Collaborating for change: the first TOXICITY workshop
It comes down to trust, courage and lots of lollies.
I am over the moon to write about the successful kick-off of the TOXICITY workshop series at Alexandra Hills TAFE Senior College.
Facilitating alongside my debase partner, Bridget Boyle, we utilized drama-based exercises to translate complex social justice frameworks—provided by Micah Projects and Here for Good—into actionable insights for Senior English and Drama students.
These exercises open up the possibility for kinesthetic learning, letting students explore equity, healthy relationship choices and the impact of gender stereotypes.
But none of that is possible without trust.
We were in E Block at Alex Hills TAFE – a classic drama room divided by folding walls with mirrors and barres on one side and a black box with some seating on the other… clearly, their space. And in that space, these young people trusted us to take them on a journey through their own lives.
We asked these young people to think about their lives:
- What assumptions held by others had they faced about themselves?
- What stereotypes had they come up against?
- What silences? What noise did they have to cut through to be heard?
And then we asked them to take an imaginative leap and truly consider what happened for the play’s characters as if they were their friends – embody that; and then change it.
Young people are brave. Uncertain, tentative, a bit embarrassed, and brave.
Not only did they speak with each other, and with Elke (the kindest small bulldozer you will ever meet), but they spoke with us. They did the work. And then they recorded to camera what they’d realised.
That takes a special kind of trust – so huge kudos to those young folk. And a gratitude to a committed teacher, and the TAFE leadership team for their belief and support.
I can’t wait to see the students’ thoughts integrated into the double bill of Popping Lead Balloons and Rowan’s Story at Redland Performing Arts Centre in a couple of months. (More on that to come…)
Arts practice has a unique ability to offer ‘safe spaces’ for community-wide conversations. We conceived it way. The workshop plan we shared is a part of the Learning Support Material accompanying TOXICITY. It includes teaching plans, resources, scripts excerpts, curriculum links, sample task assessments – and videos offering wellbeing techniques and ways of being an ‘active bystander’.
The development of the TOXICITY Learning Support Material was supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund which is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Redland city Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
