Magdi setting up the puppet theatre in Shendi, North Sudan.
We worked all day, rehearsing loading setting up and maintain the show in 40C heat. At night we performed to audiences up to 5000 strong. Often crossing the Nile twice to get to and from almost inaccessible villages.
Approached by a group seeking solutions to desert encroachment Bill & Ann
joined a convoy of Land rovers traveling overland to Sudan. A pilot project
working with Sudanese foresters and teachers convinced them that puppetry
was an effective communication medium in Sudan . It took 4 years to convince
funding bodies that this was true . S.O.S. Sahel finally picked up the idea
and puppetry became an integral part of their Village Extension Scheme in
48 villages in N. Sudan . The large scale puppet play , performed by a team
of Sudanese men trained by Small World Theatre, was the first event to come
to a village . It proved an exciting stimulus to community participation which
gained an unprecedented level of community involvement in the project .
WOMEN IN SUDAN
Ann Shrosbree worked with a Sudanese counterpart to set up a women's project
that led to thousands of trees a year being grown for sale by women in their
homes.The excitement generated by the puppet play was an important factor in
the women's initial enthusiasm. Twelve years later the team of women extensionists
in Ed Dammer, Sudan, have trained themselves in puppetry and are making and
performing puppet plays as an integral part of their programme. One small paragraph
is not enough to document the importance of the women in the success of this
project but it should be clear that their participation was crucial in the implementation
and sustainability of this project.
AUDIENCE
A regular stream of EEC and F.A.O. officials , aid workers , project managers
, funders, diplomats , assessors and evaluators began to join the thousands
of village people in the audience as interest in the medium spread. A sort of
natural raked seating evolved with children on the ground , adults behind them,
more people kneeling , then sitting on chairs , others standing , then people
on donkeys , camels and finally trucks and buses with more people on the roof.
An impromptu amphitheater of 2500 people under the dazzling array of stars.
Audience figures ranged between 500 and 5000. In this Islamic society it is
unusual to see women attending performances but the puppet drama was an unprecedented
event so not only women but children and elderly people came in surprisingly
large numbers. In fact a whole cross section of the village population were
able to enjoy the event and receive the same information at the same time. Five
different episodes of this story toured the 56 villages involved until tree
planting in the desert had become THE thing to do.
Over a million trees survived
Over a million trees survived even though there were terrible floods in 1991.
The project continued to use theatre as an important communication tool for
10 years. Bill Hamblett and Ann Shrosbree were asked to pass on their skills
and experience to a range of development workers during two consultancies at
the forestry headquarters in Khartoum. Participants at these UN funded sessions
came from differing disciplines and shows about forestry, health, nomad issues
and women's income generation were devised , produced and then taken into the
field. At the FAO international forestry extension seminar held in Khartoum
in 1986 the puppet performance from Shendi was voted the most appropriate extension
tool for Sudan.
MULTIPLIER EFFECT
In 1996 S.O.S.Sahel received a UNEP "Saving the Dry lands Award "for
the community forestry project in Ed Debba. The work in the villages was initiated
after performances from the team of puppeteers who had by then gained 4 years
experience of stimulating community participation while working with the village
extension scheme in Shendi. The women extensionists in Ed Dammer some of whom
came from Shendi are now producing and making puppet shows as part of their
programme. Photographs of schoolchildren in central region, women in income
generation projects near Khartoum and anecdotes from other areas seem to demonstrate
that Small World Theatre workshops and the project in Nile Province have provided
a model spawning new shows on other issues in different parts of Sudan. The
experiences from these years in Sudan went toward producing " Shadows In
The Desert" sponsored by OXFAM , SOS SAHEL and CAFOD. This show with a
tree planting theme was performed in schools and theatres all over Britain.
It was a colourful drama with actors, puppets, masks and shadow puppets through
which audiences in Britain got to know a little more of what it is like to be
a child in a desert . Ann Shrosbree's story called " A storm in the Desert
" was subsequently published by Green Light publications. A return to Sudan
in 1999 is documented on a page via this green button link
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
commissioned a show about the destruction of the rain forests for a debut performance
at the Barbican .The company produced "Manifiesto
De La Selva". A large scale colourful shadow puppet performance with
a sound track by Adrian Wagner. This production was a return to the theme of
environmental awareness that under pins a lot of the work of Small World Theatre.
KENYA
The next project was in Kenyan shanty towns where the company worked firstly
with "Parking Boys" in Nakuru making shadow puppets and later at the
Nairobi Family Support Centre, Kibera, which works with children with disabilities
and their families.
The company collaborated with the staff of this Kenyan run project to produce
a performance using 3D puppets made out of locally available materials. The
resulting show toured slum areas around Nairobi successfully encouraging parents
of children with disabilities to bring them along to the centre for help and
advice.
On return to UK the company made " In The Shadow Of The City"sponsored
by SAVE THE CHILDREN .This was a show about the right of every child to shelter
, clean water, health care and education. It also highlighted the role of international
debt and government corruption in denying these rights.This programme was supported
by an SCF teaching package of the same name and was performed in approximately.300
schools over a 2 year period.
Objectives and Practice
Evaluating their experience to date Small World Theatre formed the following
objectives for the work in development.
1 Using participatory theatre and puppetry methods to facilitate the communication
of ideas important to a particular community.
2 Working in partnership with other development agencies to ensure consistency,
coherence and to increase the value of the work.
3 Ensure as much as possible that training programmes are integral to projects
so that a legacy is left.
4 Include training in higher and further education courses in Britain to ensure
that good practice is passed on.
5 Continue research projects that feed into the work.
HONG KONG and VIETNAM
Work in refugee camps in Hong Kong in 1992 , where Small World Theatre made
shows with young Vietnamese refugees , enabled Ann and Bill to experience first
hand conditions in the closed camps. Following the story to its source they
went on to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam as consultants in theatre as an extension
medium . Their reputation had preceded them so 200 people were eager to work
with the company. Ann and Bill borrowed bicycles to get to 10 locations to run
workshops. The sessions were crammed into a few weeks and many types of performance
technique were explored including mask, mime, puppetry, storytelling and drama,
whichever was most appropriate to the particular group and subject . Shadow
puppetry was popular . Some of the groups worked on the streets of the city
with street children , others with profoundly deaf people or special needs groups
and some with ex prostitutes and intravenous drug users with H.I.V. After presenting
a final "Eisteddfod" of work to party officials in the notorious school
3, ( a borstal for street children some as young as 4) , Ann and Bill left for
the North . Moving on to Hanoi they contacted the Hanoi State Water Puppet company
and collaborated with them on a show that they jointly took to the mountainous
rainforest area near the Chinese border where Vietnam's ethnic minority the
Dao people now live. The group performed a show with shadow puppets and table
top puppets about the environmental impact of "slash and burn" agriculture
now practiced by the settled nomads. On returning to Britain the company was
commissioned by SCF to make a show about how it feels to be a refugee . "
Moving !" toured Britain and has been seen by over 35,000 people. The
schools tour was followed by refugee weeks, collaborating with the Refugee Council
in many of Britain's inner cities where the show features as a focal point for
exhibitions , discussions , lectures , museum presentations and other cultural
events .This work on refugee issues is ongoing.
INDIA
SWT gave presentations about their experiences in the use of theatre and puppetry
in development to two conferences in Northern India in March 1998. see International
page
ZAMBIA
SWT taught theatre skills and management of arts in development projects for
the British Council in October 1998. see International page
NEPAL
Sept 1999 and March 2000, Ann Shrosbree will be working for the British Council
in Nepal on a project with street theatre practitioners dealing with Gender
and Human Rights. see International page Nepal
2000 Tanzania and women's participation in the democratic process, see International
page> Tanzania
Uganda
2002 - 2005 SWT are currently developing a project with street children that
are also AIDS orphans . This pilot project will train young people to deliver
Arts and Culture for Development projects in Uganda.
Other work with the British Council Uganda concerning the rights of the child was done in 2002 till 2004.
See International page > Uganda
Other work from 2004 onward is documented via links from the home page accessed
through the red button at the bottom of this page
CHINA
In 1994 Small World Theatre was invited to the International Festival of Children's
Theatre in Shanghai. The company created the first stage version of Mervyn Peake's
" Captain Slaughter Board Drops Anchor"
for this event . A fantasy with no obvious environmental or developmental content
although it"s underlying theme is of love and transformation . This enchanting
show toured in Uk for some time and was help to come to fruition after talks
with the Peake family. Thanks to them we were able to do our best to make Captain
Slaughterboard come alive.
TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Small World Theatre also have delivered courses & workshops in theatre and
puppetry as extension tools for various academic institutions in Britain including
Reading , Aberystwyth Wolverhampton and S.W.England Universities , Swansea Institute
of Education, Trinity College, Carmarthen, Bath College of Higher Education
and the Overseas Development Institute. Arts and Culture for development , participatory
theatre, forum theatre , and other development processes are part of our evolving
practice
Through its innovative work, Small World Theatre has become one of Britain"s
foremost exponents of culture and theatre for development using these media
to improve conditions and communications where the more formal mechanisms are
ineffective or breaking down. As part of a considered strategy theatre and creative
art in the social context are a vital part of a post industrial future. Participatory
theatre, legislative theatre,theatre and culture for development techniques
are part of methodologies coming to be known with participants and donors as
Small World Theatre. Small World Theatre has steadily worked towards raising
awareness within development agencies of what valuable tools theatre and all
creative arts are. They would like to see the use of the arts recognised in
the planning process of projects as possible tools moving creative artistic
solutions nearer to the centre of development strategy.
For further information on arts and development contact Creative Exchange at
http://www.creativexchange.org/html/home.html
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Small World Theatre, Canolfan Byd Bychan, Bath House Road, Cardigan, Ceredigion, Wales, SA43 1JY
Tel: 01239 615952 Fax :01239 615835
e mail info@smallworld.org.uk