Forum Theatre Process

Research

The first stage identifies a topic pertinent to our community. Once the topic is identified, AtticRep artists canvas the community to collect life stories that deal with the topic at hand.

Workshop

The collected stories are brought to AtticRep, and in a workshop environment using improvisational and narrative techniques, they are translated into an original theatrical language and a storyline is defined. As the storyline is developed and actors develop specific characters, a 15-20 minute play finally emerges. Since the Forum Theatre Project is based on improvisation, the play is never written down for performance; however, the actors are aware of their characters, the story, and the topic.

The Forum Performance

Event One is the performance of an original play.

Event Two is the repeated performance of the play. This time, however, the audience will be invited to participate in the performance with the objective of changing the outcome of the story by stopping the performance and taking the place of one of the actors on stage. More audience members can become “spect-actors” by replacing more actors as the performance is continued to its final, often unpredictable, resolution.

Event Three is a discussion between the audience, the actors, and the “spect-actors”. The objective of this discussion is to bring to the surface the theme of the Forum Theatre.