Applied Theatre & Improv

The continuous increase of social and economic conflicts throughout the planet has also led to an increase in the number of groups and applied theatre companies bound to work with the communities. There’s a rise in the number of people with an interest in developing the skills to be able to practice it in an optimal way with the goal of fulfilling the social function of the applied theatre.

Playback Theatre

Playback Theatre is one of the many forms of applied theatre and my main tool. There are many ingredients for a Playback Theatre session: a conductor, music, actors… and real stories brought up from the audience. Those sessions normally are oriented to a specific social collective. We work and improvise from the stories, always treating them with respect and trying to honour the narrator.

I’ve worked with P.T. mostly in the academic background, using it with future social workers and teachers. Also with high school students using P.T. as a tool for conflict resolution.

I taught P.T. for other emerging groups in other parts of Spain such as Zaragoza and Barcelona. Introduced Playback Theatre to the Belfast Improv community with two lengthy workshops at 2019’s Belfast Improv Festival. Also, I’ve been workshop facilitator in many P.T. gatherings and I brought a poster presentation to the 2017 Asia-Pacific Playback Theatre Gathering in Japan. Tight with the Iberian School of Playback Theatre and member of the organization committee of the Iberian Playback Theatre Gathering since it’s first edition in 2018.

Collective Creation, theatre in education

The collective creation has been, and is, a powerful tool to manifest social concerns in turbulent times. The main reason it was created was to expose a situation of injustice or social discomfort, as indicated by Augusto Boal in his writings on the theatre of the oppressed. However, in relatively rich countries like ours, we are closer to collective creation as a mere tool of dramatization used on theatre workshops where the final goal is an audience-oriented show. Is the original essence of collective creation in the first world countries de-virtualized? Not really. The collective creation, as a method of expression of common concern, can not only be used as a tool to become aware of certain social and/or contemporary political situations. Its function is more than legitimized as long as there is an intention to communicate. As long as there is an interest in showing the group’s vision on a specific topic.

Corporate Training and Communication Skills.

Since 2016 I’ve worked for several companies bringing improv as a powerful tool for developing group dynamics and working empathy with the customers, improving the communication engaging into richer and smoother transactions and sales. Also, involving the workers in other areas in bigger companies has been crucial for the employee to get an understanding of the major picture, knowing what it means to be in any of the links of the chain.