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This morning, 11 o\u2019clock, I\u2019m in my car, parked outside a block of flats in Berea<\/a>, near Hillbrow. Pretty much the roughest area in South Africa.<\/p>\n An old coloured man has his hand out, near my window. He says, \u2018I\u2019m on my way to the hospital for a checkup an I was jus wondering if you got five rand to spare for me my brother?\u2019<\/p>\n I say, \u2018Thanks for asking, majita, but I\u2019m not going to give you money. I wish you good luck though.\u2019<\/p>\n I\u2019m waiting for my compatriots to arrive for us to go upstairs to the first floor of the block where we\u2019re going to do an Augusto Boal<\/a> Forum Theatre workshop with some ex-‘ladies of the night’.<\/p>\n The old man stays put, and I decide to get out of my car and go into the building. As I get out, a white woman crosses the road and starts talking to me out of the blue.<\/p>\n She says, \u2018Howzit, hey? I live in Sandton, but my mom and brother kicked me out cos we had a disagreement but it\u2019s okay cos I\u2019m only going to be here a few days cos I\u2019ve got a friend who lives on the ninth floor and she\u2019s cool cos she\u2019s giving me meals and I can bath whenever I want and there\u2019s no problem but my mom\u2019s just sold a property she had in Sandton, no, Rivonia, no, Sandton, for two point four million and she\u2019s moving into a townhouse, and she\u2019s got another property in Rosebank worth two point eight million and she\u2019s gonna sell that too, cos she\u2019s getting on in years you know?\u2019<\/p>\n And the coloured guy says, \u2018Is it, hey? Two million? Yis.\u2019<\/p>\n And she says to me, \u2018The only problem living here is THE BLACKS!!!\u2019 and she looks at the man as she says it, and he scowls at her.<\/p>\n \u2018So,\u2019 she says, \u2018I wanna ask you a personal question if you don\u2019t mind, but you don\u2019t have to answer it cos I\u2019m forty eight, hey? and it SHOWS! with all these wrinkles, hey? So I wanna know, but only if you wanna answer, you got a girlfriend or anything?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Yeah,\u2019 I say.<\/p>\n \u2018Well I just wanna say,\u2019 she says, \u2018you\u2019re BLOODY good looking! Bloooody good looking!\u2019<\/p>\n Hell, I’m not THAT good looking.<\/p>\n And I spot Linda-Michael, Rosie, Bongani, Kenneth, and Louise walking up from the Hillbrow Community Theatre. I\u2019m saved!!!<\/p>\n \u2018Uh\u2026\u2019 I say, \u2018Here are my friends now, so I\u2019ve gotta go. Nice talking to you both.\u2019<\/p>\n She says, \u2018Well listen, just don\u2019t trust these BLACKS, okay?\u2019 and she goes back into her block. He stays standing with his hand out.<\/p>\n \u2018Broe, I\u2019m not going to give you any bucks. Hamba gahle, chum,\u2019 I say. (\u2018Brother, I\u2019m not gonna give you any money. Go well, chum.)<\/p>\n So the six of us head up to the first floor, where the New Life Centre has a drop-in office for women who are wanting to leave the sex-work industry. We\u2019re here to do a three-hour workshop with them, in which they\u2019ll dramatise how they came to be prostitutes, and what they can do differently.<\/p>\n There are 28 women in total, and we do some warmup exercises. Lots of laughter. Lots of fun. Then we break into four groups, with one of us facilitating each group, and two roving facilitators. I\u2019m the overall facilitator of the process, so I\u2019m bouncing between groups, with Linda-Michael also roving.<\/p>\n The women tell each other a true life story of oppression, and the groups each choose one story to dramatise, borrowing elements from all of the stories they\u2019ve told. Then we facilitate them doing some of Augusto Boal\u2019s \u2018Image Theatre\u2019. They make a living sculpture out of the beginning of their story, the low-point, and the end. Then we get them to connect the three images into a five-minute play.<\/p>\n We draw lots, and the first group presents their play. This is what happens in it.<\/p>\n A young girl is studying with her classmates at school. She notices the time. \u2018Oh! It\u2019s late!!!\u2019 She rushes off home, where her mom is vehemently sweeping the floor. The mother is furious at her daughter\u2019s lateness. Screams at her. The daughter tries to tell her mom that she\u2019s been at school, but the woman turns on her with the broom, and beats her. The girl falls to the ground, crying. Next scene, she\u2019s at the hospital with a broken arm. The sister wraps it in a bandage and sends her home. The girl goes home, but asks her friends to persuade her mom to be merciful. The mom doesn\u2019t give a damn, and beats her daughter with the broom again. The daughter flees the house, and comes to the big city. The end.<\/p>\n I facilitate the forum theatre part. I say, \u2018What do you see? What\u2019s the story here?\u2019 One of the women summarises. Then I say, \u2018Was the ending good or bad?\u2019<\/p>\n A chorus of voices. \u2018It\u2019s bad.\u2019 Someone adds, \u2018She\u2019s going to the city and she\u2019ll become a prostitute!\u2019<\/p>\n I say, \u2018Is there anything she could have done differently?\u2019<\/p>\n One of the women says, \u2018Yes! She must stand up to her mother!\u2019<\/p>\n I say, \u2018Okay. Come show us.\u2019<\/p>\n The ladies all laugh, and she shyly stands up, and takes her place on the makeshift stage. She plays the girl who got beaten. She tries a different approach, but this mother is merciless. She doesn\u2019t want excuses. Same outcome.<\/p>\n Another lady wants a go. She is much more assertive with her mom, and makes some inroads, but the mom is still angry. This time she doesn\u2019t get beaten, but the mom wants her out of the house.<\/p>\n A third lady tries. She uses subterfuge and seduction to appease her mom. This works much better than any of the other options. Still not a great outcome, but significantly better.<\/p>\n I sum up. \u2018Notice how the option that worked best was when the girl communicated with her mother better?\u2019 They agree. I say, \u2018But there\u2019s still a problem. This woman, the mother, is hard, and we\u2019re not going to change her. So we have to understand that the only thing we can change is how we deal with her. But still, even so, maybe she\u2019s STILL going to throw her daughter out, no matter what.\u2019<\/p>\n One woman says, in a small voice, \u2018That\u2019s what happened to me. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here.\u2019<\/p>\n Two other women nod.<\/p>\n We go onto the next three plays, each of them being facilitated in a similar way, with striking parallels in the way the stories unfold. Rural girl comes to city to make it big, and falls into prostitution as a result. Hard stuff, man.<\/p>\n At the end, the ladies serve us lunch, a chicken curry. I\u2019m normally a picky eater, but in this case, I\u2019ve said to myself, whatever they offer me to eat, I\u2019ll gladly accept. It would be an extreme insult to refuse their food in my books. It\u2019s unfortunate that we didn\u2019t know in advance that Rosie and Louise are vegetarian, so they don\u2019t eat. But it\u2019s okay. Nobody seems to be judging them for it. I\u2019m very satisfied with my meal. Delicious.<\/p>\n I\u2019m quite shaken by the stories and the way only small shifts were made in the problem solving phase. But Louise points out that the ladies really had a good response. \u2018They were laughing and enjoying themselves, Roy. This was fun for them.\u2019<\/p>\n Bongani says, \u2018They can\u2019t change what\u2019s happened. They can only change what\u2019s going to happen.\u2019<\/p>\n So we leave the group feeling mixed emotions. Knowing that we\u2019ve made some kind of difference.<\/p>\n I get down to the road, and see that my car is still there, and it still has all of its wheels and doors, and nobody\u2019s sliced through the convertible top with a dagger. Excellent. The old man’s not there either.<\/p>\n [UPDATE: I’ve added my ‘rating system’ to this post. I’ve decided that my focus on this blog has wavered, and it’s time to take control back. I’ll be reviewing coffee-shops more from now on!!! — Roy, March 20, 2006, Cresta]<\/span><\/p>\n Technorati Tags: creativity<\/a>, roy blumenthal<\/a>, augusto boal<\/a>, boal<\/a>, forum theatre<\/a><\/span>
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