Forum theatre is designed to address issues that are relevant to a particular group of people. It began in Brazil with Augusto Boal, who, like many others since, has employed this process widely from political situations to many areas of business practice, indeed, just about any problem that exists has the potential to be resolved using forum.

First of all, an issue needs to be identified that affects a particular group. Once this has been done a short piece of theatre will be devised to reflect the problems within that issue. Central to this must be a Protagonist, who will encounter a number of choices during the piece, all of which will be designed to fail in his or her objective.The piece is then shown to the group, who will be asked to pay particular attention to what the protagonist says and does. Once this is completed the piece is re-run for the benefit of participation and possible resolution of the issue/s.

Before it is re-played the group are again asked to pay attention to the choices that the protagonist makes, only this time, if there comes a point where he or she could say or do something differently which might change things, to say STOP! At that point the action will stop and the group member will be invited to take the place of the protagonist,as themselves,to try out their idea. If they wish, they can direct the actor from their seat. The actors will remain in character at all times, and will follow the participants idea with truth and integrity until it has reached its conclusion. In addition, if at any time, the participant wishes to stop, they just have to say so. The idea can be as simple as one word, or a whole dialogue.

Now the action can be replayed from the point decided by the participant, and their idea can be tried out. Once an idea has been explored, it is fed back to the group to examine what happened. Key questions might be:

What did this person do that was different to the protagonist?
Did that affect the situation?
Did it affect the relationships of those involved?
What effect might this have on subsequent events and the possible outcome?

There may well be many potential solutions for a given moment, and all are given the same respectful opportunity. However, it will be the consensus of the group to determine what ultimately works for them in terms of resolution in part or full of their specific issue/s. One of the many benefits of forum theatre is that ideas can be tried out in an entirely safe environment. The group share ideas and solutions, without fear of judgement or "getting it wrong", and can take the results back to their own environment.

Forum theatre appeals to the creative brain, and it has been shown that we remember up to 90% of things presented to us in a creative way - and only 10% of lists of facts, figures etc. It is also a fun way to share ideas and learn what works!

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