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A TYPICAL SESSION
We are in a large room meant for meetings or conferences. The centre has been cleared for action. At the front of the room are two easels with large pads, a tape recorder and a selection of drawing materials and props, including elements of costume and masks. Three facilitators are present, one of whom is continually taking notes. The respondents, not fewer than 12 or more than 20, are dressed informally, and working in small teams of about four.
The objects of the work having been explained and discussed in a leisurely way, we begin with some warming-up exercises designed to relax, amuse and build mutual trust. There is no sense of pressure or haste. We have at least half the day ahead, possibly a whole one.
The first obviously relevant exercises are woven gradually into the warming-up exercises: a mime exercise includes the product, for example; or a neighbourly confrontation is changed into a buying and selling situation.
The first results, and what they begin to show, are then discussed over coffee. Respondents put forward their own ideas of situations that may be relevant to our enquiry.
But the real-life situations are only the beginning of the work we shall do together. As they become more imaginative and inventive, the roles they take on and the dramas they act out go deeper into their feelings and perceptions.
Between the role-playing sessions there is time for discussion, stimulated by what has happened. This often takes off from unexpected start-points, from disagreements as well as agreements. We introduce other, symbolic vocabularies into the debate, such as colour, shape and movement. At this stage, nothing is predictable, and the relevance of what is being shown us may not appear until later.
In whole-day sessions, when there is a break for lunch, the deepened relationships of the respondents, and their increased trust in each other and us, can expand the frame of reference considerably. By giving them the time and space to wander away from the subject at hand, they come back to it from different points of view - which can radically change our preconceptions.