12. Learning by Making and Doing: Solo Project - Part 3 - Exploring Dialectical Dramaturgy

For the dialectical process, dramaturgically I tried to construct plots that allow the participants go through the following contradictions and dialectical thinking as a series of steps:

1)      The “protagonist” is a “problem” and “troublemaker” BUT the “protagonist” is a victim BUT this victim does bring “problems” and cause “troubles”…

2)      You may not be a bully nor a victim BUT you may know how it would be like to be a bully or a victim, i.e., you are not totally ignorant about this, BUT you usually tend to think you don’t or want to think you don’t…

3)      When you witness, heard about, or think of a victim being bullied, you may feel awful BUT you may choose to do nothing about it BUT you may tell yourself you care and you are against bullying, especially if you are asked…

4)      You think you are just a bystander BUT you are not just a bystander BUT you choose not to think about this (or, you think you are just a spectator BUT you are also a participant BUT you tend to give up your power as participant) …

5)      You think this event, or this kind of event, is just a “single” case or “exceptional” case at the individual level BUT it happens also like this on the macroscopic and global level BUT it is often represented as “single” case or “exceptional” case on the individual level…

6)      In both cases, you choose to be a bystander BUT you can choose not to be just a bystander BUT, in reality, you have a lot to consider…

(The spatial setup outside the curtain for Part One)

I set up the whole space by dividing it into two areas, separated by the big curtain, to embody the process from what we initially see/know about to what is unusually unknown/unaware of behind the curtain. Step one and two happened in the area in front of the curtain, transformed into a classroom-like space by placing a blackboard and a desk, together with some chairs chaotically arranged around the space for an expressionistic atmosphere, signifying both a classroom being messed up either by the bully or the bullied, and an emotional space of the bullied. There were also document papers and folders spreading around the floor. The bullied as the “protagonist” to start with was physically absent in these two steps, and the bullied is “represented” by the “mediations” of different documents embodying different institutional voices describing the “protagonist” as a “problem” to be “managed”. Participants were invited to explore like detectives what had happened and who the “protagonist” was . Later, they would also find the fragments of diaries of the “protagonist”, hinting more and more to the situation that the “protagonist” was actually a victim of bullying. Specifically for step two, participants were asked to imagine and write down some words the bully would say to the “protagonist”.

(Spatial setup behind the curtain for Part Two)

Step three to six of the dialectical process happened behind the curtain. Participants got in a more surreal area, made like a small stage, with the “protagonist” sitting and curling up by the wall, on which a computer screen in Zoom was projected, surrounded by visible technical apparatuses (e.g., microphones, projector, and cords). The “protagonist” was a masked character, and the mask was a child-like Larval Mask. There were also half-masks set on the side, for some participants to put on when they were invited to briefly play the characters of the bully for step three and four.

The bully was amplified through mediatization via live-feed video projection and microphones (but the microphones were removed in the actual event because of unresolved technical problems). After witnessing the bullying, participants were invited to say something to the bullied, if they wanted, and a low level of response or even no response was expected. Step five and six were actualized by showing a video of cases of oppression and war over the world while the facilitator acted like a storyteller to tell the participants that the life of the “protagonist” went on and on in the status quo because no one intervened and helped.

For the learning experiment, Brecht’s concept of gestus was consciously tried out through both the discourse presented via the institutional documents representing the “protagonist”, the diaries of the “protagonist” and the physical gesture of the “protagonist” as presented on stage with a mask.

In order to ensure the psychological containment and the keeping of pacing and timing, I finally decide to invite another classmate to help me play the “protagonist” with mask in step three and four, so that throughout the process I can play the role of facilitator and storyteller.