Facilitating for engagement in isolated communities
24 April 2013There are ways to facilitate meetings and events of all sorts that encourage participation and engagement. This week, while working in Papua New Guinea and helping community leaders learn how to facilitate in isolated communities, I’ve come to understand the following. Facilitation can help the redistribution of power dynamics in a community Many standard meeting…
Still learning about facilitation
12 September 2011Here’s what I learnt about facilitating thanks to Melbourne Playback Theatre Group‘s weekend workshop. You have to keep doing something long enough to notice what’s going on for you Taking an activity beyond what might be considered reasonable can have enormous payoffs. We would do a seemingly straightforward activity for a while, and just as…
Disruptive facilitation #5 – It’s just a silly game
28 April 2010For the past few days I’ve been facilitating a workshop with my friend Johnnie Moore. Apart from the obvious joys of co-facilitating, we’ve been drawing on our shared passion for improv and using a range of improv games with our participants. And let me be really clear – this is not an improv game here…
Living an improvised life
1 February 2010The third and final day of our Playback Theatre Summer Intensive Workshop presented by Melbourne Playback Theatre Company brought together a number of disparate threads – and brought to mind some of the key lessons I’ve learnt over the years from improv theatre in its various forms. Lessons learnt and still being practiced in that…
Celebrating emotions
30 January 2010There seems to be way too few opportunities in my life to really, truly explore emotions – mine, and the those of others. Today in the Playback Theatre workshop I’m taking we moved on to ‘moments’. In Playback, moments are emotional vignettes – the way someone might be feeling right now, or an experience from…
Space, but not the sort you think
29 January 2010Tonight I had space in my head – and it was such a joy. Usually, when I’m with a group I’m facilitating, so my head is full of all sorts of things: watching what’s going on, keeping track of the time, thinking about the next bit, ensuring my mouth is somewhat connected to my brain…
Playback Theatre Workshop
24 December 2009WooHoo! This is just the ticket. Melbourne Playback Theatre Company is offering a weekend intensive at the end of January. I wrote about Playback Theatre and community building here. I can’t think of a better way to ease into a new year. Wanna join me? Summer Weekend Intensive Melbourne Playback Theatre Company is proud to…
Community building with Playback Theatre
23 November 2009We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. Ben Sweetland My introduction to improvisation was via Playback Theatre. Playback is a form that uses real stories – moments and stories from the audience – as a basis for the enactment. The players use deep listening skills and metaphor to play…
Will I? Won’t I?
13 July 2009There’s a really cool performance piece that is a part of Playback Theatre. Two players physically enact an internal dilemma, or conflict. Naturally, it’s called Conflicts. It’s great fun to watch because most of us can relate to an internal dilemma: small or big. Will I eat this piece of cake or not? Should I…