8. Visualizing Boundaries and Embodying Conflicts: Lessons Learned From a Theatrical Professional Development Program

Amrit Mundy,Judy Chan

doi:10.22329/celt.v6i0.3764

Abstract

In the 2011-2012 academic year, the Organizational Development and Learning unit and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at the University of British Columbia co-developed an interactive theatre project, Conflict Theatre, to engage in discussion around conflict with our audience and to allow us to explore, engage with, and build resilience around workplace conflict in a University staff development context. The objectives of this essay are to narrate our thinking and experiences in developing and performing the interactive theatre sketches, and to share personal reflections from a range of Conflict Theatre participants.

Highlights

Building resilience around, and finding ways to engage with, conflict is relevant and necessary across all professional, personal, teaching, and learning spaces (Hughes, Huston, & Stein, 2010)
At the University of British Columbia (UBC), mutual respect, equity, and intercultural understanding are among the top priorities, and we think that finding constructive ways of engaging with conflict, and building resilience around it, is a way to move these priorities forward
We provide some of the theoretical background underlying Conflict Theatre, describe the development and performance of this Theatre, share our collected experiences and identify how we intend to move forward

Summary

Introduction

Questions, expectations, agreements, and introduction of the Theatre of the Oppressed More on Theatre of the Oppressed, Relaxation and Breathing, Daoist Meditation Breathing and Voice Exploration. As the boundaries became more visible after witnessing each intervention and hearing the actors’ internal thoughts, audiences were given more opportunities to act out their ideas and strategies to ‘re-hearse’ different responses to the conflict, and to see how they may land These interventions and conflict ‘rehearsals’ had the potential to create disturbance and generate changes in our living and working system. Annotated feedback gathered from audiences at our August and October 2011 performances suggest that Conflict Theatre was able to meet its intended purposes: to extend an awareness of the nuanced complexities, challenges, and boundaries that exist in diverse work environments at the university, and consider that there are different ways to engage with conflict. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with Troupe members to understand from their perspective how their participation in the eight-week long workshop shifted their personal narratives and ways of engaging with and analyzing conflict

Summary