Active Inquiry

Divided We Fall? – Exploring Identity, Diversity and Integration

18th February, 2013 - Posted by Gavin - Comments Off on Divided We Fall? – Exploring Identity, Diversity and Integration

We are so happy that after a successful run of shows in November/December 2012 our Divided We Fall? project is continuing on Wednesday evenings in the Thomas Morton Hall on Ferry Road, Leith from 6-9pm.

Having Fun Making Theatre

This is an opportunity for audience members from Stage 1 of the project and anyone else interested in the topic to come and meet with us to create brand new pieces of Forum Theatre for our big community event on 11th and 12th May in Out of the Blue.

Weeks one and two included an opportunity to ask questions about the project and an introduction to Forum Theatre including a performance of the original Divided we Fall? piece of Forum. In Week three we began to use theatre techniques to explore the three concepts at the heart of the project – Identity, Diversity and Integration

A part of my identity

After some energetic and competitive warm-up games we began to think about our own identities by crossing the room if we agreed with statements such as “My gender is a big part of my identity”. This led to interesting discussions around whether identity is how we define ourselves or how others define us or a mixture of the two.  Although some “big” characteristics such as ethnicity and class were important in defining identity many other things were too including values, political beliefs and diet to name a few.

Working with the language of images

After a well-earned cup of tea we moved onto using images to explore the concept of Diversity. Through non-verbal communication just using our bodies we spent time constructing a group image of Diversity which we then brought to life with words. This led onto an interesting discussion about what came up in the image we created. There was a sense of an occasion, of distinct groupings, of people being included and excluded and of some people trying to maintain this separation and others trying to build bridges. A great beginning to the aesthetic dialogue we hope to have over the next few weeks as we develop our Forum Theatre scenes.

If you are interested in coming along to the group then please email Gavin on gavin@activeinquiry.co.uk