The Aitebaar project, a four-year initiative funded by DFID and implemented by a consortium that includes SRSP and Internews, made strides in empowering communities by addressing security and justice issues in Pakistan. A core component of this initiative involved fostering police-community relations and promoting local, community-based dispute resolution to prevent people from resorting to court on minor issues. Community engagement was essential to the project’s success, and Aitebaar harnessed various outreach methods, from radio programs to community discussions and interactive theater, to raise awareness about rights and responsibilities around security and justice.
To enable impactful community engagement, the project organized a training workshop in Peshawar on interactive theater techniques, which took place from July 28 to August 2, 2015. A select group of 20 young participants, including six women and fourteen men between 16 and 28 years old, attended the training. With backgrounds in Pashto and Hindko, these young individuals from local universities were guided on how to utilize theater as a powerful tool for community development and dialogue, learning techniques to address issues like domestic violence and police-community interactions.
The workshop opened with an ice-breaking session, followed by story-sharing exercises to build rapport and establish a safe, open environment for all. A norm-setting discussion emphasized confidentiality and respect, which encouraged participants to engage more freely, helping bridge the usual gender gaps in interaction, especially in the conservative context of Peshawar. In the following sessions, the group focused on inhibition-breaking exercises, using games like “The Sinking Ship” and “Mirror Image” to build trust and camaraderie. This foundation of trust and openness became pivotal as participants learned how to use their bodies to convey messages, understand the basics of stage awareness, and experiment with improvisation—a critical skill in interactive theater.
A major highlight of the training was introducing the participants to Augusto Boal’s “Theater of the Oppressed” techniques. They engaged with concepts of oppression, liberation, and participation, watching interviews with Boal and reflecting on his teachings. The participants learned and practiced several formats, including Image Theater, Forum Theater, and Invisible Theater. In particular, they resonated with Forum Theater, where audience members, or “spect-actors,” join the performance to suggest and enact solutions to the issues presented, making theater a truly interactive and community-driven experience.
With the guidance of their trainers, the participants identified domestic violence as a central theme for their interactive performance, selecting scenes that highlighted the issue’s complexities and potential resolutions. Script development was challenging due to the linguistic diversity among participants and the limited time, but the team worked together to create a performance that resonated in local languages, ensuring cultural and linguistic relevance for their future audiences. Rehearsals culminated in a mock performance attended by project staff and friends, where the team experienced live audience interaction, learning to adapt to unexpected responses and refining their improvisational skills.
The workshop’s impact was immediate and profound, evidenced by participant feedback and performance assessments. Pre-and post-tests demonstrated significant gains in the participants’ understanding of theater concepts, showing a leap from basic knowledge to clear comprehension of theater techniques, including roles like the “joker” and concepts like the “fourth wall.” Participants reported increased confidence and felt empowered to act, perform, and engage with their communities in ways they hadn’t imagined before the training. Some female participants noted how comfort and confidence grew in interacting with male colleagues, an inspiring shift given the cultural context of Peshawar.
Through this training, Aitebaar has helped cultivate a team of young actors who now possess the skills and confidence to use theater as a means for community engagement and dialogue on security and justice. The project demonstrated that theater can transcend traditional boundaries, empowering young people to become catalysts for change in their communities and paving the way for more inclusive, participatory approaches to community development in Pakistan.