Your questions answered

Your Questions Answered

Are you curious as to how this work might apply to your organisation?

Read on for some answers to the questions I am most commonly asked regarding the work I do.
To view the answer, simply click on the question.

Questions with Answers

1.As a charity we naturally have to know that our money is being spent in the best possible way. Why should we invest in your service?

Theatre is such a powerful tool as it communicates to the whole person, not just to thinking or reasoning but, in addition it addresses the emotions, the values that are at the root of how people behave and the attitudes people have. If your charity is looking to understand or influence people's behaviour, attitudes or to simply enter into meaningful communication, drama is a cost effective way of doing so.

2. What service can you deliver in an organisation like mine?

• For education providers and development agencies I teach about Theatre for Development. Students and staff are made aware of how theatre for development can be used and what impact it can have.

• In development agencies and community groups where drama is used I offer advice on how to increase the impact of the current drama work. Plus I provide training and mentoring so that organisations are able to use a range of participatory approaches and techniques to achieve their goals. I include training in how to create and facilitate programmes for maximum results.

• I design and facilitate workshops or projects to address needs identified by charities and not for profit groups.
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3. What is the theatre that you use Joy?

I combine approaches from practices known as theatre for development (TfD), theatre of the oppressed (TO), theatre in education (TiE) and arts and culture for development (ACD).

All of these approaches credit audiences and participants with the ability and opportunity to bring experiences and share their knowledge. The process, from workshopping ideas, commenting on exercises, listening to and supporting others’ opinions all contributes towards learning, empowerment and an increase in soft skills within the participants.

Additionally the dramatic forms that participants use are often reflective of their own cultural preferences rather than an imposition of Western forms. For example the forms the host community use may be story telling, call-and-response song or shadow puppets. I encourage participants to use whichever form will is most helpful in aiding learning.

The goal is to maximise learning and to challenge and strengthen participants, not to create a performance necessarily. The process is as important, if not more important than the product.
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4. Our partners are already using drama and it’s very effective yet you believe that you could help them make more impact. Why is this approach more effective?

Participatory drama engages people more deeply by asking them to think, comment and respond based on their own lives and experiences. It strategically approaches a place both near their own experience and different enough to look at the experience objectively and be able to critique it.

Participatory drama often focuses on the why and the how. It looks at decision making, the actions people make resulting from these decisions and the consequences. It asks how things could improve. So often education focuses on ‘learning about…..’ this approach is ‘learning to …..’.

It supports people to first become informed and then to become proactive. This is why more can be achieved with more strategic and participatory drama.
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5. Before I can commission work I need to know what outcomes to expect in order to complete a logical framework (Logframe) about the project. What outputs should I expect?

The impact of using drama in a development context is vast. Some outcomes can easily be captured within a logframe. Equally some very significant factors will overflow the logframe and are likely to make a considerable difference to the community yet - to speak plainly- your project or organisation may not be credited. The immediate impact of a drama project can easily be captured. But the alterations in attitude and behaviour that lead to changed lives and fairer social systems that manifest in the long term -perhaps over years or even generations -take time to capture, and then may not be easily attributable to a specific intervention.

The Department for International Development (DfID), British Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Development Education Association (DEA) agree that arts have a role to play in Development, they assert that the arts,
• Can bring about positive social change
• Build relationship and help to develop sustainable communities
• Can help to heal the psychological scars of conflict
• Can be a powerful voice for change; and
• Can be used in striving for social justice

For more see Why this approach works

6. Is it just useful in development?

It can be used to create dialogue in any group of people. It has been used in consultations, social justice, awareness raising, community outreach, advocacy in addition to international development.
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7. In what situations can this type of work be usefully applied?

• Community mobilisation to address need or social goals. For example empowering a church of poor people who believe they are unable to do anything about poverty in their area, to identify what resources they do have and take action.

• Advocacy. For example enabling people with disabilities to represent themselves to policy makers.

• Raising Awareness. For example on topics relating to health.

• Challenging prejudices. For example working with street and working children helping communities understand their lifestyle, wants and needs.

• Helping a community express their ideas so that organisations can understand them and respond to their needs. For example helping older and aging people communicate to health care providers what difficulties they have in accessing care.

• Organisational consultations. For example understanding the causes of poor motivation in work and communicating these helpfully to others.

• As a helpful process in experiencing somebody else’s’ circumstances. For example helping young people in the UK understand the complexities of corruption.

• To gain skills and increase confidence. For example helping staff members negotiate with their bosses, or alternatively helping bosses to correct their team member in a positive way.
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8. Will what you do work in our set up?

Each of my clients has had different goals and works with different beneficiaries and service users and every project is unique. Contact me to arrange an appointment to discuss the potential applications for your organisation, completely free of charge and without obligation.

9. Where do you work and what languages do you use in training?

I am based in the UK, in addition to my home country I have also worked in;

Kenya,
Tanzania,
Zambia,
Sierra Leone,
Azerbaijan.

English is my first language and I work regularly through people who are able to translate into the National language or a local vernacular.

10. Is it only suitable for children?

No, drama is a fabulous way to engage with all ages. It is particularly useful in reaching groups that have limited literacy or formal education or in situations where it is useful to have both men and women and a spectrum of age ranges and castes represented. Community drama is an inclusive as it is accessible to all that gather to watch it.

Questions