EVALUATION

AIMS OF THE PROJECT

To explore and research attitudes, feelings, assumptions and perceptions that a group of pensioners had of a group of young people and those that the young people had of the pensioners. To use participation in a theatre project as a process which would not only give both groups a voice but would also give them the experience of working together. To present issues raised by the process in a final performance. To do the above in such a way that the performance would stimulate discussion amongst audiences of all ages and help towards building a greater mutual understanding.

CRITERIA FOR THIS EVALUATION

To discover: How far the project's outcomes fulfilled its original aims. Whether the level and quality of participation was sufficient to make an impact on attitudes between the generations both within the performance group and within the wider community.

BRIEF DISCOURSE ON PARTICIPATION

Participation - the action of partaking or joining in with - is something that most of us are doing most of the time just in order to survive. According to Majid Rahnema

"The words ‘participation and ‘participatory’ appeared in the development jargon for the first time during the late 1950’s."(1)

There was a growing realisation amongst development workers at this time that development projects were failing to improve the quality of life for their supposed beneficiaries in any sustainable way.

"It was found that, whenever people were locally involved, and actively participating, in the projects, much more was achieved with much less, even in financial terms"(2)

Medodologies emerged such as those outlined in Friere’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’

"The correct method lies in dialogue. The conviction of the oppressed that they must fight for their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the revolutionary leadership,but the result of their own conscientisation"(3 )

he says that “to speak a true word is to transform the world “ and only the “oppressed” i.e. those suffering from a particular problem, can truly express the reality of their situation and that for others to presume to do that for them is for those others to become the oppressor. He argues that the power of the process of “naming” or finding the means to express, must lead to action, an essential part of the process of conscientisation.

“to say the true word - which is work, which is praxis - is to transform the world, saying that word is not the privilege of some few persons, but the right of everyone.”(4 )

Rahnema however finds that

"there is little evidence to indicate that the participatory approach, as it evolved, did, as a rule, succeed in bringing about new forms of people’s power."(5)

He warns against the dangerous possibility of a facilitator using the openness of a participatory process in a manipulative way :

"highly ideologised 'agents of change'...use conscientisation or participatory methods, simply as new and more subtle forms of manipulation.......... some participatory evangelists have been seen to outdo the paternalistic arrogance of the conventional expert/evangeliser.” (6)

BACKGROUND TO THE ELY PROJECT

Ely is one of the largest housing estates in Europe it has few shops or services and is a £1.50 bus ride from the centre of Cardiff. It suffers from a wide range of modern urban complaints and has been become a dumping ground for “problem“ families. Poverty and unemployment are common, so for researchers looking to find a full spectrum of social problems and criminal activities it is fertile ground. However there are many residents working to improve conditions for themselves and others who feel angry about the negative stereotyping of their community. In the early nineties riots and civil disturbances shook the area and many feel that the root causes have not been addressed.

Car crime by under age drivers, muggings and a lack of respect for the elderly by gangs of young people have been identified as problems for the older residents on the estate. Just before the intergenerational project began several pedestrians had been killed by out of control cars stolen by people as young as 14.

"Healthy Wealthy and Wise" (HWW) is the name of a thriving group of active retired people who are advocates of ‘Grey Power’. Their programme of activities ranges from Steel Bands to computer classes. Concerned about the problems of young people in the area many of the group are going into schools to read stories and support literacy.

Ely has a strong performing arts tradition with a local arts festival every summer. Small World Theatre(SWT) were asked by Community Education, HWW and Age Concern, Cardiff to implement a project using the performing arts to bring the generations together. This involved working with one primary and two secondary schools and with pensioners, over a period of nine months. The culmination of this process was to be an intergenerational performance for the Ely Festival.

Growing awareness of the essential value of culture in community development is even expressed by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank in "Culture and Sustainable Development - A Framework for Action"

"We are at a crossroads in our understanding of development and how to go about it. We are realising that building development on local forms of social inter-change, values, traditions, and knowledge reinforces the social fabric. We are starting to understand that development effectiveness depends, in part, on “solutions” that resonate with a community’s sense of who it is."(7)

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS

"Problem posing education bases itself on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality" Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paolo Friere (8)

The intention was that the action of participation in this project would provide the ‘safe’ space needed for participants to explore their differences and the reasons for them.

“People will act on the issues on which they have strong feelings. There is a close link between emotion and motivation to act. All education and development projects should start by identifying the issues which the local people speak about with excitement, hope, fear, anxiety or anger.” Paolo Friere - (9)

Research

To assess current attitudes and feelings existing between the 2 generations on the estate some form of information gathering process was needed. In the SCF Development Manual “Street and Working Children: a guide to planning” Judith Ennew observes that:

"In some cultures the songs sung by children and women can give an insight into their concerns and priorities"(10)

Poems

Students in the three schools were asked to write poems about attitudes to older people. The poems served the dual purpose of surveying opinions and launching the project with a piece of creative work.

Over 1000 poems were returned and read by the pensioners.Written in local dialect they provided an insight into prevalent attitudes amongst the 9 to 16 age group and were a rich resource to draw from while developing the play.

References to smell, rage and wrinkles and a preoccupation with unfashionable clothes worn by “old grippers in slippers” were themes that reoccurred. Several of the older generation wrote poems in response.

Drama Workshops

During sessions with the HWW group participatory appraisal techniques produced a large pictorial diagram of positive and negative qualities of the younger generation.

Participatory assessment (PRA) is described by J.Theis and H.Grady as

“...a way of learning from and with community members to investigate, analyse, and evaluate constraints and opportunities and make informed and timely decisions regarding development projects”(4)

Conventionally PRA uses tools or techniques such as

“focus group discussions, systematic observation, and drawing maps and diagrams”(5 )

In this project sessions also included a grand reading of poems from the 3 schools and a life sized body puppet of a youth who attracted the name of Robbo the Yobbo. The puppeteer sat in a chair with Robbo covering his head and shoulders. The older people entered into a dialogue with the puppet, attacking Robbo’s assumed attitude to work, vandalism, joy riding and other issues. A heated debate invariably ensued as the distance created by the puppet freed up the discussion.

‘Hot’ issues and a general framework for the drama were emerging. The pensioners developed improvisations around the scenario of an older person and a youth in adjacent hospital beds after a car accident..

Drama workshops were going ahead with 15 classes in the three schools in parallel with the workshops with the older people. In a similar way to using poetry for research purposes, the ‘tools’ of role play and improvisation produced stereotypical portrayals of aging. After group discussions about the images and a reading of some of the older people’s poems improvisations became more thoughtful.

“improvisations express existing understanding of a situation or experience...much of the work that follows may be to do with challenging the views and ideas expressed at this stage.” Jonothan Neelands 1990 (6)

Intergenerational Group work

A group of 20 secondary school students between the ages of 12 and 16 were keen to take this intergenerational work further. At meetings during lunchtimes and after school participants opted to produce shadow puppets of images of the locality (mapping exercise), a gigantic poster defining the project (group drawing), and to start to devise scenarios for a play (role play). When ten of the pensioner group visited it was a very special moment for everyone. Discussions made it clear that the older people had developed strong ideas about the performance and were also involved in the process. Seven pensioners opted to join in. Their ages ranged from 67 to 85 yrs. and they all proved to be exceptionally good ambassadors for their generation.

As trust developed appropriate *‘Forum Theatre’ techniques such as ‘still pictures’ (group body sculptures) were introduced to reflect attitudes within the group. Although initially some young people made aggressive poses with the older people’s bodies, through the process these transformed into nurturing images where they were being read to, protected or instructed in some way. This was very different to the attitude expressed in the earlier poems.

(*‘Forum Theatre’ is a term coined by Augusto Boal in his Theatre of the Oppressed.)(14)

Development of the performance

In "Non-governmental organisations and the limits to empowerment"(15) A.Thomas argues that when Schumacher says that participation is required for development to work he is referring to involvement in practical work of some kind rather than political participation in terms of reflection and dialogue. Schumacher’s example of showing a person how to make their own fishing tackle is very practical, however it is of little use in helping that person gain access to fishing rights.

This suggests a need for advocacy in order that solutions to problems which have been posed through participatory development processes can be heard.

Rahnema describes the political function of participation as:

“the task of empowering the voiceless and the powerless, and also eventually, of creating a bridge between the Establishment and its target populations, including even the groups opposing development.” (16 )

The work of devising, producing and performing a play can combine involvement in practical tasks (such as building sets, costumes and props,) with reflection ( content of stories) dialogue (as in social interaction within the group) and advocacy (relationship with different audiences, what is being communicated and to whom).

Friere suggests that, after analysis of survey material, ‘codes’ or problem posing materials should be produced.

“Through the use of contrasts, related cause and effect, tension points, etc. the code itself should raise questions in the mind of the participants and stimulate them to think of different possibilities.” (17)

Devising and production of the play could be described as the production of a ‘code’. It was a participatory process which evolved through improvisations with different members of the group acting as facilitators or ‘change agents’ at different times.

The story which emerged centred on the friendship between a boy and old woman in adjacent hospital beds who eventually realise that not only was he driving the car which knocked her down, but also that she is the granny he has never met It used rod and shadow puppetry, (on hospital screens and beds donated by the local hospital), and was performed by actors ranging from 12 to 85 yrs.old.

OUTCOMES

Inter-generational contact

Real friendships and an acceptance of each other developed through group work, role play and improvisations based on personal experiences. The participants sought each others company outside of the project structure. Teachers praised the level of commitment from students with problems such as truancy, learning difficulties, and communication. There were moments of conflict, usually around the issue of respect, punctuality or the noise levels.

Interaction with the older people made the young participants aware of their need for self discipline. Philosophical discussions about how to achieve this produced a solution from the group. They instigated a forfeit of a number of ‘sit ups’, dependent on age, for interruptions!.

Discussion was based on the Philosophy for Children programme created by philosopher and educator Matthew Lipman.(18)

Performances

There were 7 performances in July in schools and community halls in Ely, Cardiff during festival week. Approximately 2000 people saw the show and extracts and comments were broadcast on HTV and S4C. A single performance in September for policy makers was held in an arts centre outside Ely.

Responses to the play

The group produced an innovative, skilled piece of theatre that was speaking about their community and raising concerns which they all shared. The power of community ownership of the story was evidenced by audience response to the play. Audiences comprised mixed age school groups, pensioner groups or the general public including performer’s families. Intense concentration and involvement in the plot was common to all of these groups. Informal discussions after performances confirmed that the different audiences all recognised the situation and characters portrayed and identified with the narrative.

Fulfilment of Aims