Theater is often said to be a reflection of life. Dahlia Sabbour has taken that fine line between theater and life and erased it in an effort to use dramatic techniques as a means of heightening personal awareness. In collaboration with Insight Inside, a Cairo center dedicated to total well being and holistic health, Sabbour has created a workshop for Theatrical Healing.
Sabbour recalls how the idea of the workshop began: “I had approached Linda [Noorlander, one of the founders of Insight Inside]. Why not put theater and healing together, I thought, and people will walk out having healed on a certain level.
“This method is about how to use theater as a space for rehearsing problems in our lives and solving them using the dramatic medium, she explained.
Sabbour bases her workshop on the teachings of Augusto Boal. The Brazilian theater director created the Theater of the Oppressed in the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to transform theater from the “monologue performance tradition to a “dialogue between the audience and the stage. His theories were based on the assumption that dialogue is “the common, healthy dynamic between all humans, that all human beings desire.
While some people make theater, Boal is quoted as saying, we all are theater.
Sabbour combined her studies of Boal’s methods with drama-based education techniques she had studied at New York University in 2001. She had participated in workshops on how to teach kids and teenagers using drama.
“So mostly it was about teaching them, for example, about social skills using drama as a medium, she added.
The result: an interactive drama workshop centered on a single theme. Sabbour became animated as she explained the stages of the workshop.
First she performs a series of gelling activities with the group. These involve games and exercises to loosen up the body, and hence the mind, allowing participants to become less inhibited.
One example is the “human machine. One participant goes to the center of the room and begins making rhythmic sounds and movements. One by one, the rest of the group joins in, adding their own sounds and movements. Ultimately, they create a big machine of people making sounds and movements together.
It’s a fun way to overcome any shyness and inhibitions a new group of people may have. “And it’s interesting to see how even adults become childlike when they do games like this, Sabbour adds, unable to veil her enthusiasm as she recalls her own experiences.
These activities are designed to make people feel more comfortable. As a result of moving in ways that they are unaccustomed to, they experience a heightened sense of awareness. These activities challenge participants to truly listen to what we are hearing, feel what we are touching, and see what we are looking at.
“It gives people a feeling that they’re part of a bigger group and that their contribution is crucial, Noha Omar, owner of Studio 206, told The Daily Star Egypt of her own experience at one of Sabbour’s workshops.
The next step is what Baol terms as “Image Theater. This method uses the human body as a tool for representing emotions, concepts and even relationships. By creating “sculptures with their own or another’s body position, participants can create an image that reflects an impression or situation.
Sabbour explains the process in more depth. “I ask participants to create a series of still images that tell a story – like I’m looking through a picture book. I don’t want any voice or movements, just a frozen image that shows me the story of a relationship. It takes a lot of awareness of the body and how we communicate without language.
These images are used as a basis for a group discussion. Sabbour recalls the interesting discrepancies that emerge between what the actor intends to depict versus what the viewers understood from the image.
In the final stage of the workshop, the group chooses what they believe to be the strongest image and develop a skit around it.
“You now have a series of scenes that are like a story depicting a problem. So if it’s relationships, let’s say a problem between husband and wife, some are enacting, some are watching. The way that Boal saw it is that there is no line between actors and the audience, everyone is a “spect-actor : they’re both spectator and actor and the line is loose.
“While we watch the story being depicted, at any time that anyone sees a part that they think the protagonist could have done something differently to change the outcome of the problem, they intervene. They ask the actors to freeze, step over the line, take the place of the protagonist and change something in the direction of the scene, Sabbour explains.
Through this improvisation (dubbed Forum Theater by Boal) that encourages active participation, the audience-actors become empowered. Sabbour’s own experience confirms Boal’s theory.
“This is the most amazing thing, it inspired me when I did it. The act of crossing that line and becoming an actor is such an empowering move and it builds confidence.
Though her methods have yet to become mainstream, Sabbour has been promoting dramatic workshops by giving lectures at a number of Cairo’s cultural centers and other organizations.
Due to its reliance on its participants, Theatrical Healing is adaptable to any group.
For instance, she recently conducted a workshop for People to People International. The group of Egyptian teens visited the zabaleen community and Awladi orphanage in Maadi. Following their visits, she ran a workshop to allow them to process their experiences. The theme was empowerment. Instead of simply asking the participants their opinions, they were asked to act out scenes to relate their impressions.
Another completely different application was her experience with a group of women in Upper Egypt. Media House were producing a film about these women for an NGO, and recruited Sabbour to teach the women to be a little more creative in their lives.
The experience was as fulfilling for Sabbour as it was for the participants: “I went in not knowing what to expect, but it was such a rewarding experience. They really showed me another side of life that I’d never seen and they loved it, it went beyond all my expectation.
Enlisting participants for her women’s workshops has been a challenge. The theme is the empowerment of women. Rather than conduct a one-time workshop, she will offer a series of six sessions aimed at reexamining what it means to be a woman today. As a continuing workshop, she hopes to create a community among the participants.
“The first and biggest barrier right now is getting people to come, she admitted. “And I don’t blame them because no one knows what Theatrical Healing is. It’s valid to say that no one knows what they’re getting in to.
Sabbour is holding workshops at Insight Inside. But if they’re wary of making a long-term commitment, potential participants can take part in her Creative Interactive Drama workshop at the Community Service Association in Maadi on March 27.
She believes that it’s very hard to explain the impact of the workshop in words.
“You have to experience it to know it.
For more information contact Dahlia Sabbour at [email protected].
