PEACE-ING OUR WORLD TOGETHER

[Peter Howie]

Hi again Adam,

Yes I am thinking of Augusto Boal. He was part of a similar mob that  
Ed is going to and was in brisbane in about 1996. He did a plenary  
session with people he had been working with in a workshop for about  
three days. He worked for the three days trying out a set of scenes  
and then practising and going over it again and again and again and  
again (so I was told). He did this as the stereotypical theatre  
director (not psychodrama director) where he was the boss and everyone  
towed the line. This set presentation was then presented at the  
plenary session. He ran the show as a great showman. He was  
entertaining and charismatic. At times he invited the audience to try  
out different interventions. The "eekkyy" bit was when the audience  
didn't like what someone who was having a go did - they were cruel and  
he encouraged it and was caught up entirely in the moment. Showing his  
humaness really. I was part of a playback theatre troupe at the time  
and it all seemed rather clumsy and over contrived for a person who  
was used to crafting an immediate enactment from a live story. Perhaps  
I was one up?  At our recent conference Jose Fonseca remembers Boal  
being in training and finds it amusing his reactiveness to psychodrama.

The suggestions that group work is all sociometry is really saying  
that all groups work is focused around the relational flows, which can  
be encountered in a more or less strict sociometric manner. On one end  
of a spectogram we could have a sociometric read out or even paper and  
print out. At the other end we have something more like "Kim I notice  
you seem really keen on what Dave is bringing forward. Could you  
express more of what you are showing with your body" or similar. Over  
here we would call that end of the spectogram in situ.  With the  
experietial learning process of the training here there are many, many  
opportunities to work with and experience and unearth the sociometry  
that is happening. Basically I think there is massive built in  
redundancy in the training. It is similar to a martial arts training.  
It needs to be trained into us not read into us. I go to Aikido  
training (a martial art) and I get shown something and then I need to  
practice, practice, practice in order to develop the capacity to use  
what I have been shown. I think this is one of the strengths of the  
training in my experience and from a theoretical perspective. For  
instance in a year long training group there might be 30 - 40  
different session - that is sessions with beginning, middles and ends  
where there is opportunity to try out and experiment with things.  
Including group dynamics. I guess aI am considering sociometry in a  
broad sense and would often stick aspects of group dynamics in  
sociometry. Rather than reductionistic perhaps the area of sociometry  
is large enough to include a number of other models and frameworks.  
The other doesn't quite work the same way. For instance we can't stick  
sociometry under or wholely within the Central Concern Model model but  
we could legitimately stick the Central Concern Model under  
sociometry. Maybe cognitive dissonance working overtime here :) but  
methinks it goes easier one way than another. This has got me thinking  
further.................... Probably a few papers here as well.

Cheers again from over here

Peter



Peter Howie B.Sc, TEP
Managing Director
The Moreno Collegium for Human Centred Learning, Research and  
Development
0411 873 851
www.morenocollegium.com.au




On 17/04/2009, at 6:37 AM, Adam Blatner wrote:

> Are you talking about Augusto Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed?
>
>       For instance that chap from Brazil with the drama stuff whose  
> name escapes me, was appalling with both groups and individuals -  
> not always but I did witness some extremely clumsy large group work  
> that was nevertheless entertaining and in some ways quite profound.  
> So as a dramatist he was excellent.
>            ab: in which role component ?  Drama therapy? group  
> worker? Boal generally rejects psychodrama though his wife (or first  
> wife?) was a psychodramatist in the 1960s.  Nevertheless, I find his  
> major format to be simply a kind of role playing
>             Set up situation, have actors auxiliaries play it, heat  
> it up, stop it: Ask audience how they'd do it. Invite them up to  
> confront one of the players, model. Ask others to show how they'd do  
> it... that kind of thing. Which is okay. But I'd like to hear more  
> of your anecdote, because I don't know that Boal himself did it that  
> way.
>         On the other hand, the movies of Moreno conducting  
> psychodrama make me cringe. Have you ever seen them?
>
>
>  The group work aspects are often absent in the specialised training  
> becasue it is not core to what they are on about. Gestalt has been  
> like this in the past in Australia - an individual process done in  
> groups but it is beginning to change from what I hear. Or else the  
> training is delivered as of a children's pedagogical sort - like the  
> ways teachers teach children and young adults. And often the way  
> adult educators teach adults. Often recognition of group effects or  
> that practitioners are working in groups is absent. Then again I  
> have run into teachers who denied they were leaders in any way. I  
> find it quite distressing as these practitioners both work in groups  
> and hate them at the same time while loving the ways they work.
>
>       AB: I agree with your desire to see more awareness of group  
> dynamics in leaders of groups! Yay!
>                I'm not sure that many psychodramatists get sufficent  
> training in this way. If one learns all the sociometry in the world,  
> that is not the same as all the group dynamics training. I don't  
> doubt that knowledge of sociometry informs group leadership---and  
> I'd like to see that angle developed and integrated into group  
> leader training; but neither does it constitute the whole of group  
> work.
>
> Group work is all sociometry. That doesn't get taught.
>            ab: Do you think this? I think it's too reductionistic.
>
> I hope you have a ball. I am encouraging ANZPA members to act in a  
> more coherent fashion when presenting at conferences as you are  
> doing and as Adam and others have been encouraging. Do it with  
> colleagues and don't act like the mob you are presenting for already  
> know this stuff because they don't.
>
> Cheers for the moment
>
> Peter in Brisbane
>
>
>
> On 16/04/2009, at 9:14 PM, Edward Schreiber wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> I pass along an upcoming conference that brings Psychodrama,  
>> Sociodrama, Sociatry, Sociometry together with many other  
>> Expressive Arts in Social Action and therapy.   Rosalie Minkin and  
>> I have been invited to present and this will be woven into the  
>> fabric of this conference.   The conference web site is:
>>
>> http://www.ieata.org/conference.html
>>
>> This is an example of a good conference structure.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>>
>>
>> EdP
>>
>> 2009 Conference
>> 8th Biennial International Conference
>>
>> August 12-15, 2009
>>
>> Hosted by Lesley University
>> Cambridge, MA
>>
>>
>>
>> <conference_logo.jpg>
>>
>>
>> Online registration begins in mid-April. Check back soon!
>>
>> Overview
>> Fees
>> Location
>> Scholarships
>> Social action project (August 10-11)
>> Volunteers
>> Pre-conference workshops and celebration
>> Lodging
>> Conference schedule
>> Travel
>> Post-conference workshops
>> Vendor applications
>> Registration
>> Download program, lodging and
>> travel information (PDF)>
>>
>> The International Expressive Arts Therapy Association invites you  
>> to be part of an exciting and inspiring international gathering as  
>> expressive arts therapists, educators, consultants, artists and  
>> activists, and innovators of expressive arts modalities from around  
>> the world converge to celebrate the journey of Expressive Arts and  
>> Social Action: Peace-ing our World Together.
>>
>> In keeping with our theme, we will explore the transformative power  
>> of the arts to:
>>
>> • Break down cultural barriers and misperceptions
>>
>> • Encourage community participation and growth
>>
>> • Provide opportunities for empowerment and social change/healing
>>
>> • Promote social justice locally and internationally
>>
>> We also will address the interdisciplinary use of the arts in  
>> therapy, and the interface between expressive arts therapy and  
>> social transformation. We’ll examine the role of the arts for  
>> social change within individual relationships, families and  
>> communities, and as a bridge among diverse communities.
>>
>> Location
>>
>> Cambridge’s vibrant Harvard Square area will provide the backdrop  
>> for the 2009 conference, which will be hosted by the Expressive  
>> Therapy program at Lesley University’s Porter Square campus.
>>
>> The conference will feature programming in several venues designed  
>> to connect participants to the vibrant Cambridge community, the  
>> larger community of expressive arts modalities, a rich academic  
>> community, and the global community.
>>
>> Cambridge, MA, just across the Charles River from Boston, is home  
>> to Lesley University where pioneers of the Expressive Arts founded  
>> an Institute for Arts and Human Development in the mid-1970s.  
>> Cambridge is renowned for its prestigious schools, rich cultural  
>> resources, diverse population, and an extraordinary array of social  
>> gathering places - from restaurants to clubs to parks.
>>
>> top
>>
>> Social action project
>>
>> MONDAY AND TUESDAY, AUGUST 10-11
>>
>> Prior to the start of the conference, attendees are invited to  
>> participate in a two-day intergenerational Social Action Project,  
>> titled Peace-Arts Zone: Peace-ing our Communities Together. The  
>> project is an extension of a call to communities in the greater  
>> Boston area to come together and utilize the arts for peace-making.  
>> Materials fee of $25 applies. Learn more >
>>
>> Pre-conference workshops and celebration
>>
>> WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
>>
>> The conference begins with several all-day pre-conference  
>> workshops, featuring many familiar and new presenters including  
>> Shaun McNiff, Vivien-Marcow Speiser and Phillip Speiser, Robert  
>> Macy and Dicki Macy, Stephen K. Levine and Ellen Levine, Kate  
>> Powers, Jason Cruz and RAW Art Works, Natalie Rogers and Mukti  
>> Khanna, and Kathleen Horne, Victoria Domenichello-Anderson and the  
>> Expressive Arts Florida team.
>>
>> Wednesday evening, Lesley University, in conjunction with the IEATA  
>> conference, will kick off its Centennial Celebration with free  
>> performances by Expressive Arts community groups run by Lesley’s  
>> Expressive Therapy Alumni, and with special recognition of the  
>> founder of Lesley’s program, Shaun McNiff.
>>
>> Conference schedule
>>
>> See schedule at-a-glance >
>> See workshop descriptions >
>>
>> THURSDAY, AUGUST 13
>>
>> The morning begins with a gathering of our IEATA community by our  
>> Executive Co-Chairs and Conference Committee. Thursday’s keynote  
>> speakers Robert and Dicki Macy are world-renowned for the arts- 
>> based trauma interventions they have shared with communities around  
>> the globe through their individual work and their work with the  
>> Center for Trauma Psychology. Join them for a discussion of the  
>> ways they have been able to implement expressive arts interventions  
>> for a more just world.
>>
>> In the afternoon, participants can choose from a wide variety of  
>> 1.5- and 3-hour workshops dealing with a plethora of topics on  
>> harnessing the creative arts and arts therapies to facilitate  
>> peacemaking, growth, change and social action. Workshop options  
>> include panels, experiential programs, lectures and performances  
>> that cover a broad range of modalities and methodologies.
>>
>> Thursday evening features a free performance by Paolo Knill and  
>> Elizabeth McKim, followed by an Open Mic event. Why just talk about  
>> the transformative power of making and sharing creative work, when  
>> you have the opportunity to do it? The conference Open Mic will  
>> provide participants with an opportunity to share and perform their  
>> creative work for/with their peers.
>>
>> FRIDAY, AUGUST 14
>>
>> The morning features IEATA Committee reports and a keynote address  
>> by David Gere. As Project Director of Make Art/Stop AIDS, Dr. Gere  
>> has utilized the arts to mobilize academics, artists, activists and  
>> citizens against the global AIDS epidemic. Beginning his work with  
>> this initiative in India in 2003, Dr. Gere has used the universal  
>> language of the arts to spearhead AIDS prevention and education  
>> interventions around the world.
>>
>> In the afternoon, we will continue with workshops.
>>
>> Friday evening starts with an Educational Fair and Poster Session.  
>> New work is being added to the body of Expressive Arts research all  
>> the time. Come and check out innovative new research, writing and  
>> therapeutic interventions by students and professionals in the field.
>>
>> An Awards Banquet and Community Dance with live music will follow  
>> for an additional $25 fee. After all the conference sessions, idea  
>> sharing, and art making, you’re going to need some time to relax!  
>> Join your friends from the IEATA community—and make some new ones— 
>> for an evening of dining, dancing and socializing at the beautiful  
>> Sheraton Commander hotel, in the heart of Cambridge!
>>
>> SATURDAY, AUGUST 15
>>
>> Our conference ends with a celebration of IEATA and a closing ritual.
>>
>> top
>>
>> Post-conference workshops
>>
>> SATURDAY, AUGUST 15
>>
>> For participants wanting one last chance to connect with familiar  
>> and new faces, we will offer a menu of half-day post-conference  
>> workshops. Presenters will include Sally Atkins and the Appalachian  
>> Expressive Arts Collective, Kyoko Ono, Anin Utigaard, Graciela  
>> Bottini and Maria Gonzalez-Blue, Julia Byers, and Adriana Marchione.
>>
>> Registration
>>
>> Online registration coming soon! Check back in mid-April.
>>
>> Fees
>>
>> The conference fee includes lunches on Thursday and Friday, all  
>> keynote addresses and workshops, Lesley Centennial Celebration,  
>> Educational Fair, Poster Session, entertainment, morning yoga and  
>> warm-ups, and opportunities to network and connect with a community  
>> of like-minded and creative souls.
>>
>> If you are not yet an IEATA member, join now and SAVE on your  
>> conference fee. (This is also a great time to renew your IEATA  
>> membership and SAVE!)
>>
>> Register by June 30 to receive your early registration discount.
>>
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