Maritzburg Varsity 18-09-2007: What is Industrial Theatre?

Maritzburg Varsity 18-09-2007: What is Industrial Theatre, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

Today I ran a workshop at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus. I had around 16 drama students, and two lecturers in the room.

I was there to talk about industrial theatre.

We kept things pretty informal, playing Augusto Boal's Forum Theatre warmup games, with me relating what I was doing to how I approach industrial theatre.

I broke the group into foursomes, and we ran a World Cafe discussion around the question, 'What IS industrial theatre?'

When the groups reported back, I did a quick visual facilitation. I noted that visual facilitation is in itself a form of industrial theatre, in that it's a performance aimed at educating.

This picture won't mean a hell of a lot to an outsider. Its primary purpose is to act as an anchor for the people in the workshop. Pictures allow people to access the right side of their brains for learning. So the ideas that came out of the World Cafe session become easy to recall and think about.

As usual, I made this painting using ArtRage 2.5 on my Toshiba Tecra M4. Thanks to Veronica and Janet for arranging my flight, my accommodation, and my stipend. Huge appreciation! Thanks guys.