Making Theatre - The Winter/Summer Institute

Video from WSI's 2008 Institute in Lesotho
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Video from WSI's 2006 Institute in Lesotho
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WSI is developing a three-phased collaborative creative process: gathering information/accessing material; generating improvisational responses to the material and to participants' own experiences; and then shaping the work into public performance. Although our work is issue-based, we strive to move outside "message" theatre, building our performances through a dynamic, interactive process that weeds out anything that doesn't make us laugh or pull us in or cause us to think.

This collaborative process is set in motion months before we gather in Lesotho. Through the use of shared resources and materials (books, films, articles), Institute participants begin to investigate the agreed-upon focus. Once everyone arrives in Lesotho, the exploration continues via presentations by colleagues, community organizers, medical personnel, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and people living with HIV. This enables WSI to establish a shared platform from which our multicultural group can work to create fresh, actor-driven, visually compelling theatre.

In 2008, WSI's primary preparation sources were South African journalist Jonny Steinberg's book Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey Through Africa's AIDS Epidemic (also known as Three Letter Plague in the RSA) and New York science writer Helen Epstein's The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa.

The resulting performance, It's Just You and Me...and My Wife and Your Boyfriend, was performed on the National University of Lesotho campus and in the capital city of Maseru. We then traveled to the impoverished mountains of Lesotho's Malealea Valley where we performed for 200 villagers in front of the community health clinic where HIV tests are given.

The performance was the first step in community dialogue and collaboration with village residents. Post-performance, there was a facilitated, bilingual (English/Sesotho) discussion with the audience, and then 30 villagers began work with WSI actors and faculty. After dividing into three groups, each with enough Sesotho/English speakers to translate, the next five days were spent in rehearsal with village participants to improvise scenes based on their responses to the performance.

In both 2006 and 2008, WSI's final performance took place at The Malealea Festival, an event co-sponsored by WSI and the Malealea Trust (a community development organization) and the Malealea Lodge. The event draws people from the surrounding villages. It's Just You and Me...and My Wife and Your Boyfriend was performed for an audience of more than 600 villagers and two chiefs.

2009 WSI Process PDF

For a detailed look at how we do what we do please click here and a PDF including our process and related sourcing (personal testimony, theatre games, presentations, music, dance etc) will open in a separate window, which you may read online or download to your hard drive.

Upcoming WSI Events

Faculty/Alumni Conference in Lesotho, July 2010
New York City Weekend Residency, October 2010
Institute in Lesotho, June-July 2011

Thanks for your ongoing support!