Focus - Centre stage: how theatre plays a role in diversity training
By Adrian McDougall (May 2005 Issue)
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Theatre isn’t all grease paint and men in tights, you know. Well that’s partly it, but theatre has a role to play other than to amuse the middle classes and employ out-of-work actors. There’s something fundamental about the impact any form of live performance can have on an audience that establishes drama as an ideal means of making messages memorable and meaningful. And when it comes to communicating issues of diversity, drama seems to be an increasingly popular option.
Just look at the growing schools theatre market, or TIE (theatre in education) as it is known. Road safety, sexually transmitted diseases, drugs, bullying … you name it; where there’s an issue, there’s a play. Clearly, these are not fluffy bunny issues. The subject matter is sensitive and potentially emotive, and the learners often unwilling to learn or quick to find fault. Yet against all the odds, drama holds its own.
And so it is in the world of diversity. Diversity training is a delicate process which by its nature reveals sensitivities and pushes political correctness to its limits. And when it comes to raising awareness of the issues of diversity and embracing differences within a workforce, there’s a variety of learning techniques to hand. From tree-hugging to horse-whispering, diversity training takes many forms and achieves varying levels of success. But in the last few years, more and more organisations have turned to drama, not only to demonstrate the many facets of diversity at work, but also to address culture change on a much larger scale. ...
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