BELGIUM

APPROACH

Cultural centre LEOPOLDSBURG, (Belgium)


Starting point

CC Leopoldsburg started at point zero. They looked for an experienced drama teacher with an interest in working with learning disabled adults and a new group had to be formed. The centre contacted two institutionsworking with learning disabled people, Het Berkenhof and ‘t Brugske, and invited participants to start a drama class on the level of this target group. The result was a group of 19 participants.

Approach

This project was set up by bringing together three partners all with different qualities,
- the Cultural Centre with the logistical facilities and organisational experience
- a drama teacher from WiSPER, an organisation with experience of arts in adult education
- the professional experience off ortho agogic speculators from the institutions

Context setting

We set up the drama training on a weekly basis, bringing the group together every Thursday morning from 9.30 till 11.45. Work was done on the stage at the cultural centre to install a working attitude focused on theatre. The groups from the two institutions worked at the centre to take them out of their usual context and to provide a challenging creative and artistic experience.


Dissemination in Flanders

We felt it important to inform and involve relatives during the process. We also invited
professionals who work with this specific group to come over and discuss the process.
At the beginning of the process open sessions were planned to allow the parents and relatives of participants to come and see the work as well as open sessions for theatre professionals and ortho agogic speculators. Following these workshops we organised a meeting to explain and discuss the way of working, the progress made and the effects off this ongoing project on our participants.

Stimulating participation

In order to involve the other residents from the institutions in the project we asked them to help in the preparation of the festival in Leopoldsburg. They created a nice atmosphere by dressing the meeting room in the cultural centre whilst some of them helped to serve the guests at the reception after the presentations.
We also took the project participants to a public theatre performance in the cultural centre. Afterwards some of them came to see a show individually.
Overview of the drama content - Leopoldsburg

Period one starting from March 13, 2008

basic theatre exercises

main goals per session
1 having faith, confidence, durven stem gebruiken, durven bewegen voor elkaar
2 getting to know each other
3 daring to make strange sounds, imitate sounds
4 to imagine oneself as another person
5 expression of the body, enlargement
6 daring and being able to use emotions on stage
7 chorus work, working together
8 tempo feeling, dynamic
9 exercise in repeating
10 recognising / exercises on body language
11 physical play together
12 using voice, enlargement
13 play a story, fairy tale

Period two from July 03, 2008

Developing a performance for the Malta festival
Theatre presentation with choir theme

14 association exercise with 4 objects
Windmill / drawing pilot / rattle / CD
15 from association to story for self-made scene
18 physical play, different theatre forms for travel to island
19 making a scène and play about breaking window
20 making dance movements
21 playing with an object, movements
22 using the blog, writing poems, writing about the workshops, photos
23 use of voice, KA-BAS: making a song with abstract sounds
24 physical teamwork, choir
25 group Malta/England, continuing to work on scenes for the first time

Festival Malta, half of the group
Workshop together with Maltese and English participants, performance in a new theatre hall for a new audience.
25 bis evaluation and sharing Maltese experience with colleagues

Period three from October 23, 2008

Development and presentation at UK Festival
Theatre presentation built upon role play with support of couples

26 combination of use of language and body language
27 association task with 4 new props: Velcro / rattle / egg / washcloth
28 from object associations to making up scenes
29 deepening out scenes, for the first time in England and Malta group
30 bring together scenes and deepen them: farm and beauty parlour scene
31 search on making a song with object (Velcro), pass through presentation


FESTIVAL IN UK, other half of the Group

31 bis evaluation with colleagues


Period four from January 15, 2009

Examine and practise sense of space

32 examine player in his space, VIEW POINTS
33 further examining VIEW POINTS (pulse, synchro start)
34 improvise from character, by three

Period five from January 15, 2009

Develop theatre presentation for Leopoldsburg festival.
Theatre presentation with attention for situation in space and audience

35 associate independently 4 objects: ribbon / knot / key / mask
36 rhythm, hand-foot coordination
37 making up dance movements, bringing together into one dance
38 use of voice, examine for power and breath support: ‘The Cry’
39 video taping ‘The Cry’
40 VIEW POINTS: application on scene
41 rhythm, 2 gangs with leader in confrontation
42 deepen scenes, play together from individual role
43 lining up all elements for presentation
44 pass through performance

FESTIVAL IN Leopoldsburg, all 19 participants

45 bis evaluation and exchange with colleagues

Period six from January 15, 2009

Examine word play, also fixed language

47 speech body, articulation body, play with sounds, words, sentences
48 associations: words, sentences, making up stories
49 communicate with language, fixed text
50 examine emotional memory, own room
51 emotional memory, guide in chosen space

WORKSHOP SAMPLES

Good practice guide


Workshop Sample 1 – Belgium
refer to session 7 in overview: main goal: chorus work, working together


Warming Up
All the participants are gathered and they decide where to sit in a circle on the floor. Sitting on cushions will give the participants a sense of personal space and security in a strange environment. The drama teacher starts a short conversation about last weeks session just to see what the group remember.

We start with a clear recognizable ritual to install a working atmosphere. We want everybody to be at ease in the ‘here and now’ before really starting. Talking about last week’s theatre work trains their memory and is a way of getting more focus on theatre thinking.

Then it’s time for the physical warm up: stand up and stretch arms, yawning in dramatic way, running and hopping on the spot. These movements are the start of every workshop and the participants already know them so it gives them confidence and of course, it’s also fun.

Warming up voice and body in a way to install a playing mood

Then the group is divided into couples who stand face to face. They take each other by the hands and jump together, first on a given signal and then from their own initiative. Then they form groups of four and do the same thing. After this all together as one group.

Training them in taking the lead, not waiting for a clear sign of the trainer and working together

The Clap
Everyone stands in a circle in front of his or her own cushion on the floor. One of the participants start to clap hands and ‘passes’ the clap to the person on the right until it is passed along the whole group. Then someone can make a movement and the others take turns to imitate this movement. This exercise is also a weekly ‘routine’ so after some time it becomes a smooth action.

theatre is a group art discipline, training in getting focus and doing your thing when it’s up to you, to receive a sign and pass it through

Conductor
The drama teacher is conductor. All the participants use their voice and make sounds by only using vowels. If the conductor raises his hand the noise goes up, when he pulls his hand down, the volume of the noise goes down. Then the group is divided into two smaller groups that stand face to face. The conductor takes a place in the middle: the right hand is for the right group, the left hand for the left group. When this goes smoothly, all the participants can take turns to be the conductor. The participants really like this.

playing with abstract sounds, listening is more important then making sound when you want reach for chorus work, following visual instructions, being encouraged to take the lead

The First Step
Everybody stands up in a circle. At the third count of the drama teacher someone chooses to step forward and the others have to follow this example. It’s difficult because the participants have to choose themselves whether they want to be the first one to step forward. It’s a new exercise so it’s difficult for most of the participants to move at the same time.

taking the lead with physical language for the whole group, daring to take the space as first of the group

Welcoming the Parents
We welcome the parents of the learning disabled actors. They come into the theatre space and the participants greet the public. The group show them their exercises: They start by passing the clap and then they repeat ‘the conductor’.

inviting the parents to an open lesson has two goals;
- parents become involved in the project and get informed the method and content by looking at it live
- the actors get used to playing to a public step by step

Evaluation
Everybody is seated again in a circle on the cushions on the floor. All the participants take turns to say what they liked in this session and what they thought was difficult.

a clear step to put down the theatre work moment (same form as starting ritual to complete the circle), trying to let them reconstruct an overview of the session helps to get more insight in the different theatre skills
Workshop Sample 2 – Belgium
refer session 47 in overview: main goal: speech body, articulation body, play with sounds, words, sentences

Warming Up
The drama teacher welcomes all the participants. They all take sit down in a circle on a cushion on the floor. Everybody can have a little chat and then the teacher outlines what will happen this session.

The clear recognisable starting ritual is still there after a year of working and three presentations. We inform about the content of the session in advance (we’ll end with overview) so participants get insight in the working process, participants can suggest alternatives…

Then the physical warming up starts. First everybody has to bend his knees to go and sit on an imaginary chair. Then standing on the toes without falling. Play football with an imaginary ball. Walk on the spot. Shake your body.

the physical warming up is more and more building on imagination of movements to stimulate the fantasy

Your Body Like Three Boxes
The teacher explains that you can look at your body as if it consists of three boxes: the head, the body and the legs. The first box is the head. The participants act as chickens by only moving their heads from left to right and to the front and the back. The teacher had to hold to some of the participants to enable them to only move their heads and not the rest of their body.
Box 2: now they can only move their body the way a chicken would move it, without using their heads or legs. Box 3: the legs and hips.

getting control over the body by looking (exploring it physically) at it in a abstract way, some of the participants have more possibility’s in body expression, so they are challenged in these more difficult exercises without dropping the others

Sound massage
Everybody stands up really close to one another in a circle. First we breathe in and out very intensively without making any noise. Breathing in through the nose and breathing out through the mouth. Then we breathe out by making a silent buzzing – mmm - sound without forcing their voices. Then three participants are asked to stand in the middle of the circle. Afterwards they have to explain how they experienced it to be surrounded by this soft buzzing sound. This is what they experienced and imagined: it’s like a head massage, I heard a bear or a bird, it sounded like a lullaby, it felt like meditating…

it’s an exercise to train the diaphragm ( a technical training technique) but it has been packaged in an accessible form, the sound massage exercise encouragse the controlling of a gentle voice in low volume, and we enjoy it

Saying Words
Everybody in the circle has to say the word ‘ping pong ball’ in turns. First very silently then louder. Then the teacher walks away from the circle so that everybody has to articulate and speak louder. The second word is ‘tip top’, and the third is ‘tip tap top’. It’s not easy for everyone. Some of the participants cannot articulate very well and others are too shy to speak out these words in a loud voice. The teacher is very patient and gives everybody the chance to do it well.

we challenge them to be aware and take care of a good articulation

Saying Sentences
The sentence is “hello, how are you?”. Everybody in the circle says one word and the person on the right says the next. After four participants the fifth starts again. After the exercise is finished we do the same thing but in the other direction. Now we say the same sentence again but in different intonations. This is also a very difficult exercise because everybody has to really listen carefully to the other. Also timing is very important here.

looking at language in an abstract form helps to listen and focus on the pronunciation of the sounds and having fun with it

Creating a story building up sentence by sentence
The group is divided into three smaller groups. Each group can make up a sentence. Then each group says its sentence and the two other groups repeat it out loud. Then each group thinks of another sentence. In the end we bring the sentences together to create a little story.

speech and language work as a creative tool, creating a story together, being complementary in the creative process, accepting ideas from one another,

This story will be played by all the actors.
This is what they came up with:
-Snackbar.
-What are we going to do?
-We drink whisky.
-We are going to the pub.
-We like horseback riding.
-Nice weather today!
Story: What are we going to do? Nice weather today! We like horseback riding. We are going to the pub. Snackbar

performing an idea of somebody else, making it repeatable

We end up with discussing what we saw in the little acts.

giving comment on each others theatre exercises helps the participants in coping with direction, it gives the spectators a motivation to look profoundly at the other work.

EFFECTS

Travelling to Malta and England: a great adventure

September 28 – Wednesday October 1, 2008
December 8-11, 2008

After saying goodbye to all the parents and after some interviews and photos for the local press, we took the train to the airport. It was already quite an adventure because some of the participants had never been on a train before. In the airport taking the escalators was the next challenge. The body search of some of the people of our group by the customs authorities, entering the plane through a walking tunnel and of course the taking off and landing was a bit scary but everyone was really excited and there was a lot of laughter.
After arriving a bus picked us up at the airport. Very strange - people in Malta and England drive on the left hand side! At the first workshop the next morning our participants really surprised us: they weren’t shy at all and even the language barriers were no obstacle as they met up and chatted with their Maltese and English ‘colleagues’ in a very enthusiastic way. Friendships were born. When everybody met again the next day it was like seeing old friends again: everybody hugged and kissed and one of our actors found himself a girl friend.
During the final performance our actors moved the audience with their spontaneity. Ivo sang the ‘Kabas’ song and everybody sang along. The English and Maltese actors were cheering and applauding for our group like a bunch of football supporters.
Saying goodbye the day after was very emotional. Mariano’s girl friend wrote a letter to her boyfriend and also some other new friends stayed in touch. The parents of our participants witnessed later that this first trip abroad was a great adventure that they couldn’t stop talking about.
Evolution and effects on the participants: some examples
1. M: 27 year old learning disabled adult with an intellectual level of a 12 year old. He chose himself to participate in the project.
M normally talks in a high pitch voice. During these sessions he learned to use a normal voice. The teacher gave him a verbal signal: “M, feet in the ground”. In his free time Mariano imitates and repeats sketches that were played during the sessions. Before the workshops he used to live in his own world but now he asks for more feedback and is also more aware of the people around him. On stage he is now aware of the public.
M bloomed during the sessions: he evolved from a person with a lot of depressive periods to a cheerful young man. A positive side effect is the broadening of his horizon and interests because of his travels abroad and the international contacts.
2. D: 26 year old male with Downs syndrome. D functions on an intellectual level of about a 6 year old. He chose to participate himself.
The most important evolution for D is on a verbal level. He now dares to express in a more verbal way. Before he was very introvert. In a group D was always a background person but during the sessions he turned into a leading figure where others can depend on. He was one of the stars in the final performances during the closing festival in Belgium.

3. I: 50 year old man with Downs syndrome. He functions on an intellectual level of a 4 year old. I did not choose to participate himself, his carers decided it would be ‘fun’ for him to take part in the drama workshops.

I used to be completely lost in a talking crowd but now he can step forward as someone who wants to be heard. I sees himself now as a part of a group and is clearly conscious of himself on stage. I’s brothers and the professionals in the day care centre where he stays had never heard his voice and they were emotionally moved when they heard I singing a song during a performance on stage and later even on regional television. I still needs a lot of time but that is given to him by the drama teacher.

4. Y: 46 year old woman with Downs syndrome. Intellectual level of a 5 year old. Her carers decided that she would participate in the Opening Doors project.

Y evolved from a quiet person without any initiative to someone with a lot of dramatic skills and talents. The project really made a huge impression on her and she now dares to step forward and is open to new experiences. The project really opened her views on the world. She no longer forces herself onto other people but has learned to take the moment as it comes.
Effects

Comments from parents of the learning disabled participants and colleagues from the participating institutions

The workshops made the participants more mature and independent.

People who are learning disabled can do so much more than one would expect. That’s something these workshops proved.

My son has become so much more self confident and shows more emotions. He talks more to us than he ever did.

My daughter is so enthusiast about this project!

Keep up the good work!

The working method is very respectful towards the participants. This way of working can also be used in their daily practice.

All the participants ‘shine’ in their own way.

Most of the participating actors have become more expressive.

Everything is done with so much heart and soul!

We have seen so many surprising results in the performances.

Maybe it’s better to work in a more non verbal way. In the performances a lot of text parts were lost or hard to understand.

Exchanging with other European countries and meeting new people was very exciting and also stimulating for all the participants. Saying goodbye to their new friends in Malta and England was very emotional.

Maybe a little explanation before the performances would have been better.

We enjoyed seeing how the participants were blooming and opening up on stage.

They all wanted to try and speak English even after the visits to England and Malta.

Our daughter will take a singing workshop (with non disabled people) in the cultural centre where the drama sessions took place!

Some of the participants went to see some concerts and stand up comedy in the cultural centre.

We never expected the performances to be so excellent and entertaining!

The sessions really developed their fantasy and all the actors really surprised us.