilitators' examples. The group’s comparative ability to
create physical responses inspired by a real person in their lives suggested that
they found it harder to connect with abstract, imaginative prompts. Prompts that
explored concrete relationships were relatable to the group.
Our original intention to foreground non-verbal games in order to
circumvent language and translation barriers was abandoned when it became clear
that the group was more successful when they could communicate verbally. But
as a result, a great deal of our time was spent activating scenes where character
dialogue was plentiful. I attribute the group’s comfort with the concrete to their
acculturation. They were not used to expressing their emotions or utilizing their
bodies for communication. As one participant told us, “We don’t speak with our
bodies- that’s what mouths are for.” The group lacked exposure to theatre and its
conventions, making those conventions difficult to navigate. The difficulty
communicating the word “Imagine,” for which there is no direct translation in
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Dari or Pashto, exemplifies the difficulty the group had adjusting to non-literal
play. Participants found mime and literal play easier to achieve.
We were also less successful at drawing imaginative storytelling from
participants. Our Session two circle game, "one hundred things to do with a
baking sheet," asked them to use a baking tray in as many imaginative, non-literal
ways as possible. In using it as an umbrella, one participant conveyed a story
replete with a location (outdoors) and an action (get out of the rain). Near the end
the second round, the game ended with Salma's declaration, "We are out of ideas."
This choice to end the game rather than wait until another idea appeared showed
some resistance, which may have been a result of not yet feeling safe to fail, a
deterrent we tried to escape by offering participants the option to repeat choices.
As the session progressed, however, there was an increase in participant self-
confidence, exemplified by their willingness to make bold physical responses,
even if their actions intimated that they hadn't understood the prompt. The one
Bengali speaker’s fully embodied commitment to swimming, even though all the
other participants had acted as animals, was a clear demonstration of self-
confidence and self-determination.
As facilitators, we successfully encouraged participant confidence by
celebrating mistakes and demonstrating gratitude for offers they made. During
"Demechanizing the Brain," We introduced the practice of cheering when
someone did not perform the correct action. This made participants visibly enjoy
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themselves more as the laughter in the room increased and the ladies began
enjoying pointing out the mistakes of others, in order to create occasions to
celebrate together. In addition to making mistakes acceptable, this created a
foundation for safety by taking power away from the risk of providing “wrong”
answers.
If decisions are often made with consideration for normative political and
social pressures, Sessions Four and Five saw great exercises of choice without
apparent social limitation (Zerubavel 34). In Session Four participants navigated
the series of images of the “Greedy Husband,” “Kind of Rich Husband,” and
seamstress wife, collaboratively. They worked together to craft the images, made
choices to change the husband’s raised hand from a fist to an open palm, and
discussed future repercussions. They considered what might occur if the wife
contributed financially to the family and what she might make.
As facilitators, we only stepped in once an image was completed.
Together, the participants demonstrated and complicated the reality of the image
for one another. The group prioritized finding solutions collaboratively over a
single person’s dictation, and prioritized decision making and silence-breaking
over the normative pressures that directed them to stay silent about such issues
outside of the home. Furthermore, they demonstrated an ability to examine
present actions and strategize for future actions, meeting one of the objectives
Olivia and I had hoped the group would achieve.
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Displays of imagination were not the most effective road for participants
to demonstrate self-determination. However, during session five, when playing
with the same set of images of the “greedy husband” et al. from the week before,
the women problematized the content of the images for one another, especially
that of the woman as an income-bringing seamstress. They successfully
complicated the issue as they considered the real consequence that the wife may
be physically abused and forced to give the money she earned to her husband.
There was a missed opportunity to push the group further here by exploring a
spectrum of consequences for the seamstress wife. For example, we might have
explored potential allies who could be recruited for support in the situation, or
how the wife could keep control of her earnings. We missed this opportunity by
sticking too rigidly to our session plan.
The participants were successful in articulating actions and imagined
consequences. They worked together to achieve those objectives independently.
We framed play and fun as the purpose of our sessions and, as such, the
participants pursued these interests. They were hooked in to the activity enough to
try and resolve the situation. They likely went in this direction because it was a
next logical step, as well as where their interests guided them. The ability of the
participants to move seamlessly in and out of leading one another meant that they
were taking ownership of the workshop session, which was a goal we set but had
not articulated to the participants. Participants meeting objectives, even when
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facilitators missed the mark, provides further evidence that our chosen objectives
were well matched to this group.
In later sessions, participants deepened investigations through their
willingness to accept differences of opinion and personal priority. Aliah and
Maryam exemplified this during session six, when they explored choice and
consequence through making purchases at the grocery store. Both participants
made clear choices based on individual values, while accepting and supporting the
differing priorities of the other. This contrasted with earlier workshops where
participants mimicked the facilitators’ movements and creative choices.
Furthermore, both women were able to project future outcomes as consequences
of their actions.
Rehearsal for Revolution
Olivia and I strived to create a space for the women to assert their agency
in the hope that cultural silences might become visible to them through play.
However, we had not anticipated that participants would choose to address
silences head-on and openly advocate for other ways of being. During a feedback
session with Ms. Farnaz, she related to us an incident after the fourth workshop,
when the participants were leaving. They were reflecting on the activity in which
they explored, through image theatre, what they identified as common conflicts
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between husband and wife over money. They used masks to create images of the
problem, a potential solution, and images of transition. According to Ms. Farnaz:
When they came upstairs they were happy, saying ‘We got rid of the
husband at the end because we were making money.’ It was not only one
person; they were saying it in a group and two of those women I know (are)
victims of domestic violence and so had gone through that and they wanted
that independency and they were expressing that. It made me happy to see
that they were confident saying we don't need that man in our life if he's
abusive…And sharing that in front of the few other students. I mean
Afghan women are very very closed, (they) never open up, especially when
it comes to violence inside the house or problems inside the house. But
seeing those women sharing when it was a group of them and talking to
each other and saying it, I think it was... (Sharifi)
Prompted by the images they had created during our session, the ladies left
envisioning future real-world applications of their play. This is an example of
what Boal describes as a “rehearsal of revolution” (Babbage 105). Within the
aesthetic space of image theatre, participants felt the freedom to explore, through
play, alternate ways of being that had real world application. The arrival at the
moment where “the articulation of counter-discursive identities and the rehearsal
of strategies for social transformation” (Perry 106) occurred was dependent upon
the application of other fundamental objectives prior. That the participants,
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especially those who encounter physical and psychological oppression in the
home, were able to imagine and physically express other possibilities was a
triumph for the group.
During our final session, many participants were absent because they
were preparing for the festivities of the Muslim New Year, which was the
following day. Salma told the group during reflection that Thursday had become
her favorite day and she had defied her family, who wanted her to stay home and
prepare, in order to attend our session. Throughout our workshops, Salma was
always quiet and smiling. She enjoyed herself but rarely spoke up and was always
agreeable, following directions but never making waves. For Salma to have
spoken up at all, much less to have contradicted her family’s direction, indicated a
big shift. Perhaps it was in part through the rehearsal of using her voice in the
workshop which was allowing her to exercise it more often.
Silence-Breaking and Naming
I noted in Chapter One my interest in the power of naming to increase
personal agency. Unspeakables were often spoken and named over the course of
the workshop. When deep feelings were expressed in Session Four, this
transparency and openness was met with support and encouragement from the rest
of the group.
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Doya and Shadlen observe that the decision to share is influenced by the
personal evaluation of costs and gains (2012: 2). The breaching of taboo subject
matter and the subsequent choice to continue participating in the workshop after
sharing so openly, suggests that the transgression of silence-breaking felt like
more of a gain than a cost to the individual. That choice was likely further
supported by the generous reception that followed from the other participants.
Similarly, in the same session, when image theatre revealed abuse in the
home, rather than shying from or denying the reality, the group unanimously
acknowledged the scenario as realistic and useful to explore. This willingness
indicated to me a need for space to validate private realities. Rather than leaving
deflated, Ms. Farnaz confided that participants were excited, showing a
willingness to bring these issues into the open. This exceeded our expectations of
what could be achieved in a six-week period.
Complex, Independently Developed Dialogue
Olivia and I agreed that to be participant-centered, the group should
control as much of the content and space as possible. We prioritized participant-
driven facilitation and dialogue, as it signified agency and choice while promoting
safe space. We saw, in moments of deep and vulnerable dialogue mostly during
the last three sessions, that the necessary prerequisites of safety and agency had
been established and were being maintained. In the fifth session, the group
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willingly complicated Awa’s suggestion regarding which spousal partner should
have control of joint finances. Their willingness to speak candidly about taboo
issues and to allow those discussions to contain complexity without easy solutions
was remarkable. This dialogue occurred entirely among participants; we
facilitators dropped back to listen. We measure success by comparing this
phenomenon with our observation session prior to commencing when the group
seemed to be challenged to get beyond identifying the presence of choices, let
alone imagining and discussing other possibilities. The presence of dialogue, the
naming of the issue, and the ability of the group to problematize for one another
without our guidance were triumphs that we as facilitators had not anticipated the
group would achieve.
Data Collection
Data collection proved more difficult than we expected. Activities aimed
at gauging participant consent or feedback were difficult among this largely
illiterate community who have been enculturated to submit and agree. As our
unsuccessful attempt at "Four Corners" in Session One revealed, honest responses
were better approached through play than through direct questioning. The most
reliable techniques we found were to triangulate data across facilitator and staff
feedback and translator interpretation.
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After the Fourth Session, when a great deal of personal disclosure
occurred, Olivia and I checked in with one another about best practices and
personal observations regarding participants’ personal sharing. We crafted an
email to the staff to alert them of the content that came up and asked for feedback.
The communication with AWC staff assured us that the participant was supported
after the session ended and opened an opportunity for dialogue and sharing. Ms.
Farnaz then shared with us the conversation in Dari between participants upon
their departure from the offices. We would not have known about the impact the
session had without this insight from staff, who, in addition to their long-standing,
intimate relationships with many of the participants, also shared the language.
The Geese Theatre Handbook’s assessment for dialogue was less
applicable in coding our observations because the levels and quality of
conversation shifted rapidly and fluidly. So we did not draw on it in the way or as
fully as we originally intended. We relied instead on shared feedback and
exchanging field notes.
II. What I learned about My Research Focus
Rather than looking at the usefulness of particular methodologies, the
question of "means" in my original research question shifted slightly to address,
"What conditions must be in place in order to create a safe space for a group of
adult Afghan immigrant women to explore cultural silences using applied
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theatre?" During the workshops, what became more interesting than the
techniques we used were the conditions that created the environment where deep
disclosure occurred spontaneously. This section describes creating safe space
through play; framing participants as experts through participant-directed content
and dialogue, as well as balance of power; and a consistent schedule and
participation.
Negotiating Safe Space
In our applied theatre work, the willingness of participants to share
determined the success of the collaboration. In order to mitigate the power
discrepancy inherent when facilitators design the sessions but do not disclose
personal information, it is imperative that participants choose and guide the
content of the sessions, for it is up to them to determine what safe space looks and
feels like. Sharing cannot be coerced or prodded for, but rather offered willingly.
In order for sharing to occur, a safe, judgment-free environment must be
maintained. In this way, facilitators serve to clear a space, ensuring it remains safe
and judgment-free in order that participants can bring themselves to the space.
Applied theatre games and techniques must be participant-centered. Facilitators
must constantly work to meet the participants' definitions and requirements for
safe space.
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The lack of consistency of participation and session meetings was a
challenge to the creation of safe space and thus to the group’s progress. Several
sessions were cancelled due to an exceptionally inclement winter and Muslim
holidays. As exemplified in Session Five, even when more seasoned participants
felt inclined to share openly their opinions and experiences, new participants were
not always willing to go along. Safe space is attained through effort and can be
easily upset if not reinforced by all participants. Additionally, such space requires
interpersonal comfort. Relationships are built from time and care, from which
inconsistently meeting can detract.
Several other factors challenged our ability to make a safe environment.
One was the inconsistency of the translator from week to week. Over our six-
week session, we had three different translators. The translator’s role is key, as
she is the trusted listener who must embody the participants’ words and convey
them accurately. Especially if the content to be translated is personal and
revealing, it is imperative that trust exists between participant and translator. A
concern that she will be misinterpreted may tip the scale for the participant
weighing the costs and gains of making a verbal contribution.
The facilitators must be generous in sharing their enthusiasm and
positivity. They create a model of support and encouragement that participants
will likely adopt. They must create a welcoming environment in which
participants feel able to share. Celebrating mistakes and applauding after every
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sharing were two strategies we used to make participants feel supported. During
the third session Awa commented with a smile, “No matter how much work you
do at home, no one claps for you,” indicating her appreciation for the group
support.
Participant-Guided Facilitation, Dialogue, and Content
To promote safety and participant agency, Olivia and I strived to mitigate
the inherent power dynamics by promoting participant facilitation and participant-
driven dialogue whenever possible. We repeated games such as “Demechanizing
the Brain” over several sessions with participants leading and offering new rules.
During the Second Session, when we reintroduced this game, one participant
jumped in, unprompted, and spontaneously began giving the group direction.
Likewise, when controversial or sensitive subject matter came up, Olivia
and I hung back to allow the participants to dialogue among themselves. We
asked for chunks to be translated for us as the discussions emerged and interjected
occasional questions to encourage clarification or depth of thought. This strategy
was aligned with one of our main objectives, participant agency and silence-
breaking. To interject too much in these conversations would interfere and may
have silenced participants.
Throughout the applied theatre exercises, we framed the participants as
the experts in the room. We tried to avoid being prescriptive or pushing
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participants to address particular issues, allowing instead for the women to
suggest scenarios and problematize content for one another. Considering the
vulnerability of the population and the general lack of autonomy afforded them,
allowing them to control as much of the content and sharing as possible was an
effort to avoid triggering or replicating traumatic conditions and allowing the
participants ownership of the workshop space. We may have held this priority to a
fault. Sometimes prioritizing participant-driven dialogue caused me to steer away
from proding further into content areas that might have been more fully explored.
There was one opportunity to delve deeper that we missed. During
Session Three, Awa erupted with an angry comment, “We do housework all day
long, why should we keep doing it here?” I desperately wanted to prod further
with the group about this anger, which arose from a prompt to demonstrate an
action in the place you feel most powerful. In the interest of remaining
participant-centered, however, I did not feel it was appropriate to push further if
the participants had not offered interest and speculation about the source of this
anger. Creating a dramatic, theatrical moment felt more appropriate, as therapy
was not part of this workshop’s objective. Reflecting on this choice, however, I
feel that I missed an opportunity to raise a question to the group about how and
what power felt or looked like. Only once, due to a lack of time, did I
intentionally steer the content of investigation by suggesting they look at choices
made at the grocery store, it being a universal location for decision-making.
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Although this activity brought about interesting, honest dialogue, with more time
I would have invited the participants to brainstorm and choose a scenario that felt
honest and applicable to their experiences.
III. What We Learned about Applied Theatre
Masks
From the moment it is applied, the mask introduced a sense of
childishness, anonymity, mystery and heightened theatricality. The invisibility of
the face allowed for more visibility elsewhere. All the actors’ movements became
more noticeable, the exaggeration of which became humorous. Aliah, who proved
to be quite bold wearing her mask, commented on the freedom she felt with her
face covered. From my observations of the workshop participants, this group of
Afghan women expressed themselves less with their bodies and gestures and
more with their words and facial expressions. Not having to worry about one’s
face being interpreted freed them from self-consciousness and allowed more
freedom of corporal expression. The exaggeration of movements increased
comedy in the performance. The participants expressed enjoyment using the
mask, likely in part because of their association with inciting laughter.
When Emotion Breaks Play
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In Session Four, when theatre was interrupted by a participant’s real-life
challenges and emotions, I was able to respond but realized that I had not ever
rehearsed or discussed best practices for responding when the theatrical
experience brings up real-life issues outside of the play space. One objective of
applied theatre and Boal's techniques in particular is to address oppression in
communities and imagine possibilities for ending it. When a participant offered a
personal story, the aesthetic play space shifted. We were no longer imagining
hypotheticals that may have applied to real life experiences- we were in dialogue
with non-fiction. Since the participant was not ready to look at her situation
theatrically, I felt less prepared to address her needs. This highlighted for me the
usefulness of aesthetic space, in which, even when exploring non-fiction,
participants have the buffer of play to manage feelings of exposure.
The importance and the power of witness in this situation should not be
undermined. Because the participant chose to begin and end with verbal sharing
alone, does not make this a missed opportunity. In an effort to remain co-
intentional and participant-centered, it is important that participants dictate their
own exposure level and participation. As one who has spent time bearing witness
to genocide survivor testimony, I can avow that there is great value in holding
space for others to be seen and heard, without response or a need to "fix" or
"resolve" the story being shared. For this participant, speaking her truth and being
seen may have been what she needed at that moment. As an applied theatre artist,
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however, this incident revealed a blind spot in my own tool kit, leaving me to
question the strategies that are available to me when a participant shares but is not
ready to activate the story through theatre.
As an applied theatre artist, the well-being of participants is my top
priority. Moving forward I will work to strengthen my skills and acquire more
strategies for constructively and perhaps theatrically dealing with personal stories
in a way that avoids retraumatizing but allows the keeper of the story to find
empowerment.
Necessity of Play in Approaching Goals
During Session Two, Maryam, likening our play to psychology, reported
that at home she thinks about what she should cook or how she should clean, but
in our workshop “it is for laughing and playing. It changes the mind.” Maryam
very succinctly hit on a finding central to our thesis investigation. She observed
that play was the vehicle and the medium through which more permanent internal
shifts could occur. Laughter has been proven to release stress through muscle
contractions and release, and the activity itself lowers stress hormones (Shapiro
14). Play encouraged participants to laugh and cooperate, creating trust and bonds
which laid the foundation for dialogue and silence-breaking. This point was not
articulated when my partner and I set out our workshop goals. It became clear
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through practice how fundamentally imperative play is to the success of the
workshop.
Applied theatre practitioner and author Daniel Banks warns of the danger
of making a problem the problem. Appropriating the work of Dr. Moshe
Feldenkrais for the uses of applied theatre, Dr. Banks suggests, "if someone has a
problem with their shoulder, don't address their shoulder, address their knee"
(Banks). Rather than ask about conflict in the home, we played together and,
eventually, conflict came up voluntarily. As evidenced by Ms. Farnaz and by
participant feedback, what allowed us to get to deep sharing was play. The space
to get to know one another and be silly was, according to Ms. Farnaz, "what was
missing before" in AWC programming (Sharifi). Play allowed the participant to
choose her level of disclosure safely. She could remain in the realm of play,
which was "one step removed," as the Geese Theatre Handbook describes, or to
move into "personal level" work (Baim 30). Play was our way in. Were we to
have asked the participants to speak about the challenges in their marriages, aside
from being pedagogically reprehensible, there would likely have been no
response. Playing together created the openness in the bodies of participants and
the feeling of security and intimacy necessary for the deeper, more personal
engagement.
Additionally, games that warmed and opened the body, allowing
participants to socialize and laugh together, made us able to move into deeper
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personal narrative. Physiologically, tension inhibits movement and breath. It was
not until participants had loosened up their bodies and laughter shook free their
tension that the work of revealing the emotional layers underneath could begin.
Connecting with their physical selves in relationship with others fostered trust and
intimacy. Although resistant at first-- as demonstrated by the comment made
during the first session, “We don’t talk with our bodies, we have mouths for
that.”--this reluctance quickly dissipated. By the end of session two, participants
acknowledged that play “changes the mind.”
Translation
We anticipated that language would be a bigger obstacle than it was.
Language barriers presented an opportunity for participants to take responsibility
for themselves and others. At times there were five first languages in the room at
once and, while we half expected this would mean the workshop would descend
into chaos, the participants seemed to enjoy using the asset of corporal expression
to “translate” for one another. Those who spoke languages that were similar to
another verbally explained to one another. Those who had little access to any of
the languages, such as the single Bengali speaker, observed and was able to jump
in and participate physically.
As facilitators, Olivia and I often felt we were committing an act of
cultural imposition for privileging English. Dr. Cohen-Cruz, our advisor, pointed
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out that many participants self-identified English learning as their reason for
coming to the center. They may have seen it as a privilege and additional
opportunity to speak English with native speakers.
When our instructions didn’t translate, we had to find other ways to
communicate them. "Imagine," for example, does not have a direct translation in
Dari or Pashto. The term we agreed to use was “fikur kanin” which roughly
means “picture in your head." Although similar, the work that resulted from being
prompted to picture in one's head was often tentative and showed a low level of
commitment.
We continued to search for different way to prompt imaginative creation
in an attempt to meet the participants where they were, thereby promoting their
success. The privileging of English as the language spoken by both facilitators
was mitigated by our willingness to continue to work toward mutual
understanding and to adapt our plan to accommodate difference.
There was the sense at times, and more so with some translators, that our
literal words were being translated, rather than the meaning behind them. Olivia
also noticed that at times a large chunk of direction would be given and the
translation would be much shorter. And often a participant would speak for
several moments and the subsequent translation would be one sentence long.
Sometimes an instruction was given to which the participants were hesitant to
react. Even given the mechanical differences of the languages, it is likely that
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words or fragments were left out. Despite the potential omissions that posed a
challenge to pure communication, participants stayed committed to participation.
Translation was not only a verbal endeavor but also occurred physically.
When Olivia and I perceived a challenge for the group, such as their inability to
connect to abstract prompts, the task was often achievable if re-interpreted and
approached from another angle. The example from Session Two when
participants suddenly understood and were able to make machines demonstrates
this point succinctly. More important to the group’s understanding than the
rephrasing of the prompt was my image of the assembly line used to explain the
exercise. While the concept of a human becoming a machine seemed inaccessible,
attaching a concrete image which was relatable to the group immediately made
them able to succeed.
Aliah attested to the power of theatre when she reflected upon this
activity, expressing amazement that this group of humans had become machines,
achieving “the impossible.“ Her comment served as a meta-reflection in that the
group had experienced so much difficulty when approaching the machines
activity, yet in finding a relatable, translatable metaphor, the impossible suddenly
opened up and was achieved.
IV. Theoretical and Professional Implications
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Many Roads to Agency
It is important for applied theatre facilitators to use multiple strategies for
participant agency. Because some participants were more confident in sharing
their opinions or taking on a leadership role, we strived to fold in regular
opportunities for all participants to put their voices into the room. For example,
during an "Activating Images" activity in Session Five, Olivia opened up a
lightning round and each participant took a turn speaking one line of dialogue for
the character in the frozen image. By alternating moments where individual
participants elected to step forward and other moments where every participant
took a turn, we encouraged agency and made space for participants to claim it.
Time
In the future, I would make an investigation of silence-breaking and
naming at least three times longer than the six weeks we had. I would be more
adamant about a consistent workshop schedule and participation. I would spent at
least the first six weeks with the group just playing, laughing, and building trust
and skills while determining what some of the generative themes for the group
might be. This way, if and when personal topics emerged, there would be ample
time for the group to investigate them through dialogue and play. The second six
weeks would move toward image theatre techniques, with the final third of our
time also spent working toward a female community sharing. Olivia and I spoke
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about the possibility of involving and twinning with another group of Afghan or
perhaps Jewish women, and exploring themes of identity across culture.
Playing Across Culture
Before the workshops commenced, I was concerned that our shared
gender might prove the largest obstacle to creating safety. My experience of being
a female is a far cry from the participants’. (See chapter 1.) This difference,
however, was not as much an obstacle as an opportunity. According to James
Thompson, applied theatre facilitators working in a community to which they do
not belong can be a strength (20). Like the child in “The Emperor’s New
Clothes,” the visiting artist can provide a fresh gaze and perspective through
which the community can see itself anew, and perhaps acquire additional insights.
Simply being female allowed certain topics and behavior, given the strong gender
distinctions in Afghan culture, but being females from another culture brought an
additional dimension. Finding connection first through our similar gender
identity, both facilitators and participants became ambassadors to their cultural
experiences.
Freire describes learning as a collaborative process where both parties act
as teacher and learner simultaneously (72). The participants’ willingness to
participate, even when they didn’t seem to understand the instructions, was
evidence that they felt safe, despite (and in some ways because of) our different
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backgrounds. The women were willing to act as teachers and explain aspects of
their culture when exploring a scenario foreign to their facilitators. My trepidation
prior to the workshops quickly dissipated once in the room together. It became
clear that we were there to play and be silly and not just to teach but to learn as
well, making it natural and easy to connect, despite the language and cultural
barriers. Laughter and play are universal languages, and created strong bridges
between participants and facilitators, one another, and the storytelling that
emerged.
Creating the Impossible with Play
Georgia, who attended four sessions as participant/observer making
watercolor paintings and sketches,4 commented on how her ESL classes with the
women have changed since the applied theatre workshops:
(I)...feel a new sense of solidarity amongst the women. Maybe it's just the
beginning of solidarity, but there seems to have been a slight change in the
atmosphere during Tuesday English class. It suddenly seems like women
are talking more to one another before, during, and after class, and like we
are more aware of who is present and who isn't, who isn't feeling well, who
is new and needs to be welcomed. (Maduro)
4 See Appendix for examples.
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Georgia describes a tighter sense of community and belonging among participants
outside of the workshop space. What she describes as solidarity corroborates
similar feedback we received from other staff members, including Ms. Sharifi,
who only experiences the participants outside of classes.
During the third session, participants were exploring a male in their
families using gesture, sound, and movement, both in and out of mask. Nasrin,
pretending to be her own husband, began huffing about with balled fists,
gesticulating and stomping. The immediate reaction of the group, in stark contrast
to the aggressive behavior of the masked actor, was laughter. Georgia reflected:
Suddenly I thought, "Oh my god how are we laughing at domestic
violence?" Subversive humor and satire have a long history of undermining
status quo, but I really didn't expect to see anything like that...(Maduro)
With the buffer of aesthetic space, brave stories were told through the medium of
play. Masks were applied and suddenly the unspeakable could be spoken and
received by peals of laughter. The participants could all identify with similar day-
to-day life experiences, which remain foreign to anyone outside of that identity or
context. Creating a weekly play space allowed them to explore and comment on
those day-to-day experiences, many of them oppressive, from a place of
camaraderie. Experiences such as angry and potentially violent husbands, which
likely bring up feelings of isolation and sadness when experienced alone, are
commented on using the levity of play, creating an increased feeling of solidarity
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among those who identify with the experience. The events that isolate can be the
very key to the clubhouse and surviving oppression becomes a patch of honor to
sew onto her sash. Georgia shared similar feelings:
Listening to women say things like, "I haven't played like this since I was a
girl," or, "Once I became a mother, I had no more time for games" made it
seem like we were all in a secret clubhouse where we were safe to laugh or
cry or say revealing things like "sometimes I feel you have to hit children
when they are bad" (Maduro).
A positive consequence of silence-breaking is increased feelings of community
solidarity. The safety created during our playtime together carried over into the
spaces outside of our workshop. Several staff members commented that the
participants were more eager to speak with one another and to share both during
and outside of classes (Sharifi). The positive effects of clapping for one another’s
housework inside the workshop space manifested displays of camaraderie in the
real world. By the Sixth workshop, the participants appeared to demonstrate an
increased ability to express themselves using their bodies and humor. I believe the
women surprised themselves at how well they achieved the self-expression they
previously thought was impossible.
According to Perry, image theatre techniques are the vehicle by which
counter-discursive identities can be rehearsed and social transformation
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manifested. I believe that image theatre, in combination with play, is a more
complete approach.
The act of play provided a safe environment necessary for the
participants to explore cultural norms, personal issues, and taboo topics using
image theatre. The safety and solidarity fostered among them encouraged the
rehearsal of counter-discursive identities, thus paving the path for social-
transformation.
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Works Cited
“2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates.” Total Ancestry
Reported. U.S. Census Bureau. December 11, 2012.Web. Dec. 5, 2013
Babbage, Frances. Augusto Boal. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Baim, Clark, Sally Brookes and Alun Mountford. The Geese Theatre
Handbook. Hampshire: Waterside Press. 2002. Print.
Banks, Daniel. “We the Griot: Devised Performance for Community
Engagement.” M.A. in Applied Theatre, City University of New York.
New York, NY. April 6, 2014. Workshop.
Blair, Brent and Angus Fletcher. “’We Cry on the Inside’: Image Theatre
and Rwanda’s Culture of Silence.” Theatre Topics, 20.1 (2010): 23-32.
Print.
Boal, Augusto. The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and
Therapy. London: Routledge, 1995. Print.
---. Theatre of the Oppressed. New York: Theatre Communications Group,
1979. Print.
Bolton, Gavin. Acting in classroom drama: A critical analysis. Staffordshire:
Trentham & UCE, 1998. Print.
Doya, Kenji, and Michael N Shadlen, “Decision Making” Current Opinion in
Neurobiology, Vol. 22, (2012): 911-913. Print.
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Fisher, Max. “What the Muslim world Believes on Everything from Alcohol
to Honor Killings in 8 Maps and 4 Charts.” Washington Post Online.
May 2, 2013. Web. Oct. 11, 2013
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2011.Print.
Frieze, James. Naming Theatre: Demonstrative Diagnosis in Performance.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2009. Print.
Goodwin, Jan. Price of Honor: Muslim women Lift the Veil of Silence on the
Islamic World. New York: Penguin Group. 2003. Print.
Maduro, Georgia. Personal Interview. March 29, 2014
Metelica, Marissa. Field Notes. February, 2014. Print.
Naili, Hajer. "Afghan Women in N.Y. Reflect on 10-Year War." Women's E
News. Women's E News, 7 Oct. 2011. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Participatory Drama, Rotterdam - The Netherlands. Web. Nov. 11, 2013.
http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en
Perry, J. Adam. “A Silent Revolution: ‘Image Theatre’ as a System of
Decolonisation, Research in Drama Education.” The Journal of Applied
Theatre and Performance 17:1, (2012): 103-119. Print.
“Place of birth for the Foreign-Born Population in the United States:
Foreign-born population excluding population born at sea.” 2012
American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. Web. Dec. 6, 2013.
factfinder2.census.gov
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Shapiro, Roberta, M.Ed. An Overview of Anxiety, and the Twenty-Seven Best
Ways of Handling Anxiety. N.p.: n.p., 2010. Web. February 6, 2014
Sharifi, Farnaz. Personal Interview. March 27, 2014
Zerubavel, Eviatar. The Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial in
Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
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APPENDIX A: WATERCOLOR IMAGE FROM SESSION FOUR
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APPENDIX B: WATERCOLOR IMAGE FROM SESSION FOUR
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APPENDIX C: MASKS
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APPENDIX D: GAMES DESCRIPTIONS
Demechanizing the Brain
Participants are instructed to walk a comfortable pace in random patterns through
the space. The facilitator explains that the group will be given a word which,
when called, the participants should disobey, by instead performing the word’s
opposite pair. For example, when the facilitator calls “Stop” the participants
should begin walking, and vice versa.
Other “opposite pair” instructions explored were “wall and roof,” and “heads and
hips.” Participants are encouraged to add new pairs of directions as the group
becomes familiar with the game.
One Hundred Things to do with a Baking Sheet, aka Object Manipulation
In this game, an object is passed around in a circle and each participant must
silently demonstrate a use for which the object is not intended. For example, a
baking sheet may be used as an umbrella, a fan, or a golf club. Participants may
repeat previously demonsrated objects.
Gallery walk
Images intended to inspire dialogue and ideas relevant to the theatrical activity are
posted throughout the space on walls or floors, as appropriate.
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Four Corners
When asking a group their preference between several choices, assign each option
to a corner and have participants move to the corner of their preference. They can
then try to defend or convince the other corners why their choice is the best. The
corners are not fixed so if someone feels persuaded, they can move to another
corner. This can be geared more toward debate.
Machines
In pairs, participants take turns beginning with a simple, repeated gesture and
sound. The other partner completes the machine by adding to it their own gesture
and sound which either affects or is affected by their partner’s gesture and sound.
Machines can be added onto or combined with other machines.
Auto-Images
Participants provide silent, individual responses to a prompt using only their own
bodies.
