Geri Mazella ... Theatre

12 May - 6 June 2003

Giri Mazzella has over 20 years community arts experience with a wide variety of groups ranging from clients with motor and mental impairments and differing cultural backgrounds. As a person with a disability himself (minor spina bifida) he has enriched his approach to the healing and therapeutic aspect of community arts with training of deep muscle release and soft emotional release techniques (ie. dance massage, creative play constructions, song etc).

General Aims

This pilot community arts and disability development project aimed to ‘skill up’ and inspire local artworkers and the general community to work together with people with disabilities. It was also hoped that the programme structure could bring together some of the disability service providers in town with a good experience of working together.

This was done by running workshops, presenting talks and public forums. Workshops were streamed to cater for high mobility, low mobility and people of all levels.

A welcoming party was held at which I presented a short musical performance, followed by snacks, drinks and dancing. People respond very strongly to the magic of live music especially if the song is improvised and they are named in it .A strong moment of personal connection occurs often accompanied by laughter and enjoyment. The use of music and rhythm as a connecter was repeated often over the residency.

Most workshops happened at Witchetty’s, a large room with beautiful soft carpet and an expansive yet private feel, well suited to this type of exploratory workshopping.

Other workshops happened in Territory Craft and The Art Shed, where mess could be contained and cleaned up easily.

Of the outdoor locations, the Telegraph Station was the best, providing a private feel for the group and a variety of wheelchair accessible environments to explore. However for wheelchair participants Standley Chasm was more like being stuck in the middle of a car park. Just us being there was an event watched by everyone going in and out!

Two movement and music workshops were enthusiastically received by children and staff at Acacia Hill Special School.

Specific Aims;

1. Interior outcome: an inspiring, enjoyable and creative experience for all participants. To build safety, confidence and a willingness for clients and support workers to return to future workshops and programmes.

2. Exterior Outcomes: Dramatic exploration of neutral half mask and the composition of bodies in group Tableau formations, documented with instant feedback of digital technology.

3. Exterior Outcomes: A resource of images to challenge current notions of disability, provoke discussion, and display models of people working together some of whom are identifiably "disabled".

Given the Pilot nature of this program, I would have been happy to achieve only the first of these aims. Going on the feedback from participants and observers, I feel that we’ve done well on all three.

The Process

Preparation

Though the lead up time was short, communications from Perth to Alice Springs were intermittent and difficult due to the distance and the current commitments of the casart coordinator. Due to confidentiality and limited access to other disability staff and not knowing attendees, not much information on the participants and their response levels was available, I designed my approach based on two planks;

1. ‑Exploring body image through Neutral Half Mask Technique, and

2. ‑The inspired approach to constructing powerful Community Theatre Dialogue and Image Theatre by South American Director Augusto Boal. (By happy twist of fate, one of Australia’s foremost trainers of Boal’s instant theatre methods is running an intensive later this year in Alice Springs. It is particularly appropriate for the Alice Springs Community because of its instant, accessible nature and its suitability as a public art form.)

Create neutral masks:

• A variety of shredded paper is blended in water, squeezed, mixed with pva glue and packed into Vaseline lined plastic moulds.

• The plastic forms are light and have a wide rim so they are easy to handle.

• The edges are packed back again with absorbent paper towels and edges are given a finished taper.

• Final shaping of eye holes and lower edge of mask.

• Thickness for strength is checked especially edges and nose bridge.

• The fastest way to dry masks is propped in front of a gas heater overnight.

• Next morning they are popped out of mould and oven dried.

• The best results were from a mix of blended office and coloured paper/or egg cartons.

• Newspaper was strong though oily and dirty.

• Finish carving or cutting masks, glue sponge inside masks and attach elastic. Voila!

The Mask Theatre Workshops

LOW MOBILITY; brief description of 2 hour workshop;

PRESET; mats, cushions, balls, shakers, musical instruments.

• Welcome by name and fee paying

• Relaxation and guided imagery with accordion and shaker

• Discussion and mimed or assisted movement of favourite animals, foods, etc

• Sound and copy (animal noises and free sound)

• Partner mirroring movement games

• Move and freeze games to music

• Rolling ball to each other

• Gentle movement and sound to music

HIGH MOBILITY; brief description of 2 hour workshop;

Preset as above

• Fee paying

• Welcome by name with song

• Circle games to affirm and energise the group e.g. say name with action and all copy

• Relaxation and guided imagery with accordion sound

• Discussion and re-enactment with mask of specific parts of visualisation

• circle mirror free movement

• Extension and rhythmic exploration with movement and dialogue rhythms

• Extension to develop a character with dialogue ,emotion and characteristic movements

• Movement and Freeze in Tableau

• Discussion/feedback proposal of more themes for Tableau exploration

• Exploration and further extension ,discussion of difficulties, exploration from discussion

• Digi cam photos of Tableau with adjustments suggested by the group.

• Contact movement with music as a moved summary of the session

• Final comments and discussion of issues or feelings raised, further possible developments etc.

A typical song and movement session at Acacia Hill

PRESET; chairs in circle, shakers, musical instruments

• Welcome and learn everyone's name, shake hands, include support workers as participants.

• Musical song of welcome

• Guided visualisation story telling/imitative actions

• Story elements relate to local experience, geography, animals etc

• Action song with freeze and shakers

• Repetition of above elements referring to individuals by name

• Include known songs and fun actions

• Ask them to teach us e.g. signing, all join in imitating

• Exploration of masks in mirror

• Movement to music of whole group with short bursts of variable speeds

• Thank you and goodbye song

Swot analysis of project

Strengths

• clients of various agencies got to socialise together

• Commitment by stakeholders to work through difficulties and continue to offer solutions

• Great progress and outcomes for a wide range of participants

• Good experience of linking up between agencies (building supportive relationships)

• positive press

• good photos

• able to cope with designing a workshop on spot analysis of people as they walk in

Weaknesses

Opportunities, threats, future possibilities, learning/recommendations, feedback/comments, summary

In this brave new world of the new global order and the new millennium, people with disabilities live in the shadow of some old enemies; prejudice and isolation. They are serviced by under resourced organisations, their specific and often high needs supported by overworked and underpaid and sometimes under trained workers. This is a classic scenario for quick burnout of individuals, losses of organisational memory leading to the tendency to operate in a crisis to crisis manner.

We cannot expect caring, committed people to survive professionally in such a harsh environment without some casualties and loss of quality interaction and the vigour to promote high quality services.

The challenge is surely to shift and create a new paradigm ; identify long term outcomes, establish organisational and community partnerships ,implement long term training programmes aiming at high quality outcomes, explore commercial activities with arts goods output. The challenge to act more effectively and compassionately lies ahead of us.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is to relate to each other within our organisations keeping those two important tools at hand; the spirit level and the oil can. When we forget to relate to people eye to eye, on the level ,as humans, then we slip into bad habits of believing we are our positions in the hierarchy-our necks get fixed and rust into position!

Either you believe you have to look up all the time from the bottom of the heap, or the opposite-you’re always looking down on people from way up high.

If an organisation values vibrant, productive human to human high quality work decisions and outcomes, then its good to get out your spirit level and check.

To adjust any rusting of the neck joint apply the oil can and lubricate. That way everyone can get on with their job with the highest quality outcomes in mind.