With the help of Hector Aristizabal, a theatre practitioner from Colombia, we delivered a series of unique innovative pilot workshops incorporating a drama technique known as Theatre of the Oppressed combined with our own dialogue methodology. The technique uses exercises to help participants use their bodies and senses differently encouraging personal sharing and creating theatre from those experiences. It enabled diverse people who experienced conflict to explore in a safe environment their experiences, needs and feelings; to challenge their perceptions and to be heard and acknowledged through a process of verbal and non-verbal dialogue.
Hector Aristizabalisa is a psychotherapist, activist and theatre artist who survived civil war, arrest and torture. Hector spent fifteen years utilizing Theatre of the Oppressed techniques and theatrical performance as part of the movement to end torture. He is founder of Imaginaction an improvisational laboratory which uses performing arts for community healing and social justice.
