Week 9: Play
Angela C. Stanley
Week 9 Readings/Video: Children at
Play: An American History, Shall We Play? Part I, Forum Theatre: A Tool for
Social Change, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC: Sneak Peak video
Half of the
assignments for this week were centered around the concept of children’s play
and the other half were centered around the idea of forum theatre. At first glance, I didn’t understand how
these two concepts related. I looked at
the articles about play as a mere definition of what play really is and how
important it is for children to have the freedom to play they want to. I looked at the forum theatre article as a
mere definition of what forum theatre is and how it is carried out.
It wasn’t
until I watched the video Theatre of the Oppressed NYC that I started to
realize how they could all connect. The
beginning of the video started off with a series of warm-ups such as shaking your
neighbors’ hands and not letting go and verbal world play. It wasn’t until I saw on the screen “warming
up the audience in order to imagine the world upside down,” and when the
speaker in the video says, “now you are suitably confused, which is exactly as
it should be.” When I thought of the confusion
as being the core prerequisite to participate in the forum theatre activity, at
first it seems a bit ridiculous. Why would
you want to be confused in order to become invested? But I soon began to tie in the other articles
with this concept.
As adults, we attempt to look at
everything through a logical and rational lens; we tend to iron out any
irrationality we come across. When
children are at play, they aren’t always being fully rational. They aren’t looking at a rug as a piece of
material that was bought at Target by their parents for a low discounted price
and the impressive matching color scheme to the wallpaper. They are looking at the rug as hot lava that
they cannot touch or else they will melt.
If we could grant ourselves the permission to look at things in ways that
doesn’t physically make sense and interact with the new imagined environment
that we have created, we will be able to experience pleasurable play.
Hi Angela, thank you for this post. The rug/ lava game reminded me of my childhood when I used to play the same game with my family and friends. I remember those times wherein I would just create my own games with my own set of rules, etc. Back then, we didn't have the technological advancements that we have now so we didn't have a choice but to play outside and most of the time, we created our own games with family and friends.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with what you said about how all the assignments we had for this week are in a way, interrelated. I see forum theatre as a tool wherein people have the freedom to say and do what they want. There are no wrong or right answers and moves. In my post, I found a video about forum theatre with kids as the audience/ participants. For them, this is a way for them to be aware of the different issues and problems we have in the world (especially as kids) and they are given the chance to make their own choice on how to deal with that matter. They have the freedom to make choices and that's what makes it fun. They get to play and learn at the same time.