Training Manual

Rwandans and Americans in Partnership (RAP)
B.P. 4637
Kigali, Rwanda




Putting a Face on HIV/AIDS

Training Manual



Contents:

Introduction p. 1

Key Concepts p. 2

Key Strategies

Musical Theatre p. 3
Interactive Theatre p. 5
Forum Theatre
Character Chat
Direct Address
Candlelight Ceremonies p. 10
1 Minute of Silence p. 11
Involving People with HIV p. 12
Comedy
Imaginary Things
Integrating Traditional Dance


Guidelines for Success

General Production Issues p. 13
Writers p. 16
Composers p. 19
Directors p. 20
Performers p. 22

Appendices

Check-List for Performances p. 28

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Introduction to Putting a Face on HIV/AIDS:

When someone says “let’s put a face on [something],” it means that they want to give that [something] emotional meaning and life, to give it character, and to bring it to life. A face is usually the most expressive and emotional part of the human being. When we see someone’s face, we know their feelings and we can communicate with them, and it is often very difficult to ignore someone if you are seeing their face. Thus, when we at RAP say, “let’s put a face on HIV” we mean that we want to make HIV/AIDS an emotional, human issue for your audiences, one that they cannot ignore.

Normally, HIV/AIDS is treated like a scientific subject here in Rwanda. In schools, the subject is generally addressed in biology classes. HIV/AIDS is not usually given a human face. HIV/AIDS is usually an unemotional topic of discussion.

However, in order to truly fight against HIV/AIDS, you need more than just science. You also need heart and soul. You need feeling. You need to convince people in an emotional way to fight against the disease.

Even though people in Rwanda know about how HIV is spread and they know how to prevent HIV from spreading further, they do not change their behavior. Certainly, one reason for this lack of behavior change is that some people lack the power to implement their knowledge, such as women who are forced to have sex with men; they don’t have the power to abstain or demand condoms. But another reason is that people are ignoring HIV/AIDS because ignoring the disease because they think that ignoring the disease is easier to do than confronting it.

When Rwandan people think about HIV/AIDS the first thing that comes to their minds is “death” and they do not want to think about death and despair, so they stop thinking about HIV/AIDS. They stop thinking about how to care for people with HIV/AIDS. And, they stop thinking about how to prevent HIV/AIDS. They stop thinking about HIV/AIDS entirely and completely.

Thus, if anti-AIDS clubs throughout Rwanda can “Put a Face on HIV/AIDS” (i.e. put a human face on HIV), then they can help the Rwandan public think about HIV/AIDS in an emotional way that makes them want to confront it and overcome it.

After seeing the musical plays that you will create following your training with RAP, your audiences will not think of “death” when they hear HIV/AIDS. Rather, they will think about “overcoming death.” It is true that your plays will need to include the threat of death and the memories of people who have died of HIV/AIDS, but your energy and your emotions will convince the audience that they should no longer ignore HIV. Your emotions will encourage your audiences to confront and overcome HIV/AIDS. After seeing your presentations, when they hear the word HIV, they will think about interesting characters, who sing emotional music, and who convey convincing stories and messages about fighting against HIV and against discrimination. They will no longer simply ignore HIV, because they will sense that you care about them and their future.
Key Concepts

The following Key Concepts inform all of RAP’s strategies.

SHOW YOUR EMOTIONS!!!!!!: If there is one thing that you need to be a good actor and to convince people about changing their behavior Vis a Vis HIV/AIDS, it is EMOTIONS. You must know how you feel about HIV and communicate how you feel to the audience through music, dialogue and direct interactions with the audience.

Surprise your Audience (in a Good Way): Most people have seen many plays about HIV/AIDS. In order to get them to truly pay attention to your message now, you should try to surprise them with something a little bit different, like musical theatre or interactive theatre. If you want to try to create your own method that is very creative and surprising, great! But be careful not to shock your audience too much or offend them. When the audience is surprised in a way that makes them feel good, the audience is more likely to be open to the messages in the play, but if you shock them or offend them too much, they will not pay attention and they will leave!

Energize and Encourage Your Audience: Often your audience will need to be energized by your performance in order to receive your message. Make sure that your audience is always energetic and paying full-attention to your play. If they are not, then the actors and the MC need to perform with much more energy in order to inspire the audience. You can even do games/exercises with the audience to get them more involved. The reason why we recommend musical theatre and interactive theatre is that they really energize the audience so that they can hear your message. Traditional dance also energizes the audience but you should sustain this energy throughout the play, not just at the beginning of the play and end of the play.

Avoid Long Periods of Inactivity and Boring Speeches: It is not good to do a scene and then stop for a long period of time. Likewise, a speech that is rather unemotional or lacking in passion will take away from the power of your play. If you have to give a speech at the beginning or end of the play (or if a local authority has to give a speech) make sure that the speech is either energetic or very short! In fact, you do not have to have a long series of speeches precede your play. You can simply go to a place and start performing, perhaps with a brief introduction. However, if you use a song or a sketch as your introduction, people will come and watch and they will be thinking emotionally and creatively because a song/sketch is an emotional experience for them.

Think OUTSIDE of the HALL: It is OK to do theatre in the street, at the market, at the football field. You do not always have to be in a hall to present a play.

Create Rituals: People in general like to be part of rituals. People like to have rituals that give them meaning in their lives and that give them a place to relax and be themselves. If you perform plays regularly and repeat songs so that they can become familiar to the audience, and especially if you use candlelight ceremonies to give everything a spiritual effect, you will give your audience a ritual that gives them strength and hope!

Always Spread Hope: Even if you are dealing with a serious subject, like talking about death or sickness, you should give your audience a sense of hope. You can do this by performing your play with great talent and expertise and sensitivity. If the audience feels that you are wonderful actors and singers, they will feel hopeful even if the play is about a sorrowful subject.

Keep it Short and Clear: Make sure that your play has a clear message and that the play is short enough so that your group has the ability to rehearse it and perform it very well, even for multiple audiences in one day.

Show your Audience that you Care about them: If you do not make every effort to show your audience that you respect them and want them to benefit from you, you will not have a good effect.

RAP’s Golden Rule: NEVER MAKE FUN Of SOMEONE WHO HAS HIV: Negative stigma about HIV/AIDS is very high in Rwanda, and therefore it is of utmost importance that you never make a joke at the expense of someone who has HIV, either on stage or in public. (RAP has seen anti-AIDS club members in several schools actually making jokes that are about people who have HIV, in public! If you hear someone doing this, try to tell them that it is offensive and counter-productive). Also, in your plays, do not make the audience laugh at someone who has HIV(such as making a funny coughing noise that will provoke the audience to laugh). Remember, sometimes an audience will laugh even if you think you are being serious. Therefore, you must be very sensitive to this and find ways to avoid having them laugh at a character who has HIV. If they laugh at a character who is coughing on stage, then that character should stop coughing, immediately! RAP saw a play in Umutara once where the actors did a fabulous job throughout the entire Forum Theatre play, but when they got to the end, where the IGNORANT character gets HIV, the actor who was playing the IGNORANT character started to cough in a funny way that made the audience laugh excitedly, for at least 5 minutes. It was very important for this man to regret his actions so that the message of the play would have an emotional effect on the audience, but he chose to make the audience to laugh at his HIV+ character. Remember the golden rule : NEVER LAUGH AT SOMEONE WHO HAS HIV.
Key Strategies for Anti-AIDS Clubs

STRATEGY #1: MUSICAL THEATRE

What is musical theatre?

Musical Theatre is Drama that uses Songs to tell a Story. There can be dialogue in the play as well, but music is equally important, and probably more important than the dialogue. Some anti-AIDS clubs in Rwanda sing songs before they do a play, but that is not exactly musical theatre. In musical theatre, the songs are always linked to the story in a variety of ways.


In musical theatre, there are four kinds songs:

1. Thought Songs: Songs that represent the inner thoughts of one or more characters (e.g. “Ndi hano ndi umfubyi”). Thought Songs are normally sung by individual characters in the musical theatre play, but even though they are sung by individual characters (either alone or in teams), often there is a chorus of singers who support the individual characters during such songs with back-up music. This support comes in the form of harmonies, rhythm, or even dancing, to help create the mood for the characters to sing. Thought songs can be very useful in giving the audience information about the story (e.g. a character can sing about what has happened to him or her in the past—such as “Ndi Hano ndi umfubyi”).

2. Dialogue Songs: Songs that represent dialogue between two or more characters (e.g. “Nzakomera” or “Ndagukunda Uko Uri”). Just like thought songs, often there is a chorus of singers who support the dialogue songs. These dialogue songs can be happy songs (like a song between a man and a woman who are going to get married) or they can be tense and dramatic (like a song sung by a woman to her husband when she fears that he has been cheating on her).

3. Theme Songs: Songs on important themes linked to what is going on in the story (e.g. “We Shall Overcome”) Theme Songs are usually sung by a chorus, but there can still be individual voices that can be heard at moments in these songs.

4. Setting Songs: Songs that set a mood or create a sense of place to describe where the action in the play is taking place (e.g. “Mwaramutseo, Amakuru”) Setting Songs are usually sung by a chorus, but there can still be individual voices that can be heard at moments in these songs.


NOTE: Variety is Important

It is good to have a variety of different kinds of songs in the play: for instance, it is good to have several songs that are exciting and funny and that set the scene/place, several songs that are thematic and are sung by a chorus, and several songs that are sung by the characters (either to show their inner thoughts, or as dialogue) so that the story is linked to music.


Why Musical Theatre?

v Musical Theatre is VERY entertaining! And it is VERY emotional! When we hear the emotional thoughts of characters in musical form, it has the ability to make us cry. When we hear the happy thoughts of a character in musical form, we are much more likely to be happy too. If we want to put a human face on HIV/AIDS, it is very important to use the emotional power of musical theatre.

v Musical theatre is relatively new to Rwanda and because it is new and because people have not seen it before, it has the powerful ability to surprise audiences, in a good way! When we are surprised in a way that makes us feel good, we are more likely to open ourselves to the messages in the play.

v People can begin to see that addressing HIV/AIDS can be an exciting and productive experience, one that can make society better. For instance, fabulous, professional-quality theatre becomes a regular part of community life thanks to the fight against HIV!

NOTE: Only do Musical Theatre if you have the ability to sing with emotion and passion. You do not have to have the best voice in the world, but you should have a lot of passion and emotion when you sing.

How do you create musical theatre?

1. Write the story/play or sketch with an important KEY message and a good plot
2. Locate places in the play where songs can be developed. Remember that songs can occur where there is dialogue between two characters. Or a song can be sung by one person. (Review the 4 kinds of songs above).
3. Once you have located where the songs will go, write the words for the songs. The words for songs can be very detailed or they can be very simple. It depends on the kind of song you want to create and the message or story you want to tell with the song. It is usually best to write your song words in a poetic form, so that the words are arranged in lines with rhyming and with rhythm that can easily work with music. Remember that in a good musical theatre song, there is usually a chorus (that gets repeated often in the song) and there are verses (that usually have their own unique words and phrases).
4. Next, put music with the words.
5. Next, put gestures and dance movements with the songs.

STRATEGY #2: INTERACTIVE THEATRE

Interactive Theatre is where there is a direct engagement between the audience and the actors during the presentation of a play. There are several different kinds of interactive drama. One very useful kind is called Forum Theatre.


FORUM THEATRE:

What is Forum Theatre?

Forum Theatre is a method where audience participants (one at a time) get on the stage to help try to solve a problem in a scene in the play.


RAP’s Forum Theatre Process:

v Start with a scene during which a conflict has occurred, where one GOOD character was trying to convince another IGNORANT character to do something good, but that other IGNORANT character refused.

v The Master of Ceremony stops the play immediately after the IGNORANT character refuses completely and the GOOD character has stopped trying.

v After stopping the play, the Master of Ceremony first discusses the problem with the audience.

v Then, after the brief discussion, the MC asks the audience if there is anyone in the audience who would like to come on stage and try to convince the IGNORANT character to make the right choice. The MC asks the audience to raise hands and then the MC chooses someone from the audience to come on stage.

v The MC encourages the audience to clap for the participant who is coming on stage, in order to make that person feel good about themselves!

v The audience participant replaces the actor who was playing the GOOD character. The audience participant stands on stage and waits for the IGNORANT character (who is still being played by the original actor). The IGNORANT character enters the scene and RE-PLAYs the original scene. The audience participant tries to convince the IGNORANT character. The audience participant is supposed to try to make new arguments that were not heard in the first scene, or to try to make arguments in a new way.

v The IGNORANT character never becomes convinced, no matter how good the audience participant’s arguments are.

v The IGNORANT character finishes the scene the same way he/she finished the scene the first time with the real actor (usually by leaving the stage).

v The MC discusses the arguments that were given by the audience participant, and congratulates that audience participant for trying, usually encouraging the audience to clap for the person who tried.

This entire process can be repeated several times with new audience participants after the first participant has returned to the audience.

v The MC asks the audience if they would like to see the rest of the play.

v The play continues, showing the negative consequences of the character’s IGNORANT choice, and the regret that that character feels after s/he realizes the negative consequences.

v The regret scene should include a moment where the character directly addresses the audience and the specific members of the audience who tried to convince him/her to make a GOOD choice. During the regret moment, the character should point to the specific people who tried to help him/her make the right choice and say, “I should have listened to you.” This moment should not be too quick. It must be sincere. It must be emotional. The character should thank the audience for trying to help him/her make the right choice. The following is an example of what the person can say to the audience and the other characters in the play:

“How could I have been so stupid? What was I thinking? Why didn’t I make the right choice? I should have listened to the people who tried to talk to me. I should have listened to you. And you. And you. I know there is hope for people who have HIV/AIDS, but it is still better to try to prevent it. My life is not going to be easy now, because I have HIV. And you knew that. You tried to tell me that. And I didn’t listen. That wasn’t very smart of me. I am sorry that I did not listen to you. I know you will support me now. I know you will be my friends even now that I have HIV, and I thank you for that, but I should have listened to you before! Thank you for trying. Please promise me that you will continue to try and convince other people.”

v The character can actually ask the audience to raise their hands and/or shout out-loud to affirm that they are willing to continue trying to convince other people. The character, or the MC, can give the specific people who tried to help a small gift/prize (like a SIDA-Solidarity pin). If SIDA-Solidarity pins are available in the area, the MC can tell the rest of the audience that if they too want to wear a pin they can buy one at-cost from the actors after the play is over.


When do you do Forum Theatre?

Forum Theatre can occur as a short sketch that has been specifically created to be a Forum Theatre play, or Forum Theatre can be used within a play, even a musical theatre play.


Important Rules for Forum Theatre:

The IGNORANT character should never be convinced to make the right choice (except, of course,after it is too late). Even when the GOOD character (or audience participant) makes a good strong argument, the actor who is playing the IGNORANT character must find a way to refuse. This is important because this helps the audience come up with new ideas and new arguments. It makes them want to get on the stage and continue to make GOOD arguments. Again, it is very important that the IGNORANT character truly refuse to be convinced. Otherwise the Forum Theatre will not work.

The IGNORANT character should be able to improvise well with the audience participants and judge how long the scene should be based on the quality of the audience participant’s arguments. The IGNORANT character will always say NO to the audience participant, but the IGNORANT character should give the audience participant some time to be heard by the audience. The IGNORANT character should not simply say NO NO NO over and over again. If the audience participant is giving good advice, the actor playing the IGNORANT character should not end the scene immediately, but should rather allow the audience participant to make the good suggestions. IF the audience member is not making good suggestions, then the actor playing the IGNORANT character should take the decision to end the scene relatively quickly (after a minute or so).

If the Forum Theatre is being performed as a part of a larger play, the MC should not let too many audience participants get on stage. You do not want to lose the rhythm of the play/story. Allow 3 or 4 audience participants to get up on stage (one at a time of course) and then stop the forum theatre. If the audience still wants to get on stage and is very energetic, the MC should tell the audience that the play must continue, but the audience should really go out into public and try to convince other people to make good choices. Encourage the audience! Have them clap for themselves! Tell them that it is a good thing that so many people are still interested in trying to get on stage, even if all of them don’t get the opportunity right away!

The MC should always make the audience participant feel good about trying! Even if the argument was IGNORANT, the MC can encourage the person and tell them that they did a good thing by getting on the stage and trying their best. If the audience participant makes a BAD argument, then the audience can discuss it with the MC, but don’t let the audience criticize the audience participant. Make the audience clap for the audience participant for trying.

The audience participant and the IGNORANT character should not hurt each other! You do not want the audience participant to hurt the actor playing the IGNORANT character, and you do not want the actor to hurt the audience participant. SO, if you notice that they are touching and handling each other with force, the MC should gently tell them to only touch each other lightly, if that is necessary.

The audience member must be a real audience member (NOT an actor). If you use a real actor, you will not get the same effect. The person from the audience should not be a member of the club who is familiar with the play and should not have thought about this in advance. However, real actors can be in the audience to help encourage the audience members to go on stage in case the MC is not having good luck getting them motivated.

The “GOOD” character can use a song to try to convince the “IGNORANT” character to make the GOOD choice. The “IGNORANT” character can use a song to illustrate the “IGNORANT” character’s regret at the end of the play.

Be serious during the Regret scene: Sometimes audiences don’t want to become emotional at the end of the play. They would rather laugh. But the IGNORANT character needs to be very strong and serious about the Regret s/he feels at the end of the play. We have already stated this earlier in the Key Concepts section, but it is worth repeating here: RAP saw a play in Umutara once where the actors did a fabulous job throughout the entire Forum Theatre play, but when they got to the end, where the IGNORANT character gets HIV, the actor who was playing the IGNORANT character started to cough in a funny way that made the audience laugh excitedly, for at least 5 minutes. Instead of making the audience feel serious, he was making them feel light and funny. It was very important for this character to regret his actions so that the message of the play would have an emotional effect on the audience, but after having made them laugh so much at him, it was difficult to take him seriously when he tried to be serious at the end. Thus, this laughter ruined the entire play. Remember the golden rule : NEVER LAUGH AT SOMEONE WHO HAS HIV. Also, remember that sometimes an audience will laugh even if you think you are being serious. Therefore, you must be very sensitive to this and find ways to avoid having them laugh at a character who has HIV. If they laugh at a character who is coughing on stage during a serious moment, then that character should stop coughing, immediately! Of course, sometimes there can be funny moments in a play, and maybe there is someone coughing, and the audience might laugh, but you really need to know where the serious moments are in your play (such as the Regret Scene) and make sure that these remain serious.


How do you create Forum Theatre:

1. Write a play or a sketch (even a musical theatre play can work)
2. Pick a place in the play where there is a conflict, and where one character is noticeably making the wrong decision or choice (e.g. a Forum theatre piece could happen when a woman is trying to convince her friend to go for VCT and the audience participants would come on stage to replace the woman and try to convince the friend to go for VCT.)
3. Follow the Forum Theatre methodology.
Character Chat: Talk back sessions with the characters after the play is over. The Actors form a line on the front of the stage and the audience members are encouraged by the MC to interact with the characters (not with the actors as real people). After doing this with the characters, the MC can tell the audience that they can now ask questions of the actors and the organizing team after the play, if that is necessary.
Character Chat

Audience Question: “Why did you choose to go and speak with the woman who has HIV/AIDS? What was your motivation?”

Actor Response: “I chose to go and speak with her because she looked like she needed comfort. Because other people were treating her badly. And I realized that it felt good to help her.”

Audience Follow-up Question: “But why did you hesitate. Why didn’t you just go directly towards her. Why did you delay?”

Actor Follow-up Response: “I didn’t show her kindness at first because I thought that I should stay with my group of peers. They didn’t like her, so I thought I should just stay with them and not show her kindness. But then I realized that it felt better to go and help her, so I did.”


















Direct Address: When the MC or other Characters speak directly to the audience (They can ask the audience questions, perhaps while looking for advice, or they could be introducing something about the play to the audience directly.) Also, the Characters can sing directly to the audience and perhaps even encourage the audience to sing with them!

Direct Address Example 1

“I know I should ask him to use a condom but if I ask him to use it he will think I am a prostitute or a bad woman. What should I do?” – a character named Charlotte (speaking directly to the audience), in a play called Kunda Ubuzima


Direct Address Example 2
“Welcome to Our Town, a play about a typical Rwandan Town. I want you to meet the people in the town. Over here you will see a market. Here you will see a minibus, and here you will see the school. Isn’t this town wonderful!”—The MC speaking ddirectly to the audience at the beginnincg of the play.














General Guidelines for Interactive Theatre:

v Involve the audience in interactive theatre at only a few important points in the play. Make sure that you do not break up the drama too much with extra discussions. The story needs to have a rhythm and you can easily lose your rhythm and energy if you spend too much time discussing things within the play.


v Before you perform, the Master of Cermony (MC) and the other actors who address the audience directly must come to an agreement with the writer and/or director about where they will break-up the drama, so as to have a discussion with the audience or to begin a forum theatre event.

v Whatever issues you address, you must address them clearly and give them enough emphasis so that the audience does not forget them. Use a flip-chart and markers, or a blackboard and chalk to write down the ideas that you have discussed.

v The MC should ask strong questions that can spark good dialogue.

v Don’t give up when the audience does not respond well to your questions or when they do not respond at all. The MC must be the person to make the audience start talking and get involved

v Encourage the audience. Overall, you should give the audience a good feeling that they have accomplished a lot by interacting with you and with the play. Make sure that they feel good about what they have accomplished. Come up with some simple exercises that you can use to make them feel good, like Au Bravo Bravo!, for example.
STRATEGY #4: Candlelight Ceremonies


What are the RAP Candlelight Ceremonies?

Where the actors and audience participants alike (including PLWHA) light candles and sing songs in memory of people who have died of HIV/AIDS. Usually, someone from the club lights one candle and explains the ceremony to the audience. The first candle is usually placed on a simple piece of colored paper, or on a cloth. Other unlit candles should already be cut in half and put on the side next to the table. People in the audience are invited to come up to the table, light another candle, and, if they want to, make a statement in remembrance of someone who has died of HIV/AIDS or otherwise express themselves regarding HIV/AIDS. The person can sing or speak. If they do not want to, they do not have to say anything. The candlelight ceremony can take place before the play, during the play, or after the play. It can also take place at any other time the group would like to host a ceremony.

Why do we use the Candlelight Ceremony with the theatre?

These ceremonies build a rapore between the audience and the actors and allow the audiences to open themselves emotionally to the idea of fighting against HIV/AIDS. Candles have a very spiritual effect and if this happens every week it can add to the ritual nature of your performances.

The Ceremonies also allow the actors to be more emotional when they are performing their plays. You can even do a candlelight ceremony in private with your actors so that they are mentally and emotionally prepared to give a fantastic performance in honor of those people who have died of HIV/AIDS

“I light this candle for my mother and my father, who both died of HIV/AIDS.

--Student actor from Kunda Ubuzima, at the non-fictional candlelight ceremony before the play at Kabuga, Rwanda.In addition, the ceremonies also allow the audience to hear the songs from the plays in a new way. For instance, the song Nzakomera is usually performed in a story where the man asks the girl to marry him and the girl tells him to get a test. She sings the song to him so that he will get the test. The lyrics ask him to get a test for her, because he loves her.

Nzakomera
Nzipimisha
Nkunda ubuzima bgyanje
Kuko kunkunda

When this song is sung in the candlelight ceremony for PLWHA, it can take on a new meaning: now it means that we are going to get tested for and in memory of our friends, family, and fellow human beings who have already died of the disease.

A question you might ask: Why should we ask people to think about Death?

Your activities should not avoid discussions of death or people who have died of AIDS. There is a time and place for reflection, remembrance, remorse, even fear. We must allow people to express their feelings of sorrow and despair so that they can bring themselves relief and a sense of determination to move forward and overcome the disease. One way of doing this is through candlelight ceremonies.


When do you do the Candlelight Ceremony?

You can do the Candlelight Ceremony whenever you think it is useful for you or for your audience. The Ceremony can happen immediately before the play, or it can happen after the play. As mentioned above, you can even do a candlelight ceremony in private with just your actors present so that they are mentally and emotionally prepared to give a fantastic performance in honor of those people who have died of HIV/AIDS. If you start your play with the candles, the candles will remain lit throughout the play provided that someone is taking care to avoid a fire.


STRATEGY #5: 1 Minute of Silence

What is 1 Minute of Silence?

Immediately before beginning the play, we usually have “1 minute of silence” to pay respect to those people who have died of HIV/AIDS. We call upon the audience and actors to bow their heads and think respectful thoughts for approximately 1 Minute. Then, the 1 Minute of Silence finishes with the first song in the play, which is usually something like “Ngwino,” to inspire people to energetically pay attention to the play about HIV/AIDS.

NOTES:

The 1 Minute of Silence can also involve the lighting of at least one candle.

If you have a candlelight ceremony before the play, then you can finish the candlelight ceremony with the 1 Minute of Silence and then start the play, leaving the candles lit.

If you choose to do the candlelight ceremony during the middle of the play, and/or after the play, you can still start the play with one candle and explain to the audience why you are lighting it, along with the 1 Minute of Silence.

The candle(s) will remain lit throughout the play provided that someone is taking care to avoid a fire.

v STRATEGY #6: Integrating People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)

It is important to involve PLWHA in your plays!


Why?

Because, by involving PLWHA in your drama:

Ø Your audience will actually see that PLWHA are not despairing people, that PLWHA are hard-working, intelligent people who just happen to have a disease.

Ø Student actors and their audiences will see the genuine skills, goodness and humanity of PLWHA who have been laboring with the actors in numerous, exciting ways, immediately breaking down the myth that PLWHA are completely destitute, inactive, and sick.

Ø Actors, audiences, and PLWHA alike receive a positive sense of personal accomplishment in relation to creating such a fabulous experience in their community, and because the project relates to the fight against HIV/AIDS they will relate this sense of personal accomplishment to that very fight against HIV/AIDS!

Ø By publicly demonstrating care and support to PLWHA, you will counteract the sense of despair related to the belief that PLWHA are destitute and forgotten.

Ø By linking the popular actors and singers with PLWHA, the community will see the actors as good examples to reduce stigma.
STRATEGY #7: COMEDY

Comedy can be a very important part of every play, even a dramatic play that eventually makes people feel emotional. It is good to have funny characters and dramatic characters in the same play. And it is even good to have comedies that take place during the breaks in your plays. However, consider the following guidelines:

Never let a comedy take away from your message!

RAP has found that sometimes the comedies during breaks in the plays in Rwanda contrast with the message of the play. One popular Rwandan comedy (we’ve seen it at least 5 times) is about three guys trying to kiss a girl. The girl refuses adamantly but ultimately gets kissed, and the audience always laughs happily. However, if you are doing a play about how men should listen to women’s rights to demand a condom, or a woman’s right to say no to sex, then it is not good to put in a comedy where three guys are trying to kiss a girl and then finally they trick her into being kissed. That comedy sends a bad message in the context of many HIV/AIDS plays.

If you absolutely want to use this particular comedy about the girl getting kissed, then RAP encourages you to put this comedy into your play, with real characters, not during a break as if it is separate from the play. If you put this comedy into your play, then you can actually make it a part of your message: you can show that the boys who are trying to kiss the girl soon begin to exhibit even more risky sexual behavior, and suffer the consequences. This can be very effective, but it must be done very carefully so that the audience really understands the connection between the boys’ behavior with the girl and the subsequent behavior that leads to HIV or an STD.

Never let a comic actor distract from a serious moment in the play.

Even if the audience likes one of the characters because he/she is funny, do not allow the comic actor to distract the audience from an emotional moment in a play. We’ve said this twice before, but we will say it again because it is so important: RAP saw a play in Umutara once where the actors did a fabulous job throughout the entire Forum Theatre play, but when they got to the end, where a character gets HIV, the actor who was playing the HIV+ character started to cough in a funny way that made the audience laugh excitedly. He should have stopped coughing, but instead he chose to continue to make the audience laugh at his HIV+ character. This ruined the play because the serious moment was destroyed at the end of the play. Remember the golden rule : NEVER LAUGH AT SOMEONE WHO HAS HIV.

Put Physical Comedy into the play:

Physical comedy is popular in Rwanda, especially in the breaks in the plays. Try putting physical comedy into your play. RAP saw a comedy about a person under a sheet acting like a bird/chicken. It was very simple, but extremely funny. RAP encouraged the group to put this bird into the play somehow if possible, so that the funny bird is linked to the story, even if only very simply. So, the players made the chicken live at the house of one of the characters in the play. It was very simple, but very effective. Physical Comedy really works well. See the next strategy: “Imaginary Things” for more ideas about physical comedy.

STRATEGY #8: IMAGINARY THINGS

Actors can mime inanimate objects and allow the audience to use their imaginations!

Like musical theatre, imaginary theatre has the ability to surprise and appeal to actors and audiences alike in Rwanda.

For example, instead of using real Fanta during a scene at a bar, make the waitress enter with imaginary Fanta bottles (i.e. nothing). She can then mime the tray, then mime putting the bottles on the imaginary table in front of the customers, then mime the opening of the bottles, and pouring the fanta into imaginary glasses.

In general, RAP has found that this is incredibly popular in Rwanda, in all forms. Some particularly popular forms are the mini-bus scene, or the imaginary motor-cycle, imaginary fanta bottles, and imaginary doors.

An added benefit of this imaginary method is that props like real Fanta for drinking on stage can distract people (especially youth) from focusing on the story. Instead they start thinking about Fanta. But if it is imaginary, it pleases them and they focus on the creativity of the actors, not on their stomachs.

Animism: Audiences usually like it when animal characters are present in the play. Human actors in the play can be in the role of a talking chicken, or a regular chicken that does not talk in order to create atmosphere.

Imaginary Sounds: It is wonderful to include imaginary sounds in your plays. Audiences love hearing human beings make the sound of the minibus, or the sound of the chicken.



STRATEGY #9: INTEGRATION OF TRADITIONAL DANCE

Most youth clubs can do traditional Rwandan dance beautifully, almost without exception, and local audiences are thrilled with their talents, almost without exception. Traditional Rwandan Dancing is amazing, powerful and pleasing to watch.

However, most groups in Rwanda use this dance at the beginning of the play and maybe at the end of the play, but they do not link it to the story of the play. It is important to use this powerful art-form as much as possible so that it can help your audience follow the story and message of the play. (It is true that sometimes Rwandan groups will sing songs about HIV/AIDS when they are doing Traditional Dances. This is a good start, but you can go even further to integrate your traditional dances with the story. Here’s an example:

In Gitarama, RAP saw a play about a group of orphans who did not know what to do after their parents died of HIV. Originally, the play began with 20 minutes of songs about HIV with dancing, and then there was a 5 minute break while the actors got ready for the play, and during which the audience was bored (not engaged). Then the play began with the orphans alone at home. However, RAP suggested that after the first two traditional dances, a third traditional dance could actually show the story of how the parents died of HIV. So, the group used the dance to show how a man and a woman fall in love (while dancing together), then other dancers arrive and call them “mama and papa” indicating that the new dancers are their children. Then, the man is tempted by another woman/dancer and he dances with her for a little while and seems to be having an affair with her. It is obvious to the audience that he gets SIDA from her because she has three RED signs on her body (attached with tape) that say “SIDA” and while they dance together she takes Two of them and puts them on him. Then, while the music continues, his wife comes and pulls him away from the SIDA dancer, and then the man dances with his wife again, but unfortunately he puts one of his SIDA signs on her (implying that they have had sex again and that she now has SIDA too). So they both have SIDA, but they do not know this, so they keep dancing and slowly they get less energetic and they both lie down on the ground while the children watch. Then the first scene of the play can happen without a break in the play. Thus, by using the dancing to give an introduction to the story, the audience is engaged the entire time and the play does not lose momentum.

GUIDELINES for SUCCESS:

Regardless of your role in the anti-AIDS club, it would be useful for you to read the all of the guidelines in this training manual. For example, even though you may not be a writer, it is still good to read the guidelines for writers so that you understand the process that they go through in order to create a play. Likewise, even though you are a director, you should read the guidelines for performers because directors are in charge of making sure that the actors give good performances. Performers should familiarize themselves with the guidelines for directors because they need to understand why the directors tell them to do something.


General Production Issues:

ORGANIZATION:

All theatre groups need good organization in order to present a professional-quality production. Follow the guidelines below to understand how you can organize your group to create fantastic theatre.

Each theatre group will need the following personnel:

v Writer(s): The person or people who are in charge of researching and writing the play composing songs for the actors to sing. The writer can enlist the actors/singers to help them come-up with good dialogue, but the writer should write the dialogue onto paper in order to remember good ideas and allow for easy editing.
v Composer(s): The person or people who are in charge of writing and composing songs for the actors to sing.
v Director(s): People who are in charge of putting the play together for performance. Casting the actors/singers and making sure that the actors do a good job in their roles. The director is in charge of blocking (determining where the characters are physically positioned on the stage). The director is in charge of running rehearsals and making sure that the actors follow the directions given to them.
v Performers (Actors/Singers, including the Master(s) of Ceremony)
v Musicians
v Organizers/Producers: These people can help to publicize your play, make the production an easy experience, locate the props and costumes, and help to make sure that the audience stays under control and that the play runs smoothly.
v Stage Manager (SM): The person in charge of making sure the actors are on-time for rehearsals and performances, that all of the props are in the right places, that the stage is well organized, and that the play runs smoothly. The SM manages the play. It is good to have the SM be someone different from the director, because the director needs to focus mainly on creative issues, not on the logistics of managing the play. NOTE: Discipline is Very Important: Your club must come up with a system to enforce good discipline. If your actors are late for rehearsal, or if they talk during rehearsal, or if they use their cell phones during rehearsal, they are going to hurt your creative process. Make sure that people are disciplined. This is the Stage Manager’s job.

Note: It is generally good to have a team of people working on the play and to make sure that the people in the team have the opportunity to pose questions to each other in a democratic/fair way. Therefore it is good for the team (Director, Stage Manager, Writer, and Actors) to have a meeting often to share ideas. Use a democratic process to agree upon the rules and regulations before you start creating a play.


THE CREATIVE PROCESS:

The process that you go through as a group to create/present a play is the following:

v Research your audience and subject
v Write the story/Compose the music
v Rehearsals of the Play/Creation of the Presentation
Read-Through
Blocking
Acting Notes
v Final Rehearsals/Polishing of the Presentation
v Presentation of your Play




NECESSITIES: What do you need in order to give a good performance (i.e. to present an effective performance)?

You need:

v Good performers (who can speak and sing loudly and clearly)
v A good story
v Good songs to link with the story
v Good interactive parts of the play (and discussion before and after)
v Candles, Paper, and a Table for a Candlelight Ceremony (if necessary for your play)
v Simple but Creative Uniforms/Costumes
v Simple but Creative Props (and a good imagination so that you can do imaginary props)

You do NOT need microphones (in fact, if Microphones are not used properly they can really hurt your performance)
You do NOT need a curtain
You do NOT need fancy, expensive costumes
You do NOT need fancy, expensive props

If your group lacks resources, just use your imagination and confidence to impress your audience; remember, simple is usually better anyway! Speak to the actors in your group to find out what talents they have and if they can try to lend their talents to helping the group succeed. Here is an example of how a group of people using just their voices and their bodies can make an audience very very happy: Ntenyo, Gitarama: Club Ejo Heza’s 1st Place winning play Bira Shoboka (It’s Possible): The play begins with the group of actors entering energetically from the audience until one of the boys realizes that he forgot his guitar for the play. The other actors get angry with him and kick him away from their group. He sings sadly about how he wishes he had a guitar so that he could sing a song about Preventing HIV/AIDS among youth with his group. However, while he is singing sadly, regretting the lost guitar, he realizes that he actually is singing successfully without a guitar, and therefore he does not need a guitar! He cheers up, makes guitar noises with his voice (nanananananana) and makes an “air” guitar with his hands. Before too long, the rest of the group hear his beautiful song and join him. It is a moment of pure musical theatre bliss as they all mimick guitars in a line at the front of the stage, and sing the rousing song about Preventing HIV.

PUBLICITY: How do you inform the community, motivate the audience to attend?

A good way to spread the word about your plays is to pick a performance venue that is close to the center of human activity, like a market. Then you can perform pieces of your play in public and tell the people that they can see the entire play nearby. OR, you can perform the entire play out in the community if you would like.

You can use improvisational games to gather an audience and get them ready to watch a play, before you even begin the play: Try different games to find out which ones work best with your students and your community.

You can also use dance to build the audience. The repetition of the music and the dancing will allow the audience to gather before the important messages are conveyed in the play. Most clubs already do this very well.

EVALUATION: How do you evaluate the play to see if your message/play is having an impact on the community? (This kind of information is useful if you want to try to get funding for your group. Funders like to know if the groups that they are supporting are having a good impact on their audiences.)

Do interviews with people in the community before and after the play.
Do interviews with people in the community before and after several months of performances.
Write down the responses on paper so that you can remember them!
Interview a wide variety of people, and make sure you get information about who they are.
See the appendix of this training manual for a sample questionnaire used in an interview

Guidelines for Writers:

v Good Theatre is Well Researched: Before creating your play, you must do research with your target audience to find out what are the main issues that they need to have addressed in the play. You must know your audience and their issues. We should not assume that we know what is best for them.

v How to choose a topic? It is important not to choose too many topics, especially when you are going to be writing a forum theatre piece. Let the play focus on something specific, like discrimination. Then, take that one issue and find out all of the things you can about that subject and about the current problems related to that topic.

v Make your Plays Personal: The more you can base your play (at least in part) on true stories from your life or from the lives of the people you know, the more real your play will become to your audience and it will have a greater impact on them.

v Any good story has 5 Main Parts: (introduction, development, climax, resolution, ending): In a musical theatre story, remember that any (or all) of these 5 Main Parts could be done in the form of a song or with songs to help the audience understand what is going on or that the play is over.

v A good play for social change has several key elements:

v Choices and Consequences: It is important to show characters in your plays who need to make difficult choices. It is important to show them while they are deciding which choice to make, and when they make a choice, it is important to show the audience what the consequences were of that choice. Good choices lead to good consequences. Bad choices lead to bad consequences. Some of the consequences should be emotional consequences, such as REGRET or HAPPINESS. Remember, emotions can easily be conveyed in a SONG!
v One Main Problem/Issue: Make your message CLEAR.
v Characters on different sides of the issue: You need conflict in your play. It is good to think about having one character who always makes the bad choice, and at least one other character who tries to convince him to make the good choice instead.
v A forum theatre discussion between the opposing characters
v Transitional Characters:It is good to have at least one character who is struggling to make a decision about the good vs bad choice. This character can be the character who is originally very good, but who soon is tempted to make the bad choice. You can show them struggling with this question and then, depending on the choice the make, show the consequences of that choice.
v A variety of songs about the topic to aid in telling the story of the play
v Ideally, each HIV/AIDS play will involve some elements of outreach to associations of PLWHA, offering care, visiting hospitals, staying with HIV+ people, and then reporting back during the play. The MC of the play will perform interviews with the club members who visited with PLWHA; and PLWHA should feel comfortable introducing themselves to the actors and the audience if they would like.

v Keep it Short: It is always better to keep your audience wanting more, rather than giving them too much. Each play, or episode of a play, should be 30-60 minutes long, inlcuding the time needed for discussions.

v Keep it Simple: Do not complicate your play with too many different characters or too many different issues. Try to make the play simple so that the audience can follow it easily. Focus on one issue in each play.

v Focus on Action, not just words: When you write your play, think about giving the audience active characters instead of characters who just stand on the stage and talk non-stop. Songs can also be active. Make sure that your songs show the characters making choices and changes.

v Focus on Dialogue (2 people talking), Not Monologues (1 person alone): Only use monologues when they are needed, perhaps only a few times in the play. Otherwise, try to have 2 characters speaking to one another in order to tell the story.


Sample Outline of a Musical Drama about HIV/AIDS?

v 1 Minute of Silence
v Candlelight Ceremony with a song or two (like “Ngwino”)
v Introductory Song and Choreography that sets the place (Such as “Mwaramutseo”)
v Development (focusing in on one character’s situation and the choices he faces vis a vis HIV; include a character #2 who is trying to convince character #1 to make the good choice. Write at least one song to show the difference between the two characters and the choices)
v Interactive Discussion / Forum Theatre (focusing-in on the character’s situation and choices)
v Development/Climax (consequences of the character’s choices)
v Resolution: Regret afterwards from the character, or another event (death)
v Character Chat
v Final Song (such as “Tu Za Tsinda SIDA”)
v Candlelight Ceremony (using one candle is fine)


Additional Ideas: (These ideas should be reserved for your group after you have had a chance to learn how to create good plays)

v Write your Plays so that they can feel Regular and Familiar to the audience (like Rituals):

Regular exposure to theatre and songs can help people begin to make changes in their lives. It is better to do short plays frequently (perhaps every week or every two weeks) rather than creating one long play every two or three months. This will give your audience a routine so that they can truly make your message a part of their lives. This is why RAP has designed a way for you to sing songs that the audience can learn easily and repeat week after week. This is also why RAP has given you a model for doing a presentation that always starts with similar songs and rituals (like the candlelight ceremony). Find out what your audience enjoys and then cater your performance to their tastes. If they like to do the candlelight ceremony last, do it last. If they like a particular song and always want to start with that song, do that song first. If they like a comedy sketch that you do well, and they always want to see that as part of the play, then include that. However, even though it is good to present things that are familiar to the audience week after week (like singing the same songs at the beginning and end, or doing a candlelight ceremony), you should not perform the exact same play every week for the exact same audience!

v Try writing your play in parts/episodes (like Urunana):

Each week, or every two weeks, you can create a new set of characters, OR you can try performing your plays in parts/episodes, so that the same characters are seen week after week by the audience, and their story takes place over time. If the audience sees the same characters week after week, and if they see a story that continues over time, that can keep them interested in the plays that you are creating. However, figuring out how to cut the story into episodes is not always easy. You have to remember to give the audience enough suspense to make them desire to come back the next week to see what will happen next. You should always make sure that at least one part of the story develops enough, or resolves, during the first episode, so that the audience has something to discuss during the discussion periods. You can have one story last for only 2 weeks, or it can continue for a long time. It is easier, however, to start simply: if you want to try serial theatre, first try doing a play in 2 parts, spaced out over two weeks. For instance, if the RAP play that you saw during the training had been a serial play broken into two parts, then, during the 2nd week the audience could find out what happens to Kagwa (the orphan boy who in the first episode decides to go and have sex despite all of the audience participants who try to convince him not to do so during the forum theatre). The audience can see the consequences of Kagwa’s actions during Part II on another day. The possible problem with this approach, however, is that some members of the audience might not be able to come back, and they might want to find out more about a particular character did right away. You must judge whether your audiences are able to come back week after week, or if it is better to try to accomplish everything during one part. Serial theatre can be very effective if it is done well, but you need to be very creative to make it work well. A good rule is that if you raise questions about a character in Episode #1, then you should try to show the resolution of that character’s situation in Episode #2. Then you can start to raise questions about a different character in Episode #2 that will then be answered in Episode #3.



Guidelines for Musical Theatre Composers:


v Parts of a Song: The different parts of a song are: verse, chorus, bridge (note, not all songs have all 3 parts; a theme song, might just have a chorus, or a chorus and a bridge)

The Verse(s): A Verse is the part of the song where the listener is introduced to the theme of the song or to the story/thoughts of a character in the play. Verses usually have the same music but different lyrics, because they are moments in the song where the listener gets valuable information about the song. Verses help to develop the song.

The Chorus: A chorus is a very memorable and emotional part of the song that is usually repeated after verses. The words and the lyrics of the chorus are usually the same throughout the play. The chorus needs to have a MEMORABLE MELODY! This is the part of the song that most people will remember. See “Ndi Hano Ndi Umfubjyi”.

The Bridge: A bridge is a very dramatic part of a song that shows a change in the song—it highlights where the thought of the character(s) is changing. See “Kwihangana” from Ishuri Ryacu).

Note: try to analyze one of your favorite songs. Can you find the verses? The Chorus? The bridge?

v How to make music without the assistance of microphones/tape-recorders (acappella): You don’t need to have microphones or tape recorders to create good music. You can create your own back-up music using your voices, your drum, your clapping, your mouths (making rhythm sounds). This will surprise your audience in a good way so that they want to listen to you.

v How to compose songs:

1. You need to determine the Purpose/IDEA of the song. You need to first understand why you want to create a song. Ask yourself the following questions: “Is this song going to be a song for a group of people (a chorus) or is it a song for a specific character in the play to sing? Will this song be a thought song, or a theme song, or a dialogue song, or a setting song? What is the main idea of this song?”

2. Write the lyrics of the song first, making different parts of the song possible even before adding music. Make sure that the song tells part of the story of the play, or that it expresses the ideas and emotions of the characters. Remember, you can use a thought song or a dialogue song to show how a character changes his/her mind, or influences another person to change his/her mind.

3. Compose the music/melody for the different parts of the song.

A note about using solo singers and groups of singers: Even if you are doing a thought song or a dialogue song with individual singers, it is possible to have a group of singers support the individual singers. The chorus of the song is generally where a group of singers joins the lead singer and sings the actual words of the song in a very powerful and emotional way. During the verses, the group of singers generally sings mood music or back-up music, not usually the words of the song, but there are exceptions.
Guidelines for Directors:

The Director is responsible for the CREATIVE PROCESS that leads to the final product of the play. The director is responsible for:

v Casting the Play: The process of choosing your actors is called “Casting.” The director and the writer should work together to choose the actors for the play. When you are casting the play, think about the talents that the people have and also their level of discipline. Discipline is a very important thing for people in theatre. If you don’t have discipline, you will never fully reach your audience.

v Rehearsals: All actors and the director should be on-time and even they should be early so that they can warm up and be ready to perform at the rehearsal. They should pay attention always, turn off their cell-phones, write down on paper all of the notes given to them by the director. They should also be active and pose questions to the director when they have a problem or question. The first rehearsal should be a read-through of the play. Make sure the writer has written the dialogue of the actors down on paper so that people can begin to understand their characters. Then start blocking the play. Then start giving the actors their notes about how they can make the acting in the play better. Normally, the first rehearsals will be interrupted by the director to give frequent notes. However, as the play becomes better, it is good for the director to let the actors run through the play so that they can feel the play in its whole form. When the actors are running the play, the director and writer should be taking notes to give to the actors after the run-through. When the director talks to the actors, they should be sitting close to the director (perhaps in a circle) so that they can listen carefully to the director.

v Doing Theatre games and Warm-ups: Before you begin your play, it is important to do some theatre games and some warm-up exercises. These exercises are not just for your body, they are also for your voices, your minds, and your hearts even! It is important to also do these activities as a group, because they will create a sense of teamwork before you do the play. If your group does not show good teamwork, the play will never be as successful as it could be. Of course, these games and exercises should be carried out in private before you see your audience.

v Blocking: Physical Positions on the Stage: It is important that your actors be positioned on the stage so that they can be seen by the audience (the actors should be facing the audience most of the time). In addition, you can place them on the stage so that they look appealing to the audience and that their movements show action on the stage, not just standing in one place or sitting in a row on a bench. Use Space Wisely and Creatively (find out how to surprise your audiences with a good use of spacing—i.e. where you place your actors on the stage.)

v Keep it Professional (well organized): The director must insist that the actors create a play that is disciplined, well-organized, clear to the audience, and precise in its music and dance. Musical Theatre and Forum Theatre require a lot of concentration. The good news is that when you perform these plays with professionalism, your audience will be very impressed and interested in watching and listening.

v Review different theatre techniques regularly so that you can keep them in mind as you are making decisions about how you will direct the play.

v Work with all of the other people to make the play look and sound good. Talk to the writer and the composer. The director might even make suggestions about changing songs.






Guidelines for Performers:


1. GOOD COMMUNICATION

The first thing to remember is that performing a play is a way of communicating with other people, namely the audience. And the audience can communicate to you too.

Remember, the audience wants communication! They want to get communication from you and they will give it back to you as well.

During a play the audience will look to the actors first to get good communication. If you don’t give them good communication, they will stop watching and they will start talking to their neighbor, or they might even leave.

If they are not watching you at all times, then you are not doing your job well. You should be aware of what the audience is doing so that you can know that you are communicating well to them.


2. GOOD VOICES and GOOD BODIES

We can communicate with the audience by using our bodies and our voices. Therefore, we must make sure that our bodies and our voices are in good working condition before we can use them to communicate.


THE BODY:

Be very specific in your body movements on stage. Be selective. Do not use too much movement. Too much movement while you are talking or giving a song can be distracting, unless of course it is a dance where you have to move a lot.

We can make sure our bodies are in a good condition through safe physical exercises and stretching, as well as fun games and exercises that allow us to explore our body’s potential:

v 1 to 8
v Mirrors
v Human Sculpture
v Invisible Gifts
v Invisible Ball
v The Leading Body Parts
v Walk Like an Animal
v Inner Dancealogue
v Circle Walk and Stop
v Ibihaza Ibichimbo


THE VOICE:

Speak clearly and loudly on stage: Breathe well to get power for your voice, and use your mouth to make your speeches very clear. When you feel that your energy is going down on stage, just take a nice deep breath and your power will come back.

We can make sure our voices are in good condition through vocal exercises and games that allow us to explore our vocal range and potential.

v Ibihaza Ibichimbo
v Hey Stay Away
v Human Chord
v Throw the Ball
v Inner Song-alogue

Because we are trying hard to communicate a message to the audience at all times, remember that when we are on stage we want the audience to understand everything that we are doing and saying. This means that we must ARTICULATE our MOVEMENTS and our SOUNDS. We must make our sounds and movements clear to the audience. And we must speak loudly and slowly so that the audience can understand each word.

Some specific vocal ARTICULATION exercises are:

v RA PA TA KA
v Tongue Twisters (Various)
v Puh Tih Ka, Buh Dih Guh


VOICE AND BODY:

It is sometimes hard to use your body and your voice well at the same time, but obviously you must use them both at the same time.

Luckily, most warm-up games combine communication of both the voice and the body so that you can practice using both the voice and the body together.

Here are a few suggestions:

v 1 to 8
v Name Game
v Voice and Movement Game
v Follow the Leader
v Follow the Words
v Body Parts with Sounds
v Walk Like an Animal with Sounds


3. GOOD SPATIAL AWARENESS:

Whether we are communicating with our bodies or with our voices, it is very important to think of the stage as a picture. If we are on stage, we are a part of the picture, even if someone else is speaking. The audience is still looking at us, because we are a part of the entire picture.

We must understand the importance of spatial awareness. We must know where we are on the stage at all times and we must know where the other people are on the stage. This is important for two reasons: (A) Safety: we must not hurt our fellow actors or the audience, and (B) Communication: we cannot communicate effectively with the audience if we cannot be seen by the audience—therefore we should not block other actors or turn our backs to the audience unless we are told to do so by the team creating the play. In order to get a better sense of Spatial Awareness, we can use the following instructions/games:
v Stage Lay-Out
v In-Between
v Fill the Space
v Friend and Foe
v On the Line


4. GOOD TEAMWORK: Trust and Listening

When we are on stage, we are always part of a team. Even though we might play individual characters and we might be speaking alone on the stage, we are always a member of a team. This is a good thing because we don’t have to feel alone on the stage, even if we are speaking by ourselves.

Even though we know that teamwork is important, sometimes we are tempted to think that we are alone on the stage and that we are the best! This is never true. Even though some actors are very good individual actors, they try to STEAL the SHOW by not listening to their fellow actors. When they do this, they look BAD, and the play suffers! Therefore, teamwork is absolutely necessary.

In order to become a good team, it is necessary to trust one another and listen to one another. We must listen to each other and trust each other on the stage in order to make the play work well. Listening is part of teamwork. We can build our listening and teamwork/trust skills with the following exercises:

Trust Exercises:

v Human Knot
v Catch your Partner
v Walking Blind

Listening/Concentration Exercises:

v Walk, Lie-Down, Get-up
v Count to 25 and 50


5. IMAGINATION and CREATIVITY

Imagination and Creativity are the keys to writing and performing good plays. We can expand our imagination and our creativity by doing fun but serious games and exercises like the following:

v Animating the Object
v Animating the Floor
v Jumping the Charcoal
v Collective Story Telling #1 (Phrases)
v Collective Story Telling #2 (One word at a time)
v Freeze Tag
v The Environment Game
v Inner Thoughts
v Emotional Replay


6. INSTINCTS

It is very important to understand that sometimes we have to rely on our instincts and not just our ideas/minds. We can begin trusting our instincts with the following games:

v Short – Shorter – Shortest
v On the Line


7. CONFIDENCE/PRESENCE and FOCUS

In order to be able to communicate effectively on the stage, we must also build our sense of self-confidence as a performer, which is known as presence. We can increase our presence on the stage through the following games and exercises:

v The Point on the Wall

This is also a good way to develop your sense of FOCUS. Every character has a focus. In every song, the character is singing to someone or something. In every speech the character is speaking to someone or something even if it is just the audience. The character has a focus and the character wants something.


8. EYE CONTACT

It is very important to understand the importance of the eyes. It is very difficult to communicate anything effectively if we are not using our eyes (the eyes might be closed, especially when we are crying or sad or frustrated, but they are still working and conveying emotion). This idea can be reinforced by using the following exercises:

v Follow the Eyes
v Shun the Look
v Emotions without Eyes/Faces


9. SILENCES

We must remember that sometimes it is more powerful to have SILENCE on the stage that it is to have sound.


Guidelines Specific to Acting:

1. Know your Character

In general, when you are playing a character in a play, you should know as much as possible about that character, even if the information about that character is not found in the script. You should imagine/make-up the information for yourself. The reason why this is important is that if you are confident that you know who you are playing, then your audience will believe your performance. SO, you should know many exciting details about your character, such as what he/she ate for breakfast, where he/she slept the night before, who is your character’s mother and father, what is your favorite color, etc. This is information that you will have to imagine mostly. You should do this for every character you play, and you should write down your ideas in a book.


2. Know Your CHARACTERS’ FOCUS

The characters that we are playing always have a FOCUS or GOAL. They have immediate needs and they are usually trying to GET something from someone or to CHANGE something about someone or something. The character always has a specific goal (whether he or she is speaking to himself, to other characters, or to the audience). The character tries to accomplish his or her goal with different TACTICS (ways). When we have written our scenes each actor playing a specific character must determine what that character’s FOCUS is and the TACTICS that character uses to accomplish his/her goal. In order to get used to this idea of goals, we can analyze each scene/song that we are in, and decide what our goals are for that scene/song, and how we are trying to accomplish those goals.



Guidelines specific to Singing:


v Remember: Singing = Communication (When you are singing, you are always communicating an emotion or a message).

v When you are working on your song, you can speak the words of the song out loud, like a monologue and this will allow you to think of your song like a speech. This is important because you need to sing your song with great intelligence and feeling.

v Always breath with your Diaphragm, the muscle near the bottom of your stomach.

v You should always be singing to someone! Your character might be singing to another person on stage, or even to the audience directly. Sometimes your character will sing to him/herself!

v You should always know where your character is when he/she is singing the song. You should know the important parts of the story that led to your song. You should put this story in your mind when you are going to sing.

v Let the EMOTION be the foundation. The most important thing about a song is the emotion with which you sing it. If you don’t have the right emotional commitment to the song you will fail, even if you have a good voice. You must use your emotions to sing. Often, people with poor voices will be able to sing much better when they use their emotions. This is true in religious ceremonies, where people begin to sing and express themselves with passion and emotion. Musical theatre is passionate and emotional.
Check List for Your Theatre Productions:

(To be used by Directors, Writers, Organizers/Producers especially)

Before the Play Starts:

Do you have everything you need for the play? Do you have Candles? Do you have condoms if you are speaking to an older audience about condoms?

Do you have the materials you need to make interviews with the audience after the play is over (such as a questionnaire, pens, paper)?

Are your actors on-time?

Are your actors warmed-up? Have you done exercises with them to make sure they are ready to perform well?



During the Play:

Can you hear all of the actors?

Can you see all of the actors faces?

Do the songs make you feel emotional inside?

Do the actors create good pictures with their positions on the stage?

Do the actors speak with confidence?

Do the actors sing with confidence?

Does the audience look interested in the play?

Is the audience talking during the play or is the audience really paying attention to the play?



After the Play:

Do the audience members seem interested in talking to the actors more?

Can you tell if the audience is excited about what they saw?

Are they interested in answering questions in an interview?
Sample Audience Feedback Form A


1. How old are you? What is your profession? What is your gender?


2. What were the main lessons / messages of the play?


3. What did you like about the play? What were your favorite scenes? What were your favorite characters? What were your favorite songs? Explain.


4. Did you learn anything new by watching this play?


5. Would you like to invite your friends/family to come see this play? Explain.


6. Do you know anyone who has been in a situation like the characters in the play? Are these real problems? Does this happen in Rwanda?
Sample Audience Feedback Form B

Are you FEMALE or MALE? How old are you?_______

What was the main message of the play today? ____________________________________________

Do you think the message is relevant to your life or to the lives of other Rwandans today?_________

Would you like to find out what happens to the characters in the future?_________________________

Which characters are you interested in knowing more about?__________________________________

On a Scale from 1-10, please rate the singing and music in the play: ___________________________

On a Scale from 1-10, please rate the overall play (both the message and entertainment):___________

Other Comments:


Are you FEMALE or MALE? How old are you?_______

What was the main message of the play today? ____________________________________________

Do you think the message is relevant to your life or to the lives of other Rwandans today?_________

Would you like to find out what happens to the characters in the future?_________________________

Which characters are you interested in knowing more about?__________________________________

On a Scale from 1-10, please rate the singing and music in the play: ___________________________

On a Scale from 1-10, please rate the overall play (both the message and entertainment):___________

Other Comments:
Putting a Face on AIDS
Sample Inteview Questions (To Be Used BEFORE and AFTER the Plays in your Community)

1. Do you feel comfortable talking about HIV/AIDS?

2. Why do you think HIV/AIDS is spreading in Rwanda?

3. Name three ways that someone can protect themselves against HIV/AIDS?

4. Have you ever been tested for HIV/AIDS?

5. Do you want to be tested for HIV/AIDS?

6. Do you know anyone with HIV/AIDS?

7. Would you consider visiting with someone with HIV/AIDS?

8. Do you know where people with AIDS can get help?

9. Would you volunteer to help someone with HIV/AIDS?

10. If you had HIV, would you feel comfortable telling other people?

11. Is there anyone in your family who has HIV/AIDS?

12. Can you hug someone who has HIV/AIDS?

13. Can you eat with someone who has HIV/AIDS?

14. Can you sit with someone who has HIV/AIDS?

15. Is talking about Gender important to the fight against HIV/AIDS? Kuvuga ku buringanire hari icyo byakunganira mu kurwanya SIDA ?

16. Do you think men respect women’s needs completely?

17. Do you think women should have the right to say no to sex?

18. What do you think of first when someone says the word HIV?

19. What do you think of first when someone says the word AIDS?

20. Is there a difference between HIV and AIDS? If yes, what is the difference?

21. Do you feel you have the power to protect yourself against HIV?