Theater Camp:
Promoting Tolerance and Dialogue through Interactive Theater in Eastern Indonesia

Training of Trainers
Malang, March 15 – 21 2009

Training of Trainers for “the Promoting Tolerance and Dialogue through Interactive Theater in Eastern Indonesia Program” was successfully held in Batu, Malang, East Java on March 15 – 21 2009. Bringing in eighteen teachers and theater professionals coming from different regions in Eastern Indonesia, this program was the pioneer program for theater as a media for conflict resolution and prevention in Indonesia.

The participants are high school teachers and art professionals from Ambon, Poso, Lombok, and Pasuruan. After a tight selection process, eighteen people were selected to participate. They are balanced in terms of gender—nine males and nine females.

The training was opened by the representative of IREX Europe, Ana Santos. During the 6 days training programs, the participants involved actively in every session, structured for a full theatre-based workshop: warm-up, lead-in activity, main activity, energizer, and closing (reflection) activity. All

Before starting the session, they had morning exercises and ice-breaking games. These fun activities tried to make them fresh and enthusiastic to follow the training for the whole day.

In the main activities, the participants were provided with an in-depth overview of two primary theatrical methods used in the workshop: image theatre and forum theatre. These techniques enabled participants to share personal stories, to dialogue, to identify the obstacles that they face in their daily lives, and to incorporate their solutions. Primarily, this methodology will be used to bring out the ideas of young people, and for them to dialogue about issues of conflict and resolution.

In the training, the participants also developed together the summer camp curriculum in which they added local aspects and cultures. On the last day, they were asked to do a teaching practice in groups based on the camp curriculum that they had developed. They learned, practiced, and shared interactive learning-teaching strategies.

When Ambon groups had their teaching practice, they brought other participants into a reflection of what had happened in the past-conflict in each of the regions. Participants shared stories and the same feeling; they felt they had similar experiences in the past. Some participants was crying. One participant from Poso named Ongki told me a story that he remembered burying his brother’s death body with the head cut off. His family couldn’t found his head. Other participants expressed their deep sympathy.

The last session of each day was a reflection. Participants reflected what they had learned for the day, taking the good experiences and leaving out the bad ones. One by one they stated a word that really reflected what they felt for that day and together came into a conclusion.

In the training, they built a sense of togetherness and unity through the activities and teamwork. The training was ended on March 21 and hopefully met the goals of the training: to prepare the participants for being effective trainers who will promote tolerance and dialogue through interactive theater in Eastern Indonesia. They are hoped to successfully plan and implement effective sessions using interactive theater methodology for the youth camp.

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Youth Theater Camp I
Malang, 22 Juni – 5 Juli 2009

Youth Theater Camp 2009 “Promoting Tolerance and Dialogue through Interactive Theater in Eastern Indonesia Program” was successfully held in Batu, Malang, East Java on June 22 – July 5, 2009. The program was successful in bringing together 50 teenagers from Pasuruan and Poso to learn theater as a toolbox of promoting tolerance and dialogue.

Participants came from conflict areas, most of which are the victims of conflicts. After a selection process in each of the regions, 50 young people are selected to participate in the first camp. They are chosen in the consideration of their active participation in school and community organization, their experience toward conflicts, and their concern and commitment to build peace in their regions. The participants of this first camp are balanced in terms of gender. The participants from Poso have also a good balance of religion background—50% are Moslem and 50% are Christians.

Participants were enthusiastic to follow the camp, proven by their active participation in all activities in the camp, such as being full of spirit, acting totally in all plays, and following direction and guidance from trainers.                   

During the 14 days camp program, they involved in activities which are based on theatre methodology for promoting tolerance and dialog. They learned to place themselves in the roles of other people in the conflicts, to find out the causes of conflicts, and to look for the best solutions.

Every morning, the students had a morning exercise and ice breaking games. This is meant to make them fresh and fun before starting the main activities of the day. This fun activity was effective to raise their motivation for the day’s lesson. They started the lesson with a warm up activity—a fun light opening activity to get their attention to the lesson. They then continued with the lead-in activity—a connecting activity between the warm up and the main activity. After the lead-in, they got into the main activity of the day, such as the image theatre and forum theatre model. For summarizing the day’s lesson, it was very good that we always had a closing activity. The set of lessons for each day was very attractive and inclusive.

On the first few days, some of the students were getting ill, suffering from fever and stomachache. That was because the condition of the weather in the camp’s location was different from the one in their own regions. But, they were still enthusiastic to follow the camp. And after few days, all participants could adjust well.

Before coming to this camp, most of the participants did not know each other, especially participants from Poso in which the Christians live apart from the Moslems. Now after following the camp, they know each other well and build a friendship. Ardinata Babuno, a student from Tentena (4-hours drive from Poso and where most of Christians live after the riots) said that before he came to the camp he felt uncomfortable making friends with youth from other religions (he never has friends from other religion) and has negative thinking about them, but now after he joined the camp he has many friends from other religion.

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Youth Theater Camp II
Malang, 10 – 23 Juli 2009

Following the success of the first camp, the second Youth Theater Camp was successfully held on July 10 – 23, 2009 in Batu, Malang, East Java. Fifty youths from Ambon and Lombok participated in this camp. The youths were taken from schools, art institutions, and out-of school youth organizations from conflict areas. Those institutions are very supportive. The participants were active young people who have a concern with what happened in their surroundings and want a change in their community. They were also victims of conflicts that happened in their regions. Some youths from Lombok are the victims of Ahmadiyah’s conflict who still lives in a refugee camp. Some others were affected by the long conflicts between villages in their neighbourhood. Most students in Ambon are those who still live separated from people who have a different religion than them.

Through this three-weeks camp, the young people worked together following the activities which is based on theatre methodology as a tool to foster dialog and understanding. They learned to act a play based on experiences in their lives and saw how their peers and others from opposing group see such conflicts or situations. Through set of activities in the camp, the participants were active in dialog and reflect to create a “safe space”.

For this camp, we had more youths who are out of school and are difficult to read and write. Thus, we adjusted some of the lessons. For example, in the activity named “Role on the Wall” in which the participants were actually supposed to write what they feel about the camp, we then adjusted this activity and allowed the participants to draw instead of write. The out of school youths were enthusiastic to follow all activities and were eager to ask questions when they were unclear about the lesson.

This second camp was also attended and closed by the DCM of the British Embassy Jakarta, Matthew Rouse. He witnessed the togetherness and friendship of the students following the camp. He also saw a theatre play about a conflict in Ambon which was directed by a student from that region named Lifan who experienced the conflict himself. Lifan told his story about how the conflicts affected his life and his friendships with others of different religions.

This camp was indeed able to build a friendship and togetherness of participants, even the participants who came from opposing groups. Dudi and Joy, two participants from Ambon who are from different religions, could build a good friendship through this camp. Also Dila and Husnul from Lombok (one from Ahmadiyah refugee and another from the village that burnt houses of Ahmadiyah) built a friendship through this camp.