Acting out — intergenerational theatre on life education

Pandemic seems to be a distant memory now, but its “aftermath” still haunts us. Theatre educator Kennie observed that her students act differently in class. “As they lacked social interaction for three years, their social skills, self-awareness and confidence are relatively lower.” She is also concerned about two post-pandemic phenomena, “First is the emigration wave, in which many elderly left behind in Hong Kong; then is the suicide rate for students and elderly — the former is particularly alarming.”

Seniors and youths join hands to find the meaning of life

For various reasons, different generations feel lost, but they face the same psychological needs and fears, such as loneliness and insecurity. Capitalising on her profession, Kennie tries to bring the two generations together so that they can keep each other company and open up. With the idea to explore the meaning of life through applied theatre, she created the social innovation project “Life Harmony”, which was selected as one of the Incubatees of Impact Innovation Lab, and received The Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund. The project invites students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) as actors, and left behind elderly as audience, to go on an inner quest via Process Drama and Playback Theatre.

Distancing from reality, daring to express

Unlike conventional stage performances, applied theatre focuses on listening and reacting, with intensive interaction. For example, in Process Drama, participants are invited to imagine themselves in the story, as they follow the script and experience the roles of different characters, and then guided by the facilitator to reflect on their experiences. “With life education as the theme, we would like them to look for the meaning of life, their own identity and others’.” During the process of reflection, actors are encouraged to speak their mind, or write a diary as the character, then read it as another and put down their response in a letter. Kennie thought that this kind of distancing oneself is similar to how we perceive the news. “In theatre, we often look at the real world from an outsider perspective, keeping a distance from reality, where one would feel safe to express their inner thoughts.” Drama is the lie that tells the truth.

Sincere performances by the young touch hearts

In Playback Theatre, the audience shares their stories, and actors improvise on the spot. “They have to get a grasp on the important parts of what the audience said and act it out. The ability to understand is crucial and valuable in society, and hopefully this kind of training can enhance their interpersonal communication skills, which they have lacked in the past three years.” Kennie took her students to two elderly centres for such performances. One of the elderly, who shared her story, was in tears while watching. “It turns out that she has been an actress, and was touched by the sincere performances of the kids. She gave recognition to our drama training and it was moving.” 

Applied theatre applies to all

Through theatre, we open our hearts, resonate with others and untangle emotional knots. The months-long project has been a platform for deep talk among youth, in which a quiet girl turns into an active supporter, and a gifted student with emotional difficulties finds himself. Kennie believed that the potential of applied theatre is boundless in Hong Kong. “It is not popular because not many people know about this. However, it is not just for schools and organisations.” At the Bootcamp of The Lab, she exchanged ideas with corporate trainers and discovered that applied theatre can also be applied to the workplace. Recently, she is exploring how theatre can play a role in pre-vocational training for SEN youths in pet care, and raise awareness of mental health care.