Making Waves: Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change - Introduction - Theatre: Staging Daily Life
In a world dominated by electronic media, where television antennas can be counted by the thousands even in the poorest shanty towns and where the profiles of satellite dishes emerge even in the middle of the desert community theatre has not only survived, but has an important role in communicating for development.
Theatre, puppets, dance and music are firmly rooted in the traditional cultural and artistic expressions of many communities in poorer countries. It is difficult to imagine a community that has completely forgotten any of these forms of collective participation and entertainment. Sometimes the tradition is only sleeping, it has been neglected because of other urgencies (like survival in the globalised world), but it can be instantly revived when a new motivation arises. The old rich costumes set aside through several generations come out from the wooden trunks where they were carefully folded; the colourful masks and puppets glow again under the sun; the drums or locally made marimbas or balofon regain their clear sounds. The tradition of expressing the local history and the dreams of a community through music, dance or theatre are alive and well even in the most isolated places on earth. And that is precisely why the communication projects that aim to build on traditional forms of expression have many chances to succeed.
There are several reasons for choosing theatre or puppets or dance as a means of communicating for development and encouraging community participation. The first, and more obvious, is that it's already there at the community level, and it's most appreciated by people. Another reason is that in spite of electronic media being almost everywhere nowadays, very little is there content-wise that can help communities improve their quality of life or to organise themselves better. If only entertainment were not only entertainment. At least radio, compared to television, makes a major effort to reach communities in their own local languages, but too often the contents of programming is detached from local needs and from local cultural identity overall. Many of the drama-based experiences that we know of in the world were established because the available media either were not accessible to the people, or were not responding to their needs for information and communication.
The network of popular theatre in Nigeria was born to serve areas of the country where not even national or state radio, let alone television, had coverage. In the early 1990s UNICEF realised that the investment in radio and television campaigns had little influence in zones of Nigeria where communities lived in complete isolation from any form of electronic-based information. Moreover, the very impact of the radio and television strategy over other areas of the country was in question. The establishment of small drama groups at the level of local governments greatly contributed to support health and education activities with innovative means of communication, using the most important local resources: people, culture, tradition and language. The proliferation of these groups was challenging in terms of scale and the impact on the population could be evaluated immediately, because of the face-to-face communication that was implemented. Scripts on the most important health issues were developed and locally adapted to each particular context.
In Nepal, the Aarohan Theatre has been promoting community theatre since 1988. Although the troupe is not based in a specific community, it has placed its technical capacity at the service of training local drama groups who would in turn develop scripts and plays to support local participation for social change. Over the years a network of some thirty groups have been established with the help of Aarohan, some in very remote areas of Nepal. Travelling theatre groups supportive of community participation and social change are also well established in the South Pacific, such as Wan Smolbag in Vanuatu or the Awareness Community Theatre (ACT) in Papua, New Guinea.
Theatre is also important to promote social change in urban settings. The examples of Teatro Kerigma in Colombia, Nalamdana in India and Teatro Trono in Bolivia are illustrative of this trend. Street theatre has a variety of forms, including one-man performances and mimes to more organised drama groups. Teatro Trono was initially established by street children and youths in El Alto city, on the outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia.
It eventually became a larger cultural group and expanded its activities to other urban areas of Bolivia. Puppets have also been used as a tool for social change in many countries, particularly in India and Indonesia. Among the puppeteer's groups there is much diversity of technique, topic and audiences. Adults benefit from it as well as children. String puppets, glove puppets, shadow puppets and rod puppets are some of the traditional techniques employed, but in recent years computer-controlled puppetry is being introduced in film studios and on television shows.
Various puppeteers' troupes are concerned about AIDS prevention, such as Puppets Against AIDS in Namibia (PAAN), active since 1995, Dadi Pudumjee in India, and Nyanga Tshabalala in South Africa. In Hong Kong, The Kids on the Block a troupe of large-sized puppets, has specialised in educating children on issues of discrimination against children with disabilities.
Some puppeteers are using television to broaden their audiences, although this has an impact on the quality of perception and participation. Using the national language, Tagalog, the Batibot Puppet Showin the Philippines is designed to help pre-school children from low-income families develop skills and values through entertainment. TheSi Unyil Puppet series in Indonesia has been on television since the early 1980s. Similarly, the Puppet Theatre of Ardeshir Keshavarzi(Iran) and Uncle Sargam by Farooq Qaisar (Pakistan) are popular shows in their respective countries. It is difficult to evaluate how many of these puppet shows really deal with social change and how much of what they broadcast is plain entertainment for children. It is obvious that the ill-defined television audience forces puppeteers to address culture and content in very general rather than specific terms, without having the possibility of establishing a real dialogue with the audience.
The Lilac Tent is an amazing experience taking place in Bolivia, inspired in various performing arts and housed under a huge circus travelling-tent. The project, which aims to positively affect the sexual behaviour of Bolivian youth and prevent AIDS and STDs, is a mixture of entertainment and educational activities. The Lilac Tent is something like a medieval circus combined with modern educational techniques. Wherever it travels, it certainly captures the attention of the whole community. Outside the tent people can watch video documentaries on health issues, puppet performances or evening music shows; while inside The Lilac Tent and organised in groups often, the visitors have the opportunity of participating in a series of instructive activities and games. Though funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and technically supported by the communication cluster at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), this project has evolved much beyond the usual social marketing model.
Theatre and puppets as tools of participatory communication for social change have comparative advantages, particularly in live performances that are not filtered by television. First above all, is the cultural relevance, especially when local troupes are in charge. Traditional values are preserved and strengthened, and communicating in the local language contributes to the process of community participation. Second, is cost-effectiveness and the potential of immediately having an impact and appreciating this impact on the audience. Third, is the advantage of establishing a live dialogue that may derive in a learning process, both for the audience and the drama group. Finally, the entertainment factor, which enables the contents to be conveyed, channels the energies of the audience, through surprise or through laughter, to the processes of comprehension and participation.
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