As your participants enter this session they may feel overwhelmed by all they have learned and their ability to put it all together.

So you need to work to ensure their confidence. Let them know that they can fit it all together and make a real Forum Theatre event.

Use your time well today and give them pep talks as they do each part. It is still a workshop. Do not expect perfection and don’t blame them if they forget something - that’s how they will learn. Be prepared to step in, or call out reminders as they are doing their workshop performance for others.

And at the end of the day let them know how well they have done and that from here they will learn more and more by doing it and refining it.

Talk about the future and remind them of the change they want to make.

Let's join them to do the activities below:

1. Follow the leader

• Everyone stands in a circle.
• The first person, A, is the leader and starts a series of simple movements in a slow steady rhythm.
• Others will follow him or her till the facilitator says “Next”, then the person on the left-side of A becomes leader and begins his/her series of movements, others follow him/her, so on.
• Each individual has to make their own movements, no movement should be repeated by anyone.
• Music played during the whole activity.

2. Character hot seat

Here we use hot seating when a character is already in development to deepen their knowledge of the character, and to help them on the path of discovery. It is a simple technique of interviewing someone about themselves, and is important because it is a cooperative exercise with the group – not a solo discovery.

• Place a chair – the hot seat – in front of the group.
• One after another each person developing a character sits in the hot seat - the must enter the space as their character not as themselves.
• You may ask them to introduce themselves.
• Then anyone in the group can ask questions of them, and they answer in the voice of the character.
• Some questions may relate to areas of the character already known e.g. events which happen in the story or play.
• Most questions, however, should be to build up knowledge we cannot know from the play; about the character’s background, likes and dislikes, political persuasions etc.
• The actor has to come up with answers and, surprisingly, they normally do. Some may be answers the actor has already thought about, but many decisions have to be made on the spot, possibly bringing answers from the actor’s subconscious.
• If the actor cannot find an answer (this is rare) then at least she/he knows which areas need consideration or research.
• Of course the art of questioning must be constructive. You are trying help them discover and communicate their character. So don’t be over aggressive in your questioning and give them time to answer.
• By the end everyone should know more about their character and this will help how they react in the interventions.

3. Reflection on the previous sessions

• Think about how the MC fits into the play
• Re-visit the whole sequence as it passes from MC to performers.
• Consider how the actors react to audience interventions.

4. Preparation for the pilot forum theatre (in small groups)

• Ask groups to draw lots for the order to do pilot forum theatre performances.
• Give them 20-30 minutes for preparation.

5. The first pilot forum theatre to be performed.

Invite the first group to perform their forum theatre play.