Dialogue theatre
Why
The current public scrutiny on young South Sudanese Australians is impacting heavily on the community as it faces numerous challenges and discriminations while adjusting and adapting to the Australian context. South Sudan Voice is a community-driven initiative to provide the community actors with new conflict transformation tools to enable diverse South Sudanese Australian community groups to speak and listen to one another, whilst also engaging non-South Sudanese communities and agencies in dialogue towards positive change.
What
The South Sudan Voice project applies the dialogue theatre method, devised by the new Australian company, Free Theatre. Dialogue theatre has been developed in Southeast Asia since 2014 as an applied theatre method for social dialogue and conflict transformation. Each performance consists of a 2-part process: a 20-minute drama and a 90-minute dialogue, a moderated workshop involving actors and audience. Audiences participate in active listening, critical dialogue, and ideas formulation with characters provoking and mediating a discussion that is challenging, complex, and solution-oriented. This will be complimented by an online dialogue, documenting each dialogue content and extending the process into the digital sphere.
How
The creative team will complete production devising and rehearsal in early March, holding invitation performances for project partners. The dialogue theatre tour aims to meet 10-15 dialogue theatre events in West, Northwest, and Northeast metropolitan Melbourne and regional centres such as Geelong, Shepparton, Bendigo, and the Latrobe Valley. Projected audiences will include South Sudanese Australian youth, mothers, and community leaders, members of Victoria Police, local councils, schools, and health services, other community groups, and the general public. The project will be administered by South Sudan Child First Education, led by Malual Deng. The creative process will be led by Pongjit Saphakhun and Richard Barber of Free Theatre process.
