CAN THEATRE PROVIDE MORE DEMOCRATIC APPROACHES TO LEARNING?

Jan Rae

CIBS SEMINAR MARCH 2012

Content Learning Dilemmas

The Nature of Theatre

Origins of Forum Theatre

Forum Theatre in the Organisational Context

The Research

Managing Forum Theatre – Some Findings

Conclusion

the paradox and dilemma for organisations is how to relax their control over

the learning process while channelling the benefits from it’ (Jones and Hendry (1994) cited in Mabey 1998)

many learning initiatives fail to achieve the desired changes through the refusal by senior management to address underlying organisational issues preferring to target the presenting ‘problem’, and focusing on individual rather than organisational behaviours. (Burgoyne and Jackson 1997)

The Nature of Theatre

I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage; a man walks across this empty space while someone else is watching him and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” (Brook 1968 p.11)

Theatre is comparatively cheap and easy to make. Its life is short, its power confined in the first place to its ability to address its audience. It can say what it wants in a small room

(Michael Billington, 2004)

The Origins of Forum Theatre (Boal 1979; 1995) All theatre is political and both ‘reflects and affects the way that society is organized through

it dynamic engagement with the value systems underpinning it’ (Babbage 2004 p.40)

Ownership of theatre processes transferred from the actors/directors/writers to the audience or ‘spect-actors’

Aim of forum theatre ‘to help the spec-actor transform himself into a protagonist of the dramatic action and rehearse alternatives for this situation so that he may then be able to extrapolate into his real life the actions he has rehearsed in the practice of theatre’ (Babbage 2004 p.40)

Supported by a ‘difficultator’ who works with the participants/spect-actors to explore the issues and develop their own solutions.

Didactic v Dialogical Theatre Isaacs (1993), promotes the dialogic process ‘as an antidote to the

‘architecture of the invisible’—the unquestioned received wisdom and taken-for-granted processes that constrain genuine interaction’ (p.520).

While the literature emphasises forum theatre as a dialogical approach to learning and development, the project managers’ language assumes a more didactic form of theatre, a belief that there is ‘a body of knowledge about a specific subject that that needs to be conveyed directly or indirectly to the audience’ (Jackson 2007 p.15).

Forum Theatre in the Organisational Context Uses theatre and drama to ‘promote and support change within organisations …

using diverse techniques to create an awareness of problems, to stimulate discussion and foster a readiness for change’ (Meisiek 2002a p.4)

... a theatrical game in which a problem is shown in an unsolved form, to which the audience … is invited to suggest and enact solution” (Jackson 1992:xxiv)

Roles and plots are emergent rather than scripted (Meisiek and Barry 2007)

Generally agreed by the academic literature and practitioners that it is the techniques that are used with little reference to the Boal’s underlying political philosophy

Processes of Forum Theatre

Performance Space

Dramatic Representation

Engagement and Identification

Audience Interaction/ Participation

Learning Space

Features of Learning Spaces Learning Space (LS) ... where ‘there is a suspension of truth or knowledge claims … when participants

are able to accept that no view is a priori authoritative or true [and] managers have no claim to a privileged vantage point’ (Fulop and Rifkin (1997 p.59)

Pluri-vocal Non-hierarchical Safe

Concept of the learning space ‘focuses on micro practices, such as framing ideas and building relationships and interactions and how these practices shape or produce effects such as organization, power and agency (i.e. the ability to think, choose, question and act) (Linstead et al.(2010)

Related to ‘the Arena Thesis’ (Jackson and Burgoyne 1997)

Any setting, event, or process that allows ideas to be shared or explored between people and interest groups Facilitating processes directed at the creation, questioning and development of joint meaning in organisations

The Learning Dilemma ... learning is embedded in power relations and processes of identity formation ....

thus organisations have a tendency to downplay tensions and disagreements (Gold et al p.204)

the ‘learning paradox’ where ‘the actions we [the organisation] take to promote productive organisational learning actually inhibit deeper learning ’ (Argyris and Schon 1996 p.281)

Organisational defences: ‘a policy, practice or action that prevents the participants … from experiencing embarrassment or threat, and at the same time prevents them from discovering the causes of the embarrassment or threat’

(Argyris and Schon 1996)

The Research Part of wider research into the role of forum theatre in HRD

To explore how Forum Theatre is used in organisations and what are the espoused aims and objectives of the different approaches from the perspectives of the stakeholders (providers, participants and commissioners)

To establish the extent to which the providers, commissioners and participants perspectives (concerning purpose, processes and outcomes) are in alignment and why

To identify the components of Forum Theatre and ascertain the extent to which to which the process (or components of the process) support or hinder the perceived purpose from the perspective of the stakeholders.

To explore the effect of Forum Theatre on participants during and after the events

Background and contextThree on-going Forum Theatre events in the public sector

Two issue based ‘interventions’ on diversity aimed at organisational level One skills based workshop on appraisal

Data collection: Websites promoting consultancies Semi-structured interviews with project managers, actors. commissioners and

participants Observation

Further interviews with with commissioners, consultancies, actors and facilitators

Managing Forum Theatre:Some Findings Process versus expert

Managing versus manipulation

Tactics and tools ‘Selective facilitation’ (Greatbatch and Dingwell 1987) v Agenda Management

Safety versus risk

Instrumental versus open-ended approaches to learning

Ownership of outcomes

Conclusion Forum theatre (and theatre and drama in general ) has the potential to explore areas or topics within

organisations which may be challenging but, on the data gathered to date, on the whole such events tend to be ‘bounded’ both at the commissioning stage (through the script, need for credibility) and implementation, through the facilitation;

Forum theatre (or other theatre based interventions) should not be principally concerned with the transmission or acquisition of knowledge but with ‘understanding who we are and what potential we have to contribute to our own and others’ development’ (Coopey and Burgoyne 1998 p.872).

The literature needs to move on from referencing Boal, to exploring forum theatre in relation to other ‘voices’ for more democratic learning (see Arena Thesis; Learning Spaces)

Unless commissioners and/or senior managers have the confidence to ‘let go’ of learning (and change) within organisations, the potential that theatre and drama to support learning cannot be fully realised

Consultancies also need to understand learning and development processes and be (perhaps) prepared to challenge organizational orthodoxies

References Argyris, C. and Schon, D. (1991) Organisational Learning : A Theory of Action Perspective Reading, Mass : Addison-Wesley. Babbage F (2004) Augustus Boal London : Routledge. Boal, A. (1979) Theater of the Oppressed London : Pluto Press. Boal, A. (1995) The Rainbow of Desire trans. by Jackson, A. London : Routledge Burgoyne, J. and Jackson, B. (1997) The arena thesis : management development as a pluralistic meeting point in J. Burgoyne and M. Reynolds

(Eds.) Management Learning London : Sage. Gold J, Holden R, Iles P, Stewart, J. Beardwell, J (2010) Human Resource Development : Theory and Practice Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan Greatbatch, D. and Dingwall, R. (1989) Selective facilitation: some preliminary observations on a strategy used by divorce mediators Law and

Society Review 23(4) : 613-641 Fulop, L. and Rifkin, W. (1997) Representing fear in learning in organizations Management Learning 28 (1) : 45-63. Isaacs, W. (1993) Taking flight : dialogue, collective thinking and organizational learning Organizational Dynamics 22 (2) : 24-39. Jackson, T. (2007) Theatre, Education and the Making of Meanings Manchester : Manchester University Press. Mabey C, Salaman G, Storey S (1998) Human Resource Management : A Strategic Introduction London Wiley-Blackwell Meisiek, S. (2002) Situation drama in change management: types and effects of a new managerial tool International Journal of Arts

Management 4(3) : 48-55. Meisiek, S. and Barry, D. (2007) Through the looking glass of organisational theatre: analogically mediated inquiry in organizations Organization

Studies 28 (12) : 1805-827.