Interactive Forum Theatre – Youth Mental Health – Murwillumbah

Live Interactive Forum Theatre exploring issues of Youth Mental Health – facilitating positive community dialogue for improved behaviours. Forum Theatre is a unique type of participatory theatre. Short plays (often 10-20 minutes long) developed out of community workshops held prior is performed once to a live audience all the way through so the audience can see the multi-layered situations of the problems presented. The play builds to a crisis and stops there offering no solutions. The play is then re-run with audience members able to “freeze” the action at any point where they see a character struggling with a problem. An audience member yells “stop!” comes into the playing area replaces the character s/he recognizes is in a moment of struggle and tries out their idea. We call this an ‘intervention’ – often coined as ‘A rehearsal for real life’. Support workers (often counsellors) are present for all performances however this is not designed as therapy. We are facilitating a positive proactive community dialogue around ways we can all improve behaviours towards each other and the emmerging generation for a more harmonious society. The Forum Theatre event is vibrant and empowering for all concerned.