Hot Tubbing for...Popular Theatre
One of my roles in CUPE is as a member facilitator (labour education instructor). The weekend before the stewards conference I was supposed to co-facilitate a course in Courtney but it got cancelled. My co-facilitator then asked if I would be available to volunteer to do some role-play theatre pieces for the upcoming shop steward conference. I said yes, not really knowing what to expect. Oh, did I mention that this workshop was on a Saturday morning and that it was scheduled to go until 5:30pm?! Harsh. Needless to say I wasn't feeling it the night before and was irritated that I had agreed to do it because all I wanted to do was sleep in.
The workshop was 6 shades of awesome. One of the best learning opportunities I've ever had. I went in skeptical and left motivated, inspired and excited because I learned something new.
There were about 10 of us from CUPE BC Union Education, CUPE 23 (Burnaby Civic), 15 (Vancouver Inside), 1004 (Vancouver Outside), and 391 (Vancouver, Sechelt and Gibsons Public Library). Most of us didn't know each other - we were strangers for the most part. Victor Porter, a brother from the BCGEU was our instructor. He is from Argentina and came to Canada as a refugee many years ago. He explained that Popular Theatre or Theatre of the Oppressed was a tool used in Brazil to promote and create change on a social and political scale. Actors perform scenes in public places and then get audience to participate - kind of like a political flashmob. This would help people see how they could alter their reality.
After brief introductions, we started the workshop in silence. We all grabbed random hands and had to get ourselves out of the tangle. We did it in like 4 minutes - moving over and under, twisting and turning - all without talking - it was fluid and graceful, not awkward and uncomfortable like I thought it would be. The connection we felt to each other was incredible and hard to believe that we only met that morning. Then, in partners, we stood head-to-head, grabbed each other's shoulders and pushed as hard as we could without speaking or making noise. We needed to use enough strength to challenge our partner but not too much that we could hurt them - the energy was dynamic and Victor had our trust and curiosity. Still in silence, we did an exercise where 2 people would start a static scene and then the next person would tap one person out and take a different pose to change the scene. We did that for about 20 minutes and it was amazing to see where people took the scenes. You would see a bank robber and a cashier, tag out and all of a sudden we saw a proposal, tag out and it was American Idol! Again, all without talking.
Next up we were put into 2 groups where using our team members, each of us had to create a silent, static scene that depicted something that we had experienced as shop stewards. The viewers had to guess what was happening. We witnessed things like health and safety violations, mental health issues, working alone rights, seniority, attendance management...again, all without saying a word.
Lunchtime rolls around and I realized that we spent the almost the entire morning in silence. We used lunch time (which was delicious by the way, our union brothers and sisters in the kitchen at the Maritime Labour Centre made us a great assortment of fresh sandwiches, soup and salad) to talk about grievances, bargaining and Victor told us more about the popular theatre movement in South America.
After lunch we were put into partners to talk a few minutes uninterrupted about one situation happening in our workplaces and the other person had to listen carefully and repeat back what you said without asking for clarification. Then you could discuss the situation. After the discussion we reported back to the whole group what our partner's situation was like for them. We learned about complicated situations while practicing active listening skills. This was also the first time we were able to talk about our various issues with our various employers.
All of the work culminated in the actual popular theatre skits. We were put into 3 groups. We were to create a dialogued scene that would depict a situation that a shop steward could find themselves in.
Group #1
The workshop was 6 shades of awesome. One of the best learning opportunities I've ever had. I went in skeptical and left motivated, inspired and excited because I learned something new.
There were about 10 of us from CUPE BC Union Education, CUPE 23 (Burnaby Civic), 15 (Vancouver Inside), 1004 (Vancouver Outside), and 391 (Vancouver, Sechelt and Gibsons Public Library). Most of us didn't know each other - we were strangers for the most part. Victor Porter, a brother from the BCGEU was our instructor. He is from Argentina and came to Canada as a refugee many years ago. He explained that Popular Theatre or Theatre of the Oppressed was a tool used in Brazil to promote and create change on a social and political scale. Actors perform scenes in public places and then get audience to participate - kind of like a political flashmob. This would help people see how they could alter their reality.
After brief introductions, we started the workshop in silence. We all grabbed random hands and had to get ourselves out of the tangle. We did it in like 4 minutes - moving over and under, twisting and turning - all without talking - it was fluid and graceful, not awkward and uncomfortable like I thought it would be. The connection we felt to each other was incredible and hard to believe that we only met that morning. Then, in partners, we stood head-to-head, grabbed each other's shoulders and pushed as hard as we could without speaking or making noise. We needed to use enough strength to challenge our partner but not too much that we could hurt them - the energy was dynamic and Victor had our trust and curiosity. Still in silence, we did an exercise where 2 people would start a static scene and then the next person would tap one person out and take a different pose to change the scene. We did that for about 20 minutes and it was amazing to see where people took the scenes. You would see a bank robber and a cashier, tag out and all of a sudden we saw a proposal, tag out and it was American Idol! Again, all without talking.
Next up we were put into 2 groups where using our team members, each of us had to create a silent, static scene that depicted something that we had experienced as shop stewards. The viewers had to guess what was happening. We witnessed things like health and safety violations, mental health issues, working alone rights, seniority, attendance management...again, all without saying a word.
Lunchtime rolls around and I realized that we spent the almost the entire morning in silence. We used lunch time (which was delicious by the way, our union brothers and sisters in the kitchen at the Maritime Labour Centre made us a great assortment of fresh sandwiches, soup and salad) to talk about grievances, bargaining and Victor told us more about the popular theatre movement in South America.
After lunch we were put into partners to talk a few minutes uninterrupted about one situation happening in our workplaces and the other person had to listen carefully and repeat back what you said without asking for clarification. Then you could discuss the situation. After the discussion we reported back to the whole group what our partner's situation was like for them. We learned about complicated situations while practicing active listening skills. This was also the first time we were able to talk about our various issues with our various employers.
All of the work culminated in the actual popular theatre skits. We were put into 3 groups. We were to create a dialogued scene that would depict a situation that a shop steward could find themselves in.
Group #1
- Setting: Library
- Scenario: An aux. worker has been asked to sit on a committee that would be part of implementing a new type of technology in the library. The worker needs more hours and a senior union member is angry because the employer should have checked with the union first. This turns into a situation that escalates to a very heated argument.
Group #2
- Setting: Any workplace
- Scenario: A worker notices that a new worker is getting advanced training before they are and training is supposed to be based on seniority. The worker goes to the steward frustrated that nothing is being done about this. The steward doesn't have the answer to the questions but says they will find out - this does not satisfy the angry member.
Group #3
- Setting: Any workplace
- Scenario: Member and steward are meeting with management because the member has a substance abuse problem and it is affecting their work.
So we wrote the dialogues, rehearsed them over and over and over again and then practiced them for the group. And that was it - we were done and ready for our debuts at the Metro Stewards Conference the next weekend. It was a long day but worth every second. I left with a new facilitation skill that might come in handy for other labour courses.
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