Between June and August, Xris Reardon, Director of Third Way Theatre (Melbourne), spent five weeks with PASMI. We met Xris in March 2009, when we gave a talk about PASMI at the Centre for Ideas (Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University) where Xris is doing a Masters in Community Cultural Development.

In that first meeting, Xris approached us and expressed her interest in getting to know more about our community theatre methodology, and how we instigate social change through theatre, since her work aspires to the same goal, using a range of methodologies (Theatre of the Oppressed, etc).

We wrote emails and, in the end, were able to arrange Xris’ visit and our mutual desire to exchange ideas and practice. Xris’ program was:

• Colina 1 Prison: Xris ran five sessions of theatrical exercises with the ILUSIONES Company, based on issues proposed by the participants, as well as observing the group process of the FÉNIX Company. She attended the performance of Gabriel Jiménez Espinoza’s children’s play “Trial in the great forest”, inside the prison.
• Pudahuel Adolescent Day Hospital: Xris ran a theatre workshop, and was interviewed by the young people for the in-house radio program “Voice of the Moon”. She was also able to observe the group process of this workshop.
• Participation in 4 formal sessions of Theoretical Exchange about PASMI’s Community Theatre Practice: Themes – Community, Activism, Constructivist Theory, Confrontational Pedagogy.
• Final activities of the “+M-M” project: the Final Meeting-Evaluation in El Bosque and the performances of “The lady from the sea” in the Santiago Women’s Prison.

This first formal international exchange allowed us to:

• compare our practice with others’:
• express our work methodology in a more structured way (methodology based on the systematisation of our practice combined with theoretical research). In the formal exchange sessions we were able to share this methodology with other artists and social science workers; and
• project future possibilities of exchange with Xris in Australia and/or Chile.

Thanks for your visit Xris, your openness and commitment allowed you to observe PASMI from the heart.