Peacebuilding Impulses

by Nenet Mukelyan, Peace Dialogue, Armenia

In 1969 Augusto Boal’s indictment of his domestic news media made the Brazilian dramatist, civil activist and writer famous. He created his own theory using the theatre as a platform for civil struggle against the media’s forgery impelling the reader to not believe blindly in everything journalists (who often having their own interests) say. He developed 11 techniques of reading called Newspaper Theatre. These techniques, together with his other theories (particularly, Image Theatre and Forum Theatre), formed the basis of his theatrical form Theatre of the Oppressed which focused on using theatre as the means for knowledge transformation, creating a new, theatrical reality, to help make sense of objective reality.

In the framework of its Let's see.. Let's choose.. Let's change.. project Peace Dialogue NGO organized a Newspaper Theatre workshop session for 25 young people from Vanadzor, Armenia, at the Impulse Resort-Centre in the town of Dilijan, on April 10-17. The young participants from Vanadzor represented various NGOs and media organizations, educational institutions and various spheres of art.

The Let’s see… Let’s choose… Let’s change… project is aimed at forming an active group of young people who will be willing to invest their skills in the peaceful transformation of Armenia’s conflicts. The staff of Peace Dialogue is sure that the first step on the way has to be the formation and development of critical thinking and analytical skills among the young participants of the project.

During the six working days the young people transformed articles from Armenian newspapers into theatrical scenes, and at the same time analyzing and discussing various issues touched upon in the news articles referring to foreign and domestic policies, as well as various problems existing in the educational system, worries of youth, problems referring to the socio-economic reality of the country and present relations with neighboring countries.

“I found it much easier to speak about problems and their solution by playing,” says Ani Atyan, a student at the Vanadzor State Teachers’ Training Institute. “I liked working with this method from the very beginning. I want to share the knowledge I have gained with people who did not have the opportunity to take part in the training. I want to present everything I saw and learned to my course mates during one of our classes.”

Although the seminar is over, the participants regularly meet at the Peace Dialogue NGO office to inspire each other with their shared passion, energy, and excitement!

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