As part of the Alcohol Dialogue Week from 5 to 11 May, we as a team visited a special form of theatre that not only takes up social challenges, but also makes them tangible and shapeable, namely the Forum Theatre according to Augusto Boal and David Diamond, implemented in Innsbruck by Armin Staffler and his team from act:it – a service of kontakt+co Addiction Prevention, which uses innovative theatre methods to ensure that people can actively deal with social issues, discover their own scope for action and actively shape change. The focus is on Forum Theatre as a low-threshold, creative means of political education and empowerment. This short video explains the procedure using a project on the topic of “alcohol” (more or less, 2023):
The concept: A short scene depicts a challenging, mostly negative everyday situation, in relation to our project, for example, a mother with postpartum depression who is not understood by her family or in the help system. Afterwards, the audience is invited to step onto the stage themselves, take over a character and try out other plots. This creates discussion, a change of perspective and new ideas without wagging a finger, but with plenty of room for one’s own experiences.
It was clear to us that this form of theatre not only makes visible what often remains unspoken in everyday life, but also invites us to get involved, think along and explore new scope for action together. Therefore, we would also like to integrate the concept into our awareness campaign and invite you to the development of a play on the topic of “Perinatal Mental Health”!
In workshops, we will deal with questions, difficulties and challenges on the topic of mental health around pregnancy, birth and parenthood. The aim will be to find out together what problems there are and how they have been dealt with so far. It does not matter what experiences someone has had so far and in what “role” – as (expectant) mother, as (expectant) father, midwife, clinical staff (doctor, DGKP, etc.) or other affected person.
What is needed is honesty and willingness to share experiences and ideas and to design them creatively and have them shaped.
Note: An allowance is planned for workshop participation and/or acting participation in the play.