Queen Mary University London

We were fortunate to experience the facilitation skills of Alistair Campbell, Reader, Applied Performance, of Queen Mary College, University of London.  Ali was trained in Forum Theatre by Augusto Boal and used several related methods in helping his own students work with retired nurses.  Those same methods were very powerful in the work the nurses then did with children of St Matthias Catholic Primary School in Hackney.  We called our mini-project ‘Suitcase Stories’.  Here is a small part to of one ‘recipe’ we created:-  THIS IS THE PAGE

1/ Close your eyes and think of an important journey.  It might be:

• from home to school
• from your bedroom to the fridge
• from here to another place

… but you must have made it yourself and it must be true!  You are the expert.

2/ With a PARTNER you have two minutes each to tell this journey.  You need to walk it with your fingers along the table-top. That way they will get the picture…and you will remember better.

3/ Now choose one thing that sums it up for you.  If you get stuck your partner will help you because now they know your journey too!

It might be:

• A toy
• A passport
• Something to eat

We then used the ‘findings’ to shape a musical piece about the camaraderie of nurses during their down-time, cooking together, dancing and other activities.  For the school assembly at St. Matthias, the children and the nurses planned and performed a sketch around doing the dance, ‘The Twist’.