I had spent years studying French so that I could attend the Parisian school and be a fluent student and I was disappointed that I had to revert to English.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Industrial Theatre – Born in South Africa
I had spent years studying French so that I could attend the Parisian school and be a fluent student and I was disappointed that I had to revert to English.
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4 comments:
Industrial theatre, as described by the article, is something that you wouldn't expect to hit the third world. Putting on a show in the workplace about the workplace is a decidedly American thought, as if to say that we can't be bothered enough to read manuals or memos so why not show it in a mandatory production? In South Africa, however, the thought evolves into something much more. Literacy and competence as a whole is on another plane, but, by the same token, so is the work expected out of the people conducting it. By using characters and experiences that workers can relate to, you immediately accrue a feeling of legitimacy to the work you're displaying, while never seeming all that heightened, which I feel is why this could never work in America. If what we are watching isn't far above us, doesn't challenge the day to day or appear to transcend our mundane reality, we lose interest and end up browsing on our phones. A workforce with no phones? Then you change the game.
Using theatre for education is so helpful and so underused. Theatre that educates is something that inspires me so much, theatre should have a direct result on more than just its audience, it should effect a community or a society or even a culture. I love the way the philosophy of this industrial theatre was created, it sounds like a immersive, devised kind of process that I think helped the artists themselves grow and understand how theatre can work. I would love to speak to more of the contributing members and gain an insight into how this process realistically worked and how it effected them. I find it very interesting that this kind of theatre work be developed in South Africa, I wonder how it work in America. I feel like our CEO’s are different, I feel the employees would respond in a way that would tell us so much about the culture surrounding America’s working class. I would love to see industrial theatre in action, but more importantly I would love to see its response on different countries and cultures.
Using theatre as a method of common communication and education is certainly something that merits a deeper exploration. What the article said about needing actors that are physically skilled reminded me of what I was once told about dance: that physical movement is the oldest (and one of the clearest) forms of communication between people. Though gestures change and are different from culture to culture, the physical movements of basic things are common to all members of the human race, no matter the societal context. What the Industrial Theatre is doing has very powerful potential. Though I am not sure how their theatre pieces provide impetus for some of the very specific topics they mention, I would love to see how their work has started conversations about larger issues in the workplace. I hope their work has made a lasting difference bridging the gap between employees.
I like this concept a lot, starting a conversation between management and labor by making them share the same emotional experience regardless of language boundaries, its brilliant. I am not very familiar with the language breakup in south Africa, but I do understand some of the post apartheid tensions that the country was left with, and how people one side of the racial and economic gap are still in a way segregated from the rest. Labor and management divisions often fall along these same racial and economic lines, and language divisions follow. When you don’t speak the same language as your manager/supervisior, you have to use a translator, which may not always communicate clearly or with your interests at heart, or you just do what everyone else is doing because that’s your job. In either of these situations it is impossible for workers to become invested in their work and try to make positive differences. For that reason, I think their industrial theater really can do a world of good.
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