The Process
What’s theatre got to do with it?
Catherine uses the visceral art of theatre to mobilize and powerfully communicate the authority of the lived experience.
However, one might wonder: “What’s theatre got to do with it?”
Consultative Process
Firstly, there is a community and the issues affecting that community, then the question of how to engage the community and this is where Catherine as facilitator and artistic director steps in. Participation is not premised on the notion of talent. Rather people from predominatley marginalized societies come to the creative workshops through referrals from workers and peers. Her method is deeply consultative, the creative workshop process leads epeople’s ability to take the lead role in their own story. “The methods are there for the people not the inverse. "I lead workshops and make theatre with communities. I’m not a therapist, but the process is inevitably therapeutic”.
Workshop Process
Drama is based on human struggle be it internal or external. In literature, film and theatre, characters classically venture through darkness to light. There is no process of audition, rather inclusion that seeks to discover each persons unique character and story. Frequently people come to workshops with feelings of isolation, defensiveness, low self-esteem and inner turmoil. The process is playful and interactive, building trust between participants, who creatively transform these feelings, learning they’re not ‘so alone’.
Engaging Body, Voice & Mind
Through a dynamic workshop process that engages body voice and mind, participants explore their own and each other’s stories, building connection and other ways of seeing. Pluralizing the personal story through the stories and images of a group helps to hold the personal story in a wider social context. Participants get into small groups to respond to any given question and share their experiences. Catherine does not direct the scenes in this workshop phase, rather facilitates the games, methods and questions that build connection between participants whilst generating story content. Embodying one’s story and collaborating with others is a space in which connection and confidence can grow.
Individual Sessions
Parallel to the group workshops are the individual sessions with Catherine. Participants get the opportunity to articulate their story in more detail, identifying their struggles, strengths and what they want to say. Catherine asks the question: “If you thought someone would listen what would you say?” This question invites self-determination and activates the idea that there may be a listener (an audience) and herein a life creatively examined begins.
Social Impact - Personal Becomes Political
Performance is a transformative experience, one that brings respect and dignity to the people who share their stories. The genuine applause of the audience represents not only the recognition of the work but also the power of the storytelllers contributing important messages that enable understnding. Audience feedback affirms the power of the work to shift perspectives and build empathy.
Participants describe their journey as life-saving, connected, bonding. Performers are empowered through the workshops to resolve and be comfortable with their situation so to achieve tremendous growth, and connection to others. Through this process the personal always becomes political bringing real change.
Transformation happens from the personal, to the collective, to the social-political. Catherine’s work is a creative investigation and an act of transformation as people who are not actors take center stage in the ‘lead role’ of their own stories. People who never intended to inhabit such a role become the accidental activists of the issues their stories reveal.
Art invites us to observe, and furthermore challenges the actual ways that we see. This work provides a unique point of access for community and it is generating the voice of the people as advocates and educators. The sectors of education, health, community, service providers, general public and government are their audience.
