The Extraordinary Queuing Experience: Participatory Theatre as a Co-Creative Methodology

Abstract

This paper reflects on a participatory theatre project that aimed to co-create knowledge on how to challenge processes of exclusion and co-develop narratives of inclusion with refugees, migrants and non-migrants in refugee-receiving societies. We define inclusion as a democratic approach to heterogeneity, that stresses the need for mutual adaptation to eliminate separation and segregation in society (Varga, 2015). The co-creative approach mirrors this conceptual understanding as it enables an iterative process and two-way learning as opposed to one-way adaption (Godsmark & Rother, 2019). Complementing the co-creative approach, arts-based methods specifically reach more embodied, affective and intuitive forms of knowledge with transformative potential (Leavy 2020, Lenette 2017). Using participatory theatre based on the Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal 1979), we developed a format called the Extraordinary Queuing Experience, which explores what it is like to arrive in an unfamiliar place. In the internal process of 3-6 sessions we explored the themes with the participants and developed a script and performance. In the external process we performed an immersive performance with an audience. We find that the methodology can co-produce knowledge on how to challenge exclusion and co-produce narratives of inclusion in various ways. Internally, it (1) co-creates the conditions that reinforce skills and aspirations instead of deficit-based integration; (2) co-creates a diverse discursive 'palette' instead of stereotypes of migration experiences; and (3) lets people relate to bodies instead of hierarchies. Externally, (4) it lets people relate to a palette of bodies instead of stereotypes and hierarchies. We conclude that the potential for emancipation and co-creation is deeper in the internal process, while the external process not only has the potential to reach out to wider and more diverse audiences, but also gives focus and meaning to the internal process.