Artistic Code Creation

Introduction

You have collected and analyzed a lot of information. You have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that researchers use to discover causes of things. Many things do not just happen but are caused. You will now use the information for cod creation. By codes is meant: symbols, letters, system of words used for recording or presenting information. TDF is a research, educational and artistic group event. Now that you have covered aspects education and research, you should be in a position to create an artistic code that will represent what you have discovered. It is through your chosen artistic code you will present information back to the community where you made the discovery. In art, codes consist of dramas, mimes, songs, dance, and poetry.

Artistic Code Creation 

Parts of a story

From literature, we learn that a work of art has three parts, (i) the beginning, (ii) the climax, (iii) the anti-climax or denouement.

The beginning of a story introduces the place and the characters. The climax marks that part of the story where most action takes place. The anticlimax, denouement or resolution gives the answer to the question, what happened thereafter? Between the beginning and the climax, there are a series of sub climaxes which lead to the anticlimax. Between the climax and the resolution or anticlimax, there are a series of anticlimaxes. The anticlimax does not drop to the level of beginning but ends at a higher level than the beginning. The work of art is moved by conflict which is created through opposing positions taken by characters.

Rehearsals

You have pieces of work to play with. The creation of the final work that you will perform before an audience begins from here. A rehearsal is a practice of playing the parts at first, you will work without a written text but towards the end you will write what you have performed. During the rehearsal you will assign roles to each other. Each person should play a role of a character. Characterization is a presentation of the behaviour of a character in a performance. You need to understand your role and bring out the best of that character you are representing. Directors help in making it easy for performers to understand their roles but the real making of the character is the responsibility of the performer.

Performances

You are going to present your work to a group of people you have invited. You are going to reflect back aspects of the lives of the people of the people you interviewed. You need to do the following preparations:

a) Choose an MC (Master of Ceremony) -- this is one person who will introduce the group and the performance. In the introduction, the MC can say something like this:

The Guest of honor (if somebody considered important has been invited), ladies and gentlemen„ welcome to this presentation by (name of the group). It is a group that has been working together to promote behaviour change through use of Theatre for Development. You are going to watch a performance entitled ... (name). At the end of the performance you will spend 10 minutes discussing the content of the performance. So please do not leave before the end of the performance. Please enjoy yourselves.

b) Stage Manager/Manageress — is the person in charge of the production backstage. This person takes over from the director or the group leader. He/she assigns people to arrange stage, lift and remove furniture from stage.

c) Stage — An acting arena or area. In TFD the stage is in the open and takes two or three forms: i) theatre in a round form, in which the audience surrounds performers on all sides. The focus of performance is at the centre, performers who are less active move to the outer part of the centre and those preparing to perform later move completely away.

During Performances, each performer should know when to come in and when to leave the stage ii) behind stage, performers should observe silence because even whispers can be heard by the audience.

Post-Performance Discussions

Code Creation - Post-performance Discussion

At the end of the performance, the MC should quickly break up the audience into small groups where people are seated. All performers should split into pairs and work with the small groups to collect information using the following form:

When the audience divides into small groups, the performers become; (i.) discussion leaders, (ii) discussion guides.

Discussion Leader: One among the performers leads a discussion by asking questions while the other records the answers. No one should play two roles.

Recording answers is important. The recorder should quietly count the number of people in the small group by gender. The chair of the meeting should:

1. Ask one questions at a time and pause for answers.
2. Balance the sources of answer among men and women
3. Should not dominate the discussion. To keep others talking, the leader should acknowledge answers by nodding the head.
4. Terminate politely the discussion after 15 minutes

Discussion Guide: Animateurs become discussion guides when the audience is too large for the number of animateurs. The responsibility of conducting discussion lies with the audience. When divided into small groups, members in each group should appoint a chairperson and a recorder. Animateur should stay in the groups and distribute question papers to the chair persons who should facilitate the discussion. The role of animateurs is to help chairpersons in their roles and to clarify some matters.

Scripting the Code

Introduction. Whatever you perform should at the end be written down for

i) Keeping record

ii) Future lessons.

Many works that have been done in TFD have been lost because of lack of documentation. The work that you do could become part of literature or art theatre. Some of the works that we know today began as oral literature and survived loss because they were scripted. I will Marry When I want is an example of the work that was done first orally and later scripted and disseminated more broadly.