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LaurenSage Browning What a Riot Response

What strategies did she employ in her process of making in play with the youth? What approaches resonated with you? How was the play relevant to this specific community? What questions might you ask Mady and why? 


One strategy Mady used was the revival of the Joker System. A play that can be linked to the Theater of the Oppressed. She also integrates  other classic Boal structures (such as a nod to Greek Theater, which can be seen in the "Chorus" in "What a Riot!" She used the Joker System as an avenue for approaching and engaging intervention and the steps toward intervention. This was done through the stimulation of encounters and interactions with people who would be considered "other" to us.

I resonated with her acceptance and awareness of her own outsiderness and how that brought her into a heightened state of Active Listening. I think this approach to theater creating is so fresh, rare, and beneficial. To make a voice on paper, you have to first listen to a voice in life. 

I would be curious to know more about how Mandy first gets involved with a community, and what the preparation may or may not look like. I am curious how much it is possible to prep for something of creation. I am also wondering what she does when the collaborators have no desire to perform.

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