Universal Language

A small, pioneering arts group is travelling around the world successfully using participatory theatre skills. The subject array involved is vast: environment, women's issues, poverty and conflict
resolution.

Called the Small World Theatre, it is composed of just two people, Bill Hamblett and Ann Shrosbree. "Our aim is simply to use the universal language of the theatre to give people a voice'',
said Bill Hamblett: "But I must make it clear, we have nothing to do with agit-prop or `message' theatre. We don't stand up in front of people to wag a finger and teach them how to think. Using
simple and cheap props such as puppets we work with the folk tales and music of the country we are in''.

During the early years of the Small World Theatre in the l980s, one of its groundbreaking projects was in the Sudan. Over a period of four years they reinforced the perception among Sudanese
foresters and community members that urgent action was needed to deal with the persistent desert encroachment on their lands. Over the years, millions of trees were planted improving the quality of
life by creating shade, fodder crops and preventing desert erosion and encroachment.

Later Bill and Ann were asked by the United Nations to pass on their skills and experience to a range of development workers at the forestry headquarters in Khartoum. In 1985 the puppet performance
in Shendi, in North Sudan, was voted the most appropriate extension technique for Sudan.

Further recognition of the sustainable impact of culture for development projects came in 1996 when SOS Sahel received a UNEP Savings The Drylands Award for the community forestry project in Ed Debba
that was initiated after puppet performances.

The experience gained from these years in the Sudan went towards producing "Shadows In The Desert'' sponsored by SOS Sahel, Oxfam and Cafod (Catholic Fund for Overseas Development). This show with a
tree-planting theme was performed in schools and theatres around the UK. This was followed by a project in Kenya where the group performed a play, Parking Boys, in Nakura using mainly shadow puppets.

Another similar production was written and constructed with staff and parents at the Nairobi Family Support Centre in Kibera, a project that works with children with disabilities and their families.
The show, with the addition of three-dimension puppets made out of locally available materials, toured low-income areas around Nairobi successfully encouraging parents of children with disabilities
to bring them along to the centre for help and advice. On returning to the UK the group made a performance called "In The Shadow Of The City'', sponsored by Save the Children. This was about the
right of every child to shelter, clean water, healthcare and education.

Small World Theatre has also worked in the refugee camps in Hong Kong where they made shows with young Vietnamese children. Based on their experience in closed camps, they were later invited to Ho
Chi Minh city as consultants in theatre as an extension medium. They also worked in the city with street children who included the profoundly deaf, those with special needs, and adult groups
comprising former prostitutes and drug users as well as members of the women's union.

In Hanoi they collaborated with the Hanoi State Water Puppet Theatre on a show that they jointly took to the mountainous rainforest area near the Chinese border where Vietnam's ethnic minority, the
Dao people, live.

The story of two refugee children from Vietnam, "Moving'', is a performance based on this direct experience and that is still constantly in demand in the UK, as sadly, refugee issues remain relevant.

At home the group is also involved in commercial theatre including avant-garde projects, cabaret, circus, parades and street theatre. Coming up to date they have a performance for five-to-nine-year-
olds: an African story, Mufaro, which uses puppetry, storytelling, shadow puppets, computer animation and mbira music in astonishing ways to promote positive anti-racist attitudes in the UK.

Ann Shrosbree is about to go to Nepal to work with street theatre groups using participatory theatre techniques to explore human rights and gender within communities. Bill Hamblett is actively
working in their home base in Wales to promote "legislative theatre'' to coincide with the recent creation of the Welsh Assembly.

Small World Theatre, Fern Villa, Llandywydd, Cardigan, Ceredigion, Wales, United Kingdom, SA43 2QX. Telephone/fax: +44 1239 682785. E-mail: smallworld@enterprise.net (http://www.smallworld.org.uk)

Freitag, 10. Dezember 1999 00:00:00
Update: Dienstag, 01. März 2005 16:02:00