QUEERING Psychodrama

The efficacy of Forum Theatre, a style of theatre founded by Augusto Boal in which audience members are encouraged to interrupt the action of a piece in order to devise a more satisfactory outcome, is undeniable in terms of inspiring social activism throughout its history; however, my involvement with one of my projects on the MA Advanced Theatre Practice at Central led me to question its propriety in my own practice, socially-engaged theatre in various forms (i.e. installation, performance art, applied settings), that is heavily influenced by and structured around Halberstam’s theories of the ‘queer art of failure’. By making the personal involvement of audience members and their implementation of changes on stage the prerequisite for the efficacy of Forum Theatre, it perpetuates the binary of success and failure. Framing outcomes as ‘more’ or ‘less’ satisfactory places audience members against each other, as well as performers. Consequently, the environment becomes one of competition where those in the space are considered to be either ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than each other, where some will succeed and some will fail. 

Conversely, psychodrama, developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D., aims to develop communication, self-awareness, and problem-solving skills by means of creative discovery whereby improvisation techniques are applied in the context of playful experimentation (Blatner, 2007: 153-154). Moreno claims that creativity is most effectively produced through the encouragement of spontaneity and endorses the use of improvisation (Blatner, 2007:154), which allows creative exploration of areas that are ordinarily considered inutile, areas “where simplistic standards of correct and incorrect, right and wrong, competent and incompetent, and serious or playful are somewhat ambiguous” (Blatner, 2006). 

The key difference between psychodrama and Forum Theatre then lies in the substratum of their respective styles of audience engagement. Rather than being encouraged to suggest a “more satisfactory outcome” through manipulation of the piece (Sullivan, Burns, & Paterson, 2007: 221), those acting as an audience for the individual exploring a problem through the psychodramatic method are asked to share instances from their own lives that resonate with the experience the former person shared through their improvised exploration. This practice, termed ‘The Sharing’, “reduces the vulnerability of the protagonist to people’s judgements, no matter how much they might be disguised as sincere efforts to help” (Blatner, 2007: 160). Though the groundwork of psychodrama urges the acceptance of ambiguity and failure through its attempt at replacing the hierarchical relationship that is typical between performers and spectators with a more egalitarian system, the internal oppression caused by the cultural fear of failure, perpetuated through “either-or” structures, still poses an obstacle for practitioners wishing to engage individuals using psychodramatic methods (Blatner, 2006). However, through the practice of amalgamating psychodrama and queer theory, or ‘queering’ psychodrama, I argue that this impediment can be surmounted. This is the practice and research I am ever exploring in an effort to offer an original contribution to knowledge and the theatre of tomorrow.

RESOURCES

Halberstam, J. (2011). The Queer Art of Failure, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina: 87-121.

Blatner, A. (2007). ‘Psychodrama, Sociodrama, Role Playing, and Action Methods’ in Blatner, A. and D. Wiener. (eds.) Interactive and Improvisational Drama: Varieties of Applied Theatre and Performance, New York, iUniverse, Inc: 153-163. 

Sullivan, J., M. Burns, and D. Paterson. (2007). ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ in Blatner, A. and D. Wiener. (eds.) Interactive and Improvisational Drama: Varieties of Applied Theatre and Performance, New York, iUniverse, Inc: 218-229. 

Blatner, A. (2006). ‘‘Inhibitions and Resistances to Drama’ (Webpage Supplement) for Blatner, A. and D. Wiener. (eds.) Interactive and Improvisational Drama: Varieties of Applied Theatre and Performance. http://www.interactiveimprov.com/inhibitions2drama.html  (accessed 06.04.18). 

Muñoz, J. (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New York University Press.