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Community Workshop

Are you a caregiver in mental health or
a consumer of mental health services
Are you experiencing the system becoming mechanized
Are you struggling with how the health system is becoming “mechanical”?
Would you like to explore creating
a more patient-centered system?

If your answer to these questions is 'yes', then you have knowledge and a perspective that is valuable to this theatre production. Having a living knowledge of the issue is an essential criteria for participation; having acting experience is not. We need a diversity of perspectives to enrich this work.

Headlines Theatre, producer of the 2009 award winning community project after homelessness… , Us and Them (2010/11) and many others productions, is collaborating with numerous grassroots organizations on our 2013 main stage project: maladjusted. We are looking for up to twenty people to participate in a 6-day Theatre for Living Workshop, exploring issues of mental health and stigmatization inside the health system. No acting experience is necessary. Just a willingness to be open about your life experiences and a desire to play! We invite YOU to join us in developing this exciting project! (We're also looking for possible cast members…)

When: The workshop will take place from January 29 - February 3, 2013, 9am to 5pm.

Where: Renegade Studio Productions, 127 East 2nd Ave, Vancouver, BC.

It is very important that you are able to commit to coming to every day all day of the workshop.
Each workshop participant will be paid $600 for the week and lunch will be provided daily.

The workshop will use theatre games and exercises to build trust and explore your experiences around the issue. In the beginning, these games and exercises will be non-verbal. Slowly, the workshop will create short plays based on the life experiences of the workshop participants. This will happen through a symbolic, physical language. These points of tension will form the subject matter of the plays. The purpose of the workshop and making these short plays is to gather core material for the creation of the larger Forum Theatre production that will perform in Vancouver.

A full-time Support Person (counsellor) will be in the workshop and rehearsals. However, the project is not designed as therapy. Being in the workshop is employment in a process of creating a meaningful community dialogue about the issues of mental health and patient-centred care.

Are you interested in being a cast member?

Five members of the community workshop will create the main stage Interactive Theatre production along with TFL's Artistic Director David Diamond, and a professional design team.

The community workshop will not be an audition. If you want to be considered for the cast, you will be asked to do some improvisation work with David during the initial interview. Please note, you don't have to be a professional actor to speak the language of theatre. But you do need to be willing to 'play'. If you are NOT interested in being part of the cast, indicate you are only interested in the workshop. Be courageous! Let us know if you are interested!

Cast will be paid $650 per week from January 29, 2013 to March 24, 2013.

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What is Interactive Forum Theatre?

Headlines is a global leader in Forum Theatre, developed by Brazilian visionary and director, Augusto Boal. In Forum Theatre, we show the audience the play all the way through, and then start playing it a second time. Audience members can then stop the play and enter the stage themselves, by replacing characters with whom they identify and try to solve problems or issues inside the story. The theatre becomes a creative rehearsal for transforming ourselves, our communities and the world.

Check out this video about the community workshop that lead to the creation of our 2011 main stage project Us and Them (the play):

How to apply:

Please send us a letter/email/fax indicating that you are available to commit to the dates and times of the workshop
(January 29 - February 3, 2013, from 9am - 5pm each day).

If you are interested in creating the public main stage performance and being a cast member, please indicate that you are available to do so (January 29 to March 24, 2013). This is full-time work, day-to-day schedule TBA.

Please, also state WHY you want to be part of this project and HOW it is relevant to you, in a CONCRETE way, specifically through your life experience. This information will be kept confidential. Be sure to let us know how we can find you again (email, phone number, mailing address, a contact person).

Send your email application to: info@headlinestheatre.com
Mail in your application or drop by our office: 323 - 350 East 2nd Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5T 4R8
Call us: 604.871.0508
Fax it to: 604.871.0209

The Schedule:

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