Conflict Theatre at UBC provides a wide range of offerings for within and outside of our Community of Practice. You can subscribe to our Community of Practice Newsletter to find out when these events are coming up by emailing conflict.theatre@ubc.ca.
Conflict Theatre Performances (10+ people, 2+ hours)
Conflict Theatre Performances typically happen three times a year and are an interactive theatre experience that lets audience members reflect on conflict, recognize shared struggles, and rehearse new strategies. In this experience, cast members volunteer from our Community of Practice to bring a conflict in front of an audience of 40+, performing a play that represents real stories of conflict from the UBC workplace while audience members are invited to intervene to resolve the story. There are multiple plays to choose from and attendees take part based on comfort levels. These events facilitate a way to engage in conflict and work through problems without the high-stakes of real life.
Check it out at OUR NEXT PUBLIC PERFORMANCE on FEBRUARY 21st.
Community Of Practice Sessions (12+ people, 2+ hours)
Our Skill Development workshops use a series of embodied exercises to build capacity for constructive engagement with conflict. Participants reflect on personal challenges, interpersonal dynamics, and systemic structures through activities and games that offer a new way to look at old patterns. It is a great introduction to some of the ideas and strategies of Conflict Theatre, which can be customized to fit team needs. Some of these activities include Cops in the Head, Rainbow of Desire, Fear Protector, and more!
Taking place on the second Monday of each month, these Community of Practice sessions are open to all, check our blog for more information or email conflict.theatre@ubc.ca to join!
Cops In The Head (15+ people, 2+ hours)
Have you ever been in a conflict and found yourself unable to speak or act in the way you’d like to? This is a common experience across all sectors of our complex, modern work-world.
Cops In The Head is an interactive theatre practice from Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Pressed that invites participants to recreate the circumstances of an unresolved internal or external conflict and asks other courageous audience members to intervene in the action and become “antibodies” for the negative voices and thoughts (aka Cops in the Head”) that prevent us from showing up the way we’d like to. Participants act out a real story of conflict (solicited from the group) and then explore the origins of those “voices” to reflect on how personal history influences us during moments of conflict and sustains negative patterns. then, we consider how to counter those negative influences by rehearsing alternative situations and thought processes.
Through this process, groups, teams, and communities can develop deeper empathy for others and themselves and “rehearse” new strategies for loosening the grip of negative self-talk and belief. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of some of the common struggles that make us human.
Rainbow Of Desire (15+ people, 2+ hours)
Have you had an event in your work life that has haunted you for days, weeks, even years?
Rainbow Of Desire can be held during or outside of a Community of Practice session and is an opportunity to understand how our personal fears and desires can create both internal and external conflict. To begin, participants act out a real story of conflict (solicited from the group) and then we deconstruct the internal struggles of the people in that conflict. By the end of the session, participants put their new knowledge into action by rehearsing alternative endings to the story of conflict, based on a deeper understanding of what incited that conflict.