In February 2005, 28 participants took part in a 7-day workshop in Developmental Theatre, sponsored by The British Council .The workshop was run by John Martin, Mojisola Adebayo and Adwoa-Shanti Dickson from the Pan Centre for Intercultural Arts. The participants came from all over Sri Lanka, from Jaffna, Batticaloa, Kandy, Hatton and Colombo. The organizations they represented included NCPA, CARE, NEST, and CPA to name but a few.
The workshop aimed to introduce the participants to Developmental Theatre techniques. Most of these people are already working with children and the idea was to train them to use these techniques in their field of work.
John Martin
John Martin had originally planned to come and do some work in the plantation sector; however after December the 26th he adapted the project to look at the challenges presented in coastal areas, post tsunami. Before the workshop started, John and Mojisola took a two day trip to the south visiting camps and schools to learn more about the effects the tsunami has had on the people left behind.
After speaking to Medicine Sans Frontier they were told that although 100% of the children were smiling, 80% of them were suffering from some kind of post tsunami stress. The smile is like a mask which children hide behind. The smile allows them to cover what’s really going on underneath.
How do theatre games and songs help?
Obviously Developmental Theatre cannot solve every problem that a child may have but it is designed to assist in achieving the following 3 main aims:
A child’s psychology
Although therapists, psychologists and councilors throughout the world may have different theories about how to help children suffering from trauma, the one area they seem to agree on is that children must play, or indeed in severe cases: learn how to play again.
Developmental theatre builds on play and tries to stop children withdrawing inwards, it encourages them to use contact and build up trust through non competitive games and creative sharing. On each day of the workshop a different drama technique was presented, the trainees could then use these in the future to stimulate children’s creativity.
John Martin says 'You must never tell a child what to say or do but you give them containers in which to put their own ideas i.e. story telling, image work, sound-scapes etc, the act of performing and creative sharing can be a very liberating experience, and a way of healing.'
The trainees have so far been working in Batticaloa and Ratmalana and have projects lined up in Trinco, Jaffna, Hambantota and Martara.
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