October 18, 2008: High School Forum Theatre

Dear Friend,

Move over High School Musical, and take your silly, coercive catharsis with you. A new age of high school theatre has begun, and that is the age of forum theatre. Today the three high school groups A.R.T. Fusion spent the past two days working with performed their forum theatre pieces. It was a great experience, more so for the high school students involved than for me. I had only been a part of three or so hours of training Thursday morning, before my meeting with Diana, so the credit really belonged to the A.R.T. Fusion volunteers and their students. The students were so happy with the chance to perform.

The entire day was actually a festival called Free Your Mind and it dealt with battling prejudices. The students had to write forum theatre pieces that dealt with certain kinds of prejudice. As was the case with the forum theatre piece performed in Cluj, after each of the pieces was performed, spectators were able to take the place of people onstage and explore solutions to the prejudice, which was the oppression. The students in the audience took many chances to come onstage and act out their solutions. I sat in the audience and observed as best as I could. Everything was conducted in Romanian, but I was able to understand some of the action.

I also got to lead a warm-up. “Boom-Chicka-Boom,” of course. Adi and Eugen were leading warm-ups during the lunch period in between two of the pieces. I participated and then expressed a desire to lead what I knew would be an instant hit warm-up with the high school students. Naturally, it did become a hit, and I once again cemented my reputation as the American who led “Boom-Chicka-Boom.”

It was a great day of high school theatre, I think. Granted, it was high school theatre, but everyone involved seemed very happy with results. The students especially felt very happy about their work, and as they had gotten the opportunity to be on stage, seemed even more confident about themselves. The day, in that regard, was a success. I now also have plenty of observations to incorporate into my paper on Theatre of the Oppressed once I get to writing it.

Blessings.
Kailen