Passing it on - Theatre for Young People with Young People
The workshop Passing it on reflected on challenges that are faced by the theatre practitioners when accessing donor funding.
The participants put together a hypothetical proposal for funds from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). They considered the following questions when putting together their proposal.
Is there something wrong with the medium of applied theatre in addressing socio-economic issues in our communities? Is it a new medium for interaction and dialoguing? How sustainable are applied theatre projects if they are funded?
Participants were divided into two age groups and each group had to identify challenging issues within their communities that could be addressed using Applied Theatre and Drama.
It became critical for groups to come up with programmes that were responsive to the country’s priority agenda for service delivery. Literacy programmes, dialogue about culture and child headed households were some of the issues that came up in the groups. These issues were challenged in the funding proposals emphasising the need to use Applied Theatre and Drama - in particular forum theatre and image theatre - as a methodology to address these challenges.
The workshop was thought provoking and required one’s intellectual ability to engage. It did not only explore the funding aspect of Applied Theatre projects but also the prerequisite capacity and the necessary management structures.
I would recommend the workshop to all people who are interested in learning about funding or writing proposals within the performing arts fraternity.