One of the most popular workshops at the Spring 2010 Encounter Alumni Retreat was a session in Forum Theater, an exercise in creative and collaborative problem solving. In a FT forum, a group acts out a typical scene that embodies a shared struggle faced by their community. After enacting it before the community, members of the audience discuss the play and the struggle that it represents. Led by a facilitator, they begin to imagine ways that the play could be changed to create better outcomes. At that point the scene is replayed and the audience members are transformed into “spect-actors” who can replace characters in the scene and improvise ways to improve it. This process, thought of as a “rehearsal for real life,” allows community members to brainstorm, assess, and practice alternative ways of meeting the challenges they face in their work and daily lives. Facilitated by Dr. Eyal Rabinovitch.
