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Participatory Edutainment in Practice

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Participatory Edutainment in Practice 1 Participatory Edutainment in Practice A Case Study of Wan Smolbag, Vanuatu Laura Gibbons Communication for Development 15 Credits Spring 2020 Supervisor: Oscar Hemer Cover photo: Wan Smolbag actors performing Twist Mo Spin in front of a local audience in Vanuatu. Credit: Paul Jones, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong, Australia. 2 Abstract Entertainment-Education (EE), or ‘Edutainment’ as it has come to be known, is a prominent discipline and communicative practice, both in international and community development, and is utilised to address social issues and culturally specific norms, some of which may be taboo or harmful. This research sets out to explore the application of edutainment, in particular Theatre for Development (TfD), through an examination of its practice in a Pacific context; namely, a case study of Wan Smolbag Theatre (WSB), a grassroots NGO based in Vanuatu. Using tangible examples of WSB’s theatre work, the interplay between listening, participation, and dialogue will be examined as they bear on WSB’s diverse operations in Vanuatu. It will also be suggested that edutainment and TfD sits at the intersection of communication, culture and development and in fact, requires all three elements in order to be realised. Through its use of edutainment and TfD, WSB’s core strength lies in its sensitivity and responsiveness to both culture as aesthetic activity and as a way of life, enabling a dialogic, participatory approach that provides a stage for subaltern community voices to identify issues, and importantly, solutions to their own problems. The Pacific Region poses a complex landscape for development research and the same applies in the area of communication for development and social change. Due to its vast geographical area but often small population sizes, Pacific-focused research and data can be difficult to source, both of a qualitative and quantitative nature. This study aims to address one such gap, while also attempting to situate this research in the wider historical context of edutainment. Key words: Edutainment, Entertainment-Education, Theatre for Development, Participation, Dialogue, Culture, Communication, Development, Pacific, Vanuatu. 3 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................. 4 Chapter 2: Vanuatu & WSB Context............................................................. 6 Vanuatu Overview..................................................................................................6 Multiple Strands: Examining the DNA of WSB....................................................7 WSB’s Edutainment Work...................................................................................12 Chapter 3: Literature Review ...................................................................... 13 Communication for Development and Social Change .....................................13 Participatory Communication.............................................................................14 Defining Edutainment..........................................................................................16 Models of Edutainment .......................................................................................17 Setting the Stage for WSB’s Theatre Practice ..................................................19 From Development to Post-Development .........................................................22 From Aesthetics to Anthropology......................................................................24 Chapter 4: Theoretical Framework............................................................. 27 Chapter 5: Methodology.............................................................................. 30 Semi-structured Interviews.................................................................................31 Selection of Interviewees ...................................................................................31 Interview Details.................................................................................................32 Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Materials............................................34 Textual Analysis of Selected WSB Materials ....................................................34 Ethical Concerns..................................................................................................35 Limitations and Constraints ...............................................................................35 Chapter 6: WSB in Practice – A Critical Analysis..................................... 37 Play 1: Twist Mo Spin (2019)...............................................................................38 Context...............................................................................................................39 A Heteroglossia of Voices..................................................................................41 Dialogic in Principle and Practice.......................................................................44 Process as Result ..............................................................................................47 Play 2: Something for Nothing (2002) ................................................................50 Actor, Facilitator, Social Worker.........................................................................52 Play 3: Zero Balans (2011) ..................................................................................53 Chapter 7: Conclusion................................................................................. 57 Areas for further research...................................................................................59 Appendices................................................................................................... 60 Appendix 1: List of WSB Grey Literature and Content ....................................60 Appendix 2: WSB’s Core Values ........................................................................61 Bibliography................................................................................................. 62 4 Chapter 1: Introduction If speaking is silver, then listening is gold. – Turkish proverb [P]articipatory theatre could be used as a forum to rehearse change. – Annie Sloman, 2012, 44 As one proud ni-Vanuatu man declared after watching a [Wan Smolbag] performance, ‘It’s us on stage’. – Rebekah Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 241 The above epigraphs, in different ways, succinctly capture the focus of this research: that of the Vanuatu-based grassroots non-governmental organisation (NGO) Wan Smolbag Theatre (WSB, their acronym). As will be outlined in the following pages, WSB’s ethos and approach is based on listening, participation, and representation. WSB was established in Vanuatu’s capital city of Port Vila in 1989 by Jo Dorras and Peter Walker. Both originally from the United Kingdom, they moved to Vanuatu so that Dorras could take up a teaching job at Malapoa College (high school) in Port Vila, having previously spent some time in Zimbabwe where they were also engaged in theatre activities (Interview D and Woodward, 2015). What started out with six actors and one small bag of props (hence the name Wan Smolbag in the lingua franca, Bislama) had by 1994 grown to 11 with support from the UK Government (Interview D). WSB has now expanded into an extensive grassroots cultural and civic ecosystem comprising a theatre (with several acting groups), film and TV production capabilities, youth centres, health and nutrition centres, and sports grounds.1 WSB today employs 120 staff, 22 of whom are on the theatre performance side, 18 as actors and 4 are film staff (Interview C). 1 Wan Smolbag Theatre, Our Story: https://www.wansmolbag.org/our-story/ 5 This research seeks to examine the communicative practice of Entertainment- Education (EE), known also by the portmanteau ‘Edutainment,’2 and its wider application in a Pacific theatre context. Theatre for Development (TfD) is an example of Applied Theatre that exemplifies Edutainment at grassroots level, using participatory drama to help island communities deal with social change in an era of rapid globalisation – and, in the process, embrace change themselves.3 Through primary and secondary research, a number of plays were identified that provided examples of participatory theatre that form the basis of this study. Specifically, the question this research sets out to address is: what are the conditions in which communication, culture and development intersect to produce participatory edutainment in a communication for development and social change context? In examining this question, the tension between internal (culture) and external (development) influences will be analysed, as will the negotiating role that communication, in this case participatory theatre, plays between these two forces. As such, communication has to be attuned to both development and culture, in a constant two-way dialogue, in order to succeed. Having introduced the overall research focus and the central research question, further contextual background on Vanuatu and WSB will follow below. I will then situate this research within existing literature and discourse by defining the key terms and processes as they relate to the realm of edutainment. This, in turn, will help to elaborate a theoretical framework for this research.
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