CITA Cross Cultural Theatre Notes

Links for further study

NOTE: I've put the books which were recommended in the CITA Cross Cultural Theatre track over in the sidebar.

The Center for Playback Theatre
has training and resources, and where you'll meet Jonathan Fox who's original group in 1970's started this fascinating new form. Improvising Real Life by Jo Salas is a very easy book to read and understand how to do it (see sidebar for link to the book). There is also IPTN International Playback Theatre Network publishes INTERPLAY a pracitcal journal full of articles by practitioners (find one in multiple languages by K! in dec '05 p22). I've written quite a bit about my performing and training experiences on the spicetolife blog. Just search "Playback" at the top of the page, and you'll find chronicles or outlines of training in Egypt, or Singapore, or Cambodia. I have another blog where I've stored training outlines and notes, including Enacted Prayer and Playback.

Send me your links for YouTube samples of cross cultural pieces, pieces which may be transcultural, or samples of your work! (there's a blog entry just below where you can also see the playlist). The videos we watched in our sessions are not all on YouTube. Find Mark Branner's CircoRedempto (Central China), and Sword Productions (Philippines). But I'm still searching for This Man Called Jesus, and any little videos or photos of Lin's group called New Hope in Slovenia. Also, here's another link to a helpful playback demonstration (not on YouTube).

Raising Support (recommended by the 3C missions resource on DramaShare).

Resources for further study/involvement

1. A Guide to Ethnodramatology based on research for doctoral studies in missiology as it relates to drama. Julisa Rowe's 2CDs plus guide is based on her dissertation comparing USA, India, African drama styles.
It covers three related areas:

• A model is developed for ethnodramatology to help answer the question of how to discover and understand the drama forms of a culture.
• The model is illustrated in three cultures in the attempt to show how and why drama style differs from culture to culture and that a universal drama form does not exist.
• Recommendations are made for Christians to utilize drama in their own cultures, or cultures of ministry. Particularly appropriate forms for change-messages in Kenya and India are suggested.

You can order Julisa’s training resource that comes in a 2 CD set which includes a pdf of the guide and video examples. E-mail at ethnodrama@acquirewisdom.com

2. 3C Cross-Cultural Creativity
Though I've not seen more than the sample pages on the web, DramaShare has put together a 207page training resource ($119 includes a year subscription to their online dramas). A thorough, step-by-step guideline to organizing and creating a drama team for missions or outreach purposes . . . and to teach these skills to the mission field church. It looks like they've done some good work at putting together, and according to the website they have DramaShare members from all over the world, and their staff have been to many countries, but the offer ofa year's subscription to use their downloadable scripts in your cross cultural endeavors makes me wonder about the missiological training elements in this 3C curriculum!

Here's text from their website: Cross-cultural outreach covers short-term missions work around the world, but it also is meant for more local situations, such as inner-city outreach or prison ministry. The methods in 3C will walk amateurs through the "need-to-know" without long periods of study and research. The 3C Manual gives full instructions on team building, warmup games, characterization, training schedules and mime essentials. 3C Cross-Cultural Creativity Manual includes an annual DramaShare membership giving you one full year of full and totally cost-free use of all DramaShare scripts, including many non-verbal dramas written specifically for the 3C program. By using the 3C program you have full, and totally free use of all on-line DramaShare scripts, including a wide range of mime and human video scripts. The 3C Manual is downloaded from their website saving you time.

Mission Organizations Primarily for Arts in Mission
Artists in Christian Testimony Intl * is an evangelical, interdenominational Christian ministry that mobilizes, sends out, equips, and supports artistic ministers and missionaries who carry out various works of the New Testament Church. (*or in Creative Access Nations "Artists for Cultural Transformation")

OMF has an ethnomusicology wing called Heart Sounds International.

Networking Organizations
ICE, International Council of Ethnodoxicologists (indigenous worship arts). Mostly music, but eager to grow in drama!

GCOMM – Global Consultation on Music and Missions Makes CD’s of presentations at their conferences.

TransformWorld (Came out of the group that was AD2000. They have been networking mission leaders/strategists now has an Arts Focus Group) Kimberly has the Arts Focus Group's position paper and covenant if you are interested.

TransformWorld LA Arts contact: cory_raynham@yahoo.com they have regular meetings, with various speakers/artists coming to share what they are doing eg. April's meeting was from a person who specializes in Fund Raising - and spoke on new forms of Fund Raising banquets another large International Arts Conference in Bulgaria later this month

Recommended book list from ArtsLink (an arts arm of OM International)

• All the World is Singing, Frank Fortunato, Paul Neeley and Carol Brinneman
• Art & Soul - Signposts for Christians in the Arts, Hilary Brand & Adrienne Chaplin
• Art & the Bible & How Should We Then Live?, Francis A. Schaeffer
• Art for God's Sake, Philip Graham Ryken
• The Arts in Your Church, Fiona Bond
• The Creative Call, Janice Elsheimer
• The Heart of the Artist AND Thriving as an Artist in the Church, Rory Noland
• Imagine - A Vision for Christians in the Arts, Steve Turner
• It Was Good - Making Art to the Glory of God, Ned Bustard
• Modern Art & The Death of a Culture, H. R. Rookmaaker
• Roaring Lambs, Bob Briner
• Visual Faith - Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue, William A. Dyrness
• Walking On Water, Madeleine L'Engle

David Kitch (Covenant Players) also recommended
On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scary
I just went on the CP website and ordered a DVD on their 40 years of ministry - and make a donoation ...The website has a handy way to make a donation if you want to support David and Sarah Kitch. Sure, we all could use more support, but I don't want to miss an opportunity to encourage giving!

If you make it to New York, check out the vibrant Arts Ministry of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. I didn't find anything on the website for cross cultural work, but you'll be encouraged (and a bit jealous) to see all that's going on through this church.

Jessica Lewis mentioned that she found her job in Kazakstan through the website Christianactors.org. Check that out too! Keep us posted Jessica! We're rooting for you as you find out who will be your support team with Navs!

So, there you go...
Look for more of our notes and links in the future, i just wanted to get something up right away. Strike while the iron is hot, as they say...

Christians in Theatre Arts, Azusa Pacific, June 10-13

I've been to many of the CITA conferences over the years, and it's always been encouraging to meet others from around the USA (and a few from around the world) who share the same passions: Jesus and Theatre. My colleague from Singapore/Malaysia, Paul Seow is even coming into town for it.

I'm so thrilled that for the first time there's a new discipline track: Theatre in Missions, and I'll be helping facilitate it. There's a whole list of other discipline tracks too on the website. I'll post notes from out track here later.

K!'s Playlist of Cross Cultural Drama

Playback Theatre in Kenya

I'm overjoyed! I've just read a report from Julisa Rowe, a theatre colleague in Kenya who teaches at Daystar University in Kenya (a Christian University) and leads the Drama Ministry Team at Nairobi Baptist Church. Her team just had their first Playback performance yesterday, and below you'll find part of her report. She was the one who invited me to teach drama in Egypt earlier this year, and while we were there, we talked about the possibilities. Later we skyped about training her team. Equipped with a School of Playback video, a doctorate in Missiology, my notes, and a lifetime of being a theatre practitioner

What they're doing is realizing a long term dream of mine: mature and dramatically talented Christians using Playback Theatre in significant ministry. If you've paid attention to the news in recent months, you know what kind of terrible things have happened recently in this country. Their "offers" in Playback are desperately needed ones, and the performers on that team are instruments of the Lord to bring healing and hope. The Holy Spirit will use the immediacy and intimacy of improvised theatre to do his work.

Below is my response to Julisa followed by a section of her email report to me today.

wow. julisa! given such limited exposure to Playback, it's astounding what you were able to teach, and put together in such a short amount of time.
as we prayed earlier on skype, i do believe that this whole journey for you is one where you (the talented and capable Dr. Rowe) are out of your area of experience and it's forcing you and your team to grow in your trust of the holy spirit to lead, and you're going to be the vessel for his powerful work. THRILLING (and frankly scary) to let go of our perfectionism and see what God can do!

I'm home late tonight if we want to try to skype and talk through some more ideas. I leave for austria the 9-16th (now i wish i were coming a bit farther SOUTH instead!)

you're in my prayers,
K!Mberly

On May 6, 2008, at 11:01 AM, Julisa Rowe wrote:

Hi Kim:
finally, I'm getting back to you with a report of the last two weeks and our first show!
The training went surprisingly well, although I'm still feeling my way through things! The team (I have 8) picked things up well and have fallen in love with playback and its potential. They are thrilled to be the first (as far as we know) official playback team in Africa! (unless the Egypt groups have continued).

On Friday we had a test run with the Nairobi Baptist staff - we were allowed to take their staff devotion time and did it through playback. They were very positive, and after getting over initial nerves, the team did great. It gave us all confidence for today's performance.

So this morning we did our first official show - in Nakuru, one of the hotbeds of the violence. There were 70 attendees there (pastors, teachers, doctors, nurses, administrators, from all walks of life). Several had had their houses burned down and are displaced. Yesterday, the workshop began, looking at issues in conflict and scriptural response. They extended their time at the end because they had so much to report back from their small groups. So they were really primed this morning when we began. We had two hours but it was nowhere near enough time. Everyone was very emotional by the end, including the actors. The last story we had was from an IDP (internally displaced person) who told of betrayal by neighbors, the burning of their house and chicken farm, and her desire for resolution. After reenacting, we chose to finish with an enacted prayer for the group, the people of Nakuru and Kenya. Then we should have done the collage, but it seemed best to go straight into Is. 61 and the closing song. No one knew any different at least!
The biggest challenge we had was actually to get the tellers to stop talking, or to keep their stories short. We were trying to warm up on short forms, but we kept getting 10-15 min. convoluted stories. Just when I heard the makings of a pairs, the person would take a turn and bring in 5 more things! Or go through about 10 things before getting back to the story to finish it. And there were no natural pauses to interrupt and guide. During the audience talk time, the actors asked me if I could get the tellers to focus their stories, but it was rather difficult. Of course, that is really a part of the healing for them - just being able to be heard and tell what's on their heart. Still, any suggestions? One story in particular would have been best as collage, but I completely forgot about that form (although I was wracking my brain during the telling to figure out the best way to do it! We ended up with a fluid, but the team got mixed up somewhere between a reenactment and a fluid. The audience didn't notice, but we want to improve!

But people were very touched, and we have 3 invitations already to come to other communities in Nakuru and perform. So I trust that funding for that will work out soon. It was great to do it in combination with Daystar's week-long workshop on conflict resolution. The facilitator for today told me afterwards that we had already done what he had planned to accomplish today - so he was able to go on and build from there.

Any more guidance from you would be greatly appreciated as we try and refine this work!

Blessings,
Julisa

PRAY for Julisa and her team, that they'll be used in a powerful way to restore people, and bring healing in this nation.