ABSTRACT:

Increasingly hot summers, snowless winters, water restrictions – the signs of the climate crisis are becoming more and more apparent in our daily lives. How can sociodrama help to promote a more environmentally conscious attitude, so that we realise that we need to change our lifestyles for the sake of our future?

The discussion will be attended by foreign sociodramatists, such as Marjut Partanen-Hertell from Finland, Enikő Fazakas from Romania or Hungarian experts, such as Attila Donáth, who have worked on ecological issues in sociodramatic workshops.

The aim of the roundtable is to give experts the opportunity to share their experiences and present their work.

Main themes might include:

• How can we address these issues without creating fear, anxiety, or reinforcing images of disaster?
• Sociodrama can also serve as a way for a community to collectively figure out what they can do for their immediate environment. How can sociodrama contribute to developing community solutions in this area?
• To make the necessary changes, it is not enough to change individual lifestyles, but economic, political and social changes are needed. How can we work sociodramatically with this?

The audience will learn about different possibilities and “best practices” on how sociodrama can serve to shape ecological attitudes and conscious behaviour – at the individual, small community, or societal level.

ABOUT THE MODERATORS:

ABSTRACT:

In this presentation ecological scientific facts are combined to a creative process with sociodramatic and other action exercises. After this session participants will be able to:

• explore and illustrate scientific facts with some action exercises and make science alive trough sociodrama
• understand the present ecological situation in the Anthropocene and see their own place in that
• describe what Ecological Justice means and identify their own role connected to that
• define part of the different views and stakeholders emerging on the field of ecological justice
• strengthen their abilities to take responsibility to support the world as we know it now.

Marjut Partanen-Hertell. 2011. Sociodrama in Finland – an environmental context. In R. Wiener, D. Adderly, & K. Kirk (eds.), Sociodrama in a changing world. www.lulu.com
Johan Rockström, et al. 2023. Safe and just Earth system boundaries, Nature, vol. 619, pages102–111. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06083-8

ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

ABSTRACT:

In this workshop, we will present the programme developed in the framework of the Erasmus+ project “Interview with the Earth”, which was designed to deepen the connection between nature and humans. In this programme, we have combined methods from the fields of sociodrama, ecopsychology, land art and Playback Theatre to provide an action-oriented and inspiring experience that fosters a deeper connection and awareness of nature among participants.
Workshop participants will be active participants in a process of exploring new aspects of the relationship between nature and humans through a combination of four distinct but interconnected methodological approaches.

The aim of our workshop is to show how combining human sensitivity, creativity and interaction with nature can provide new opportunities for connecting with nature and environmental awareness.
The workshop is practical and participation-oriented.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

ABSTRACT:

Playback Theatre is one of the most important contemporary community based, participatory theatres in the world. It is a genre of storytelling theatre based on interaction and improvisation, which utilizes the wisdom and strength of community, the art of theatre and the basic idea of psychodrama. Playback Theatre companies have been operating around the world for over 45 years and in more than 75 countries. It has a world wide movement and an international network of Accredited Trainers and of Schools in affiliation with the Centre for Playback Theatre. There are more than 11 Schools of Playback Theatre in this netwtwork, including the Hungarian School of Playback Theatre.

In Playback Theatre, members of the audience tell their personal experiences and the performing team members “play them back” on the spot. This helps a personal and at the same time facilitates a community and social change and transformation. There is place for all stories, for everyday moments and turning points in our lives, for untold and unheard stories too. Each story is unique and each has a common humanity. Playback Theatre draws people closer as they see their common humanity.

This genre of improvisational theatre is also a powerful method of communication in almost any human community. It is not only practised as theatre, but also used as an applied method in many contexts: education, health, social institutions, NGOs, church organisations, companies, private and public sectors, etc.

A personal story, told in front of us and immediately played back, respecting the storyteller, his or her experience and in tune with the community, allows an intimate and deep connection, creating the necessary atmosphere.

Playback Theatre is a modern recreation of an oral traditional ceremony. Similar events entertained the community of a village or a tribe, but the goal was always something more – for example, to cure an illness, to solve a social or community problem, or to remind the creators of some kind of ancient wisdom.

With the ecopsychological approach of playback theatre, our aim is to respond to ecological challenges, the destruction of nature and the alienation between man and nature through the tools of playback theatre. During the interactive performance, participants share their own feelings, moods and stories, which are processed and presented on the spot, as well as reflected in an ad hoc exhibition of paintings and drawings. In doing so, we foster a community dialogue, connection and reconnection with ourselves, each other and nature. Thus healing the crisis of alienation in alignement with all activities and programs of the Ecopsychology Association.

The performance of the two companies and their international playback theatre colleagues at the conference will give participants the opportunity to directly experience the power of Playback Theatre and its associated fine art forms to address social and ecological issues, especially in the light of their fresh experiences at the conference.

ABSTRACT:

In this workshop, we will utilize sociodrama techniques to delve into the archetypal messages found within fairy tales, examining their resonance within ecopsychological contexts.

We will be working on the Indian tale The Buffalo Girl and her Friend the Crow (William Camus: Firebirds – a collection of stories).The technique used here uses sociodramatic and playback theatre devices by J.L. Moreno and J.Fox. The theory of interpretation of the fairy tale is based on the Treasure Hunting Story Therapy method created by Márta Antalfai, which is strongly based on the analytic theory of C.G. Jung. The above method combines elements of psychodrama and Jungian analytic-based story therapy.

During the workshop, spiritual work takes place in the group, using the fabric of the chosen fairy tale as a base story, and the main interpsychic conflicts and crises in the story are played out. The focus will be on nature settings and characters symbolically present in the fairy tales, and their impact on humans, especially the protagonist and their human relations. 

In the process we personalise important objects, people, and act out the situation. The choice of roles is individual. At the start we will be choosing roles, setting the scene, and afterwards there will be processing and feedback. We will be working with all our senses. This allows us to learn about ourselves, our connections, details we did not know before, which can help us identify our problems. Fairy tales contain special underlying themes, ancient symbols, archetypes, basic conflict patterns, through which we can receive energies from the collective unconscious, beyond the individual consciousness.

This tale explores questions of living together in and with nature, belonging to a group, and the necessary and sufficient use of nature.

We will be focusing on two scenes. In the first one we explore the difficulties of the heroine’s return to the group after growing up in nature. In the other, we will look at two human responses to nature’s eternal bounty – one where greed and insatiability rule, and the other where necessity and moderation dominate.

Through these two examples, we can see the element that is fundamental to the tales, that human changes are closely linked to nature, as if they were an imprint, thus proving symbolically and factually that man and nature are inseparable, and their fate is interdependent.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

ABSTRACT:

In a World of Global Warming, the Frequency of Hurricanes and Earthquakes and Floods and Fire,
Are the Gods to Blame?

Why are we having these natural catastrophes? Was this part of the gods’ plan? What is our collective responsibility for our past and our collective future?

J.L. Moreno had the view that everyone is interconnected with and related to the creator. He thinks that a creator, sometimes referred to as the Godhead, is where creativity originates. We propose staging a mock trial to interrogate the godhead(s) entity about creation and the current state of the world to better understand how we may all work together to reverse what we are currently experiencing. Participants will have the opportunity to choose who or what will address the godheads, such as elements in nature and/or representatives of other cultures. They will choose the venue for the trial, such as a conference, a community center, an open area, or a courtroom.

Learning Objectives:

• To have heightened agency to do things in community outside of our comfort zone;
• To reframe the question of blaming;
• To use Sociodrama to build an ecology of praxis for change.and to build an ecosystem around a praxis for social interrogation and intervention.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

ABSTRACT:

Many of us feel overwhelmed and defeated by the enormity of the climate crisis facing us and the impact it is already having. We are also deeply concerned about the impact on future generations. Using the magic of sociodrama, we can give voice to our grief and fear, hear from the earth itself and the needs of the future. In facing our reality on this planet, we can through dialogue find new connection with each other and the power of our own actions to make change- rediscovering hope.

After this session participants will be able to:

• identify and express their feelings about their specific concerns related to the environment
• identify ways in which they are already part of the change towards greater harmony with the earth
• explore ways to continue and deepen the movement toward healing the environment and ourselves in relation to it.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER: