When I first announced to my friends, colleagues and family that I was going to travel across the world to continue my community theatre practice, especially in prisons, a flood of expressions followed all containing the word ‘brave’. “I admire your bravery” “Oh aren’t you brave”.
I struggled to understand this as I understood my trip as an extension of my commitment to community theatre practice. There is no bravery in commitment. I was intrigued to share my enthusiasm with those (Teatro Pasmi) who I had only met for a brief while in a conference the previous year.
Upon my arrival in Santiago, there was not a slow introduction. With the work of Jean-Marc Munaretti coming to an end, we made several visits in the first week. It was my first encounter of Colina 1 prison and my first encounter with “Fenix”, from the first moment there was the highest level of respect, regardless of the language barrier. I had to laugh at the ignorance of the perception which smothers institutions such as Colina 1, you could take the group out of the prison and place them in any environment, you could not tell the difference. The reason for their sentence is irrelevant, what is relevant is the deprivation of freedom. One human being can only be judged so many times, so why judge anymore?
“How much preparation is good preparation?” In my practice, I had fallen into the pit of tight structure and rigid regurgitation of exercises in my workshops. Through discussions with Pasmi, two concepts came to surface: – 1.Willingness to be open and 2. Paradigm; the concepts were opposite to my approach. I was willing to feel the fear of leaving my comfort zone. On my first meeting with “Ilusiones”, there was no workshop plan in hand, just a mental focus of what was to be achieved. It was a pinnacle moment of my trip; the regurgitation was a barrier to my openness and removing this has improved my practice. The time of preparation was irrelevant now and in Pasmi practice it became time for evaluation.
Why? Is a question which I thought I always knew the answer to when asked about working with marginalised communities, that thought was shattered when I was asked to explain. Throughout my time in Chile, I started to question “why?” in relation to the purpose of each exercise, to the role of the facilitator. Through the reflection and a range of theoretical sessions, a new and motivated answer is starting to form, from which I never want to stop growing.
As the weeks have gone on, the relationship with the prison, the Pudahuel day hospital for adolescents “Youth Perspective” and Teatro Pasmi has continuously grown and the relationships feel like they have lasted 4 years and not 4 weeks. There is no distinction between me and the group, whether this is in Colina 1 or the Pudahuel hospital, we are all equal. The horizontal line opens up the possibility for the relationship to take place and in effect creates work which is not “my work” or “their work” but “our work”.
This short report is merely the beginning of my experience with Teatro Pasmi, four weeks of work has changed the vision of my practice. The power and ability which community theatre has is greatly underestimated in Chile. Eyes are closed to the recognition which Teatro Pasmi deserves for their commitment and motivation. In my heart and in my mind, I take all those at the Pudahuel hospital, Fénix and Ilusiones back to England. Hopefully our paths will cross again one day, in the four walls of an institution we have our own freedom.
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