"This toolkit and associated material, including the CD-ROM provided, introduce you to Forum Theatre as a tool for HIV and AIDS education. The toolkit has been written with special consideration for youth groups and amateur theatre groups in English-speaking Africa who wish to address HIV- and AIDS-
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related issues in ways that are creative and engaging." (Page 2)
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"[...] this book provides students with an introduction to the theory and practice of Theatre for Development (TfD). Since the 1970s, TfD has established itself as a process through which communities can address issues within their own self-development through participation in theatre practice. From
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its beginnings in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent and Latin America, TfD has now spread across the globe as an effective development strategy. The author examines TfD within the context of evolving development theories and practices, including participatory approaches that encourage individuals and communities to transform themselves from the objects into the subjects of their own development. The book is illustrated with case studies taken from around the world, and from many different development sectors, including health, literacy and voter education." (Publisher description)
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"In his successful Creative Storytelling, Jack Zipes showed how storytelling is a rich and powerful tool for self-expression and for building children's imaginations. In Speaking Out, this master storyteller goes further, speaking out against rote learning and testing and for the positive force with
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in storytelling and creative drama during the K-12 years. For the past four years, Jack Zipes has worked with the Neighborhood Bridges Program of the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, taking his storytelling techniques into inner-city schools. Speaking Out is in part a record of the transformations storytelling can work on the minds and lives of young people. But it is also a vivid and exhilarating demonstration of a different kind of education - one built from deep inside each child." (Publisher description)
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"Le manuel que vous avez entre les mains fournit dans sa première partie des informations générales sur le VIH/SIDA. Il rend compte de l’ampleur de la pandémie du VIH/SIDA dans le monde et en Afrique subsaharienne, établit ses causes, inventorie les facteurs favorisant la transmission du VIH
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et les moyens de prévention. Il explore également certains aspects de l’impact socio-économique du VIH/SIDA. La seconde partie met l’accent sur le théâtre pour le développement qui est un outil de communication sociale efficace, accessible, économiquement et culturellement adapté au contexte africain. Pour aider les groupes de théâtre qui veulent utiliser cet outil de communication, des consignes sont données sur l’élaboration de messages sur le VIH/SIDA et des idées fournies pour la rédaction des textes dramatiques sur ce thème. Enfin, en ce qui concerne la mise en scène et le jeu d’acteur, le manuel fournit des orientations sur la construction d’une pièce de théâtre, le décor, la distribution des rôles, ainsi que sur la création ou la recherche du personnage. Enfin, la dernière partie du présent manuel, qui correspond aux annexes, contient les cours de théâtre forum dispensés par Prosper Kompaoré, directeur de l’Atelier Théâtre Burkinabé, durant “L’atelier de formation sur l’approche théâtre en matière de lutte contre le VIH/SIDA” qui a été organisé par l’UNESCO/BREDA du 10 au 20 décembre 2002 à la Maison de la Culture Douta Seck, ainsi que des scénarios sur le VIH/SIDA. Le premier scénario “Le Défi ” est l’oeuvre de la troupe de théâtre Kaadu Yaraax tandis que le deuxième est le fruit des travaux d’atelier. Ces sketchs sur le VIH/SIDA pourront être interprétés par des groupes de théâtre ou être utilisés comme source d’inspiration pour créer d’autres sketchs." (Conseils pour l'utilisation du manuel)
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"The use of folk arts in rural development clearly has limitations as to the role that it can play in changing people’s behavior, but it is an effective tool for communication in most cases. The greatest strength of this type of informal education lies in its ability to capture the audience’s at
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tention through entertaining spectacles and to convey new ideas and information to people. In addition, the Bhats’ social position plays an important role in the education process, as they are a marginal community that has provided social commentary through performance arts for centuries. Thus by employing them, NGOs and government agencies appropriate the benefits of their ritual discursive authority. Also, these organizations are aided by the inversions of the social order that occur during shows because the folk artists are able to command the attention of large audiences and thus disseminate their messages among diverse groups of people. In addition, the kathputli tradition of North India is steeped in mythology and symbolism, and these traits give the puppets themselves special ideological status as metonyms and liminars. In turn, these attributes allow the puppets to exist in a realm that is different from that of live actors, and thus they can communicate more effectively as they are exempt from many of the rules and biases that are linked to human behavior. Despite the numerous benefits of using folk arts in development programs, follow-up sessions and more extensive education for villagers and performers are needed to change behaviors regarding complex issues. These performances are quite successful at conveying information, but people are unlikely to incorporate into their lives new ideas regarding issues like folk medicines." (Conclusion, page 63)
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"This is a book about an inter-continental community theatre project. It is an attempt to gain a better understanding of this increasingly popular cultural practice that operates on the cutting edge between performing arts and sociocultural intervention. The main emphasis in this book, and in the ac
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companying video, has been placed on the diverse mechanics and inspirations of community theatre as an artistic process that always evolves under very particular local sociocultural conditions. Through written word and moving image, this package thus documents, contextualizes, and theorizes the methods that were used to create six community performances in distinct locations around the world in the course of 1997. Both in the video and in the book I have opted to tell these six tales as relatively independent narratives. I recommend watching the appropriate video segments before reading each book chapter, which provides the background about (community) theatre in each particular region, the facilitators, the organizations they work in, the evolution of their method, and a more technically oriented case study of the distinctive approach they used to create one specific community theatre performance in 1997." (Introduction, page 1)
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"This collection • reveals the dynamic position of the arts and culture in post-independent countries through changes in both influences and audiences; • shows African theatre to be about aesthetics and rituals, the sociological and the political, the anthropological and the historical; • exam
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ines theatre’s role as a performing art that represents ethnic identities and defines intercultural relationships; • investigates African theatre’s capacity to combine contemporary cultural issues into the whole artistic fabric of performing arts; • considers the variety of voices, forms and practices through which contemporary African intellectual circles are negotiating the forces of tradition and modernity." (Back cover)
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