Forum theatre

Forum theatre rehearsal

Create three scenes showing latent, emerging and manifest conflict with a break in time between each scene.

• Each scene begins and ends with a freeze.
• The joker introduces each scene with brief details about the characters, time and place (for the sake of necessity, the joker can also be a performer).

Performances

• The three scenes of the play are performed twice.
• The first time the play is performed straight through so that the audience becomes familiar with the plot, characters and the issue being explored.
• After the first performance, the joker will ask for audience comment – what is the cause of the oppression? How can this be addressed? Is there more than one way to do this? They can ‘hot seat’ characters as a way to find out more about them.
• During the second performance the audience can shout “STOP” and is able to intervene, taking on the role of any character in the play and to try and modify or de-escalate the conflict or bullying that is occurring. The same part of a scene could be done several times, if more than one 'spect-actor' wishes to try!