Performance for ethnography, dialogue, and intervention: Using activating theatre to explore the reproductive health issues facing Kenyan adolescent girls
Rohd's "activating theatre" draws on the dialogical tradition first outlined by Mikhail Bakhtin, the pedagogy of the oppressed introduced by Paulo Friere, and the theatre of the oppressed and improvisational theatre tradition associated with Augusto Boal, Viola Spolin, Robert Alexander, and others.
As my title above suggests the project aimed to acquire an ethnograhic understanding of the way Kenyan adolescent girls are thinking about reproductive health issues, to establish a medium for dialogue and conversation about reproductive health issues, and to function as a form of prevention education -- one that would liberate and empower girls to explore the reproductive health issues they will face throughout their lives.
The performance workshop participants included 13 peer counselors from Kapkenda Girls High School in Chepkorio (Eldoret, Kenya). Former student and peer counselor Purity Kimaiyo (top left) facilitated the reproductive health workshops.
The project was conducted for my master's thesis in health communication at East Carolina University under the direction of Dr. Deborah Thomson.
— Purity Kimaiyo
"Theatre is a language through which human beings can engage in active dialogue on what is important to them. It allows individuals to create a safe space that they many inhabit in groups and use to explore the interactions which make up their lives. It is a lab for problem solving, for seeking options, and for practicing solutions."
This web site presents an overview of a performance-based workshop done in May 2014 at my former high school, Kapkenda Girls High School, a boarding school about an hour outside Eldoret, Kenya. The workshop was inspired and guided by Michael Rohd's wonderful little book "Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue - the Hope is Vital Training Manual" (1998).
— Augusto Boal
Kapkenda peer counselors say their school motto:
Bidii Huleta Ushindi (Hard Work Brings Success)