Ya, we know! Ppt. pretends to be kind, but is actually so, so cruel. It forces us to read – a dumbed down-version, always – and in doing so, treats us like idiots (is this why does the speaker often lacks all conviction in front of the screen?) It’s hard to listen and read at the same time – they call it cognitive overload. The Anti- PowerPoint Party recommends flipcharts. We recommend… TakeAwayTheatre!  Which has had a busy couple of months.

BoE Private Clients – Guiding Principles Series (GPS): A unique series of interventions that bring the business’s values to life, giving people a space to engage and debate what they mean. Exploiting the talents of a carefully selected assortment of world-class speakers over the next eighteen months – yesterday we enjoyed Lewis Pugh, aka ‘The Human Polar Bear’, on Pushing Beyond Boundaries. Amazing tales of how to achieve self-belief. Tied in with an online nomination for the GPS Award for people in the business who push beyond boundaries.

DB Schenker – Dinner Theatre: Our favourite (hilarious) show, Body Language, all about non-verbal communication, scripted and performed in Port Elizabeth by Gaetan Schmidt for the MD’s guests, after she’d seen it in Slaapstad. 50 minutes. With an optional Handshake Workshop afterwards…  Chef’s recommendation: Christmas parties, anyone? We’re open for bookings...

Nedgroup Investments - Induction Programme: Our third time running the induction programme, tailored to each group of inductees. The programme allows people to engage and connect around issues that affect them and the business, with an emphasis on fun, dialogue, movement and surprise, and creating a sense of common purpose. Plus grilled calamari tubes.  Chef’s recommendation: ban PowerPoint!

Nedgroup Investments  - Teambuild: Besides the fantastic four-course meal we made together from scratch and enjoyed with an array of fantastic wines… – we did (some) work. Fruitful discussions for the marketing team included How do we stay sharp? What are our special ingredients? How do we best serve our clients? … and other matters culinary and corporate. A great way to come together and share. If you’re keen on a teambuild – we have other  very unique offeringsas well.

FOSKOR  – Industrial Theatre:  Our third year in a row at the plant in Richard’s Bay, doing theatre on the issue of sustainability and the environment. Using a storytelling approach, our show was about the popular son of a local chief, who brought prosperity to the village by plundering the local natural resources… until… Riveting stuff.

Old Mutual – Transformation Project: Coming up in a few days time, we’ll be exploiting the talents of Nik Rabinowitz, one of SA’s best-loved comedians and longtime TakeAway collaborator to examine, explore, skewer and celebrate issues diverse and otherwise. Sure to get people talking, and bums on seats… Chef’s notes: Laughter in the workplace. What could be better?

CSIR  - Ambush Theatre: Our celebrated ‘live heart transplant’ eviscerated workplace gender issues and kept the audience in stitches for a Women’s Day event. Major interaction and madness in the operating theatre… Chef’s notes: This is the perfect short intervention for getting change management issues out in the open. We’ve done this gig for SAB, Johnson and Johnson, De Beers Marine, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), and several goverenment departments. It’s good value, and a total jol.    

Department of Social Services, Northern Cape -  Radio Inserts: A groundbreaking series of locally produced interviews with farmworkers, ghetto dwellers, street children and others on their personal stories around substance abuse. To be played on a local radio station soon… 

Until next time – if you’ve read this far! – peace, respect and love…

Sean

This man has just told a lie…

Book here now on the KBT homepage, and see audience comments… For a recent interview with Gaetan, listen here.

Gaetan Schmid’s show at the Kalk Bay Theatre is a short blast of physical storytelling that compels from start to finish. Playful and imaginative, with real warmth and off-the-cuff jokery, Body Language now has – courtesy of TakeAway Theatre – a dedicated workshop run by this master of interactive movement and gesture, along with humble co-facilitator, Sean O’Connor.

So if you don’t see it (hey, it’s a good night out) TakeAway will bring the show to your business or organisation, along with a terrific application that makes ultimate sense for the workplace: a workshop where non-verbal communication is scrutinised, turned inside-out, and reconfigured, with humour and understanding. (Yes and it’s naturally aligned to workplace objectives and values, and all that scorecard stuff.)

Body Language is rooted in the science of observation, in biology, in sociology and psychology, in the primal stuff that makes us human. You can even learn a technique to extract secrets, just by… well… that would be giving it away.

A little more about the show? Taking the moment of greeting as his starting point, Gaetan exploits a dizzy array of skills (mime, verbal pyrotechnics, physical comedy) to expose what we’re up to, the stuff that we communicate without even speaking. And there’s lots of it. Our bodies never shut up.

Gaetan’s premise is that better communication makes better communities. After watching an early version of the show, I also think that laughter creates better communities. A bonding experience for the audience: we all have unconscious gestures and behaviours, which here we see, gently dissected, vigorously re-animated, and and intelligently sequenced into a compelling spectacle, and a humane lesson. The climax is… well. You know what climaxes are like.

A perfect teambuild that advances communication and laughter. What more could you want?

So, The Squeeze is on. In fact, it’s showing right now in your living room – a gunslinging, mudslinging, foulmouthed Western saga about priorities and fighting the good, dirty fight. The losers are those selling dud bullets, fake hairnets, lame horses and poor advice. Those that get to stay in town offer good service, good value, a solid reputation and reliability. A recession sifts quality from the dross, which is a good thing. Trimming. Pruning. For vigorous growth later on.

Another benefit of recession derives from that old idiom – Necessity is the Mother of Invention (So who’s the father? Do we care? Perhaps Accident is the Father of Invention, or Serendipity, or Perseverance?) We’re all getting creative, thinking and manouvring, figuring how to make ends meet. Sure, for some, it’s back to basics now – tightening core business processes – but for others it’s also: what needs to happen next? Deep listening.

For some years, takeAWAY has diversified organically…. into film, web, print, radio, public performance and information design, covering a multitude of topics. Perhaps its time to refocus on our core business – using theatre to engage people in the change process? Perhaps not – corporates just need a little persuasion and experience in order to abandon their starting perception of workplace theatre interventions as superfluous, unsustainable, expensive. Our business seems not to be recession-friendly. But we will stick to our guns – because workplaces where people connect and engage, communicate and listen, are workplaces that will survive, and ultimately thrive.

Unlike any other learning or communication media, theatre activates the living imagination, as we move our own bodies, find our own voices. Dispensing with actors (it’s the economy, stupid), we work directly with your people, exploiting interactive theatre technologies like forum theatre, playback and improvisation – to problem-find and problem-solve, test behaviours, form relationships, practice new ways of thinking and doing.It’s exciting, effective and a breath of fresh air.

And that’s where our free special offer comes in: The first THREE respondents to this blog will each get a free 1-hour TakeAWAY PlayShop WorkOut – a fun, interactive, profound, mindshifting teambuild/engagement session for your business. Terms and Conditions apply…

After the hiatus, it’s hard enough to find the keys, never mind starting the engine. Here is a quick sample of some stuff we did in December, with TakeAway producing live learning encounters for Nedgroup Investments, De Beers Marine, Environ Skincare and the City of Cape Town. (Plus some other stuff.) So fear not! Help is at hand. 2011 need not be so bad! For a chat or just to talk about some some new and exciting ways to nail your objectives in their moer this year, give us a call.

ENVIRON SKINCARE: Ambush Theatre

What nice clients! This show – for Aids Day – was perhaps the biggest jol of the year. In a small factory crammed mostly with giggling females, our cross-dressing domestic workers – Thando “Surname” Doni and yours truly cracked the hilarity barrier when the g-strings started being draped over a very sporting MD. Despite (or because of) the whoops and hollers, we still managed to gain a poignant silence when hitting the hard notes on an issue which defines our times. Especially satisfying to thrill a nervy client who hadn’t used us before, on a last-minute gig. Smoooooooth!

NEDGROUP INVESTMENTS: Induction Programme

A high-point as we used some next-generation interaction and listening-led conversation to connect with a great bunch of people. Briefed to engage people in new and dynamic ways, connecting them with a sense of purpose and ownership, we used tai chi, breathing exercises, old-fashioned games with no particular purpose except laughter, improvisation, group body-sculpting and lots of chocalates in an invigorating discussion of brands and branding. An extremely well-received encounter – except for one individual! Ha! She knows who she is…

DE BEERS MARINE: Transformation Workshop and Show

Teaming with our gifted friends from the Bonfire Theatre Company, we designed a mind-and heart-moving experience for around 80 employees. Facilitated by drama therapist, performer, psychologist and all-round nice person Heather Schiff, the workshop aroused much laughter as well as profound discovery and learning. The Bonfire show after the 1-hr workshop yielded some of the most affecting testimonies of growing up in this complex and incredible country I have ever heard. A bonding experience if there ever was one.

CITY OF CAPE TOWN: Ambush Theatre

Contracted by leading sustainability consultants Icologie, we performed an out-the-box show about energy, information and agency to an audience of over 500 City of Cape Town officials.  Using the power of the surprise, our audience were spared nothing: breast augmentation, espionage, shock and horror, tenderness and hope… as well as a healthy shot in the arm for the City’s sustainable energy plan – the best in the country by a country mile. (OK so there wasn’t much breast augmentation shock and horror.)

Watch this space – and until next time – wishing you a great start to your year.

Sean and the TakeAway team.

Every year, TakeAway Theatre gets request for HIV-related interventions on World Aids Day (WAD), the 1st of December. Some people call early, some leave it a little late. We enjoy the challenge of multiple productions around the country – incidentally, my daughter Eve was born on the 1st of December four years ago, and I got to spend the day at the hospital while all the shows were going on.

I have always felt that is good to at least have this day, to focus on the disease and what it means in our lives, but part of me is also a little cynical, a little ambivalent. Because, I guess, people expect a message on this day – they need to see something happening – which then allows them to forget about it for another year. Businesses and organisations feel the imperative to ‘do something’ – and, now, that  ‘something’ has become ‘something special’ (perhaps this is to do with Aids fatigue?) All this is about making a show, a spectacle, an event – something which is understood as compassionate, demonstrating connection with its community.

Yet often the community are at odds with the message. They might prefer to have the status quo reinforced, not disrupted.  This is because the ways that we perceive HIV says so much about us – who we think is likely to get infected, and why – and how we rate our own chances of infection. These questions can be unsettling. But necessary.

Some years ago with with our sister company, Bonfire, we did some WAD stuff with a large multinational. Parts of their business – the management structure – were ruffled when our production strayed onto the twin ideas of responsibility and infidelity – something which we have found always generates interest and changed perspectives on HIV. (Infidelity is a cracker topic for people who feel that HIV has nothing to do with them or their world.) Afterwards the group expressed disappointment that the show wasn’t funnier, more enjoyable. On World Aids Day, they wanted light relief, you see – like they’d had the year before.

The other show we did for their business that day was for the disenfranchised ‘workers’ onsite – a black, Portuguese speaking group of about 250 people, who needed to interrogate what HIV was in their lives – and for them, a ‘song and a dance’ wasn’t’ going to cut it.

That show that occured was extraordinary. A member of the audience told a story of how he had had sex with a stranger in a bar, and the condom had broken. And now he was going home to his wife, who wanted to have children. Problem was, he was still in the window period. What should he do? Well, our business is not in providing answers – which is what ‘industrial theatre’, in the classical sense often attempts, namely, a transfer of information. Instead, it is in creating a space where audience members can reach their own conclusions, through the shared experience of what happens onstage. In this case, the audience had a very lively discussion about the man’s predicament. And it was funny!

So, I guess it depends on what you want to do… what you want to achieve. Is it just ‘awareness’ you’re after? Or do you want something more, to go deeper. Both have their place. But the second option – where the audience speak, and are empowered with their own voice – is much more interesting, powerful and ultimately, more effective.

TakeAway Theatre has been creating groundbreaking community theatre with South Africa’s leading Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)-related research and training organisation, the Foundation for Alcohol-Related Research (FARR), for the past four years. The relationship has been profound and rewarding, and our journey in partnership continues to grow with recent shows in George, Aurora and Piketberg in the past few weeks. The show is followed by a workshop facilitated by the performers where audience members roleplay alternatives to some of the challenges presented. (BTW, next year we are going to TOTALLY revolutionise the concept of community health information and support with a travelling intervention…. so watch this space – and for more on our past achievements, please go here.)

International FAS Day – 9am on the 9th day of the 9th month – saw us teaming up with the Western Cape FAS Task Team this year, at Mary Harding School in Athlone. Learners lined Klipfontein Road with banners raising awareness of the syndrome, which is the world’s most common preventable birth defect – and which South Africa are world champions at. Yip. We’re a nation of boozers and brain-cell bashers, drunkards and downbeats. In sunny SA, alcohol measures success. Which is fine and good, as long as you’re not pregnant. Or driving. Or performing surgery. Or playing sport. Except darts. And fishing. Maybe.

But back to the story. Our show, Die Liefdeskind, now approaching 350 – mostly free – performances with the original cast put together four years ago, was as funny and moving as ever, with great nuance provided by Joseph Martins, Andiswa Makai and Mimi Mabona. We are really proud of this show – our longest running – and humbled by the wonderful people that we get to meet when performing. Thanks to Sophia Warner of the Pebbles Project, Yumna Martin, Liz Pegram and Leana Olivier of FARR, the Mary Harding School and everyone who came and supported the event.

See you at exactly the same time next year…

Working with our associates nationwide, we designed a session that would be rolled out in different centres – consistently, and keeping travel costs to a minimum. So, after a very “head-orientated” morning, with delegates discussing vision, strategy, values and other tasty things, we instructed invited them to take off their shoes and get comfortable…

In an overwhelmingly results-based working environment, it presented a real challenge for most people to ‘let go’, moving into a space of little or no control. Resistance – fear, nervousness, anxiety – became very apparent – as some people felt that they ‘couldn’t be creative’ and that they would be  ‘wrong’ somehow… Then we started moving, and within minutes everyone was laughing, and it was all downhill from there… Finally, pretty much everyone was grinning from ear to ear and extremely grateful to do something human, dynamic, creative and spontaneous, where delegates were able to reflect on their feelings, and create possibilities for change.

One of the things that came home to me powerfully in the sessions was the value of resistance – as something to be respected and worked with. Without it, there is no journey.

TakeAway Theatre was recently contracted by Sanlam to provide unique multimedia for both their Senior Management and Future Leaders Conferences held in Cape Town. What made the job such an enjoyable one was the client’s deep acceptance of the experimental nature of the work.

During registration, a pair of actors posed as delegates, complete with identifying lanyards and a (very loose!) backstory of how they fitted into the business. Naturally, there was a fair amount of preparation involved, and the performers were very carefully chosen for their profiles, their warmth and appeal, as well as their ability to improvise.

They were equipped with a video camera, with which they filmed their ‘colleagues’ -  posing questions about the conference and what the expectations were… basically, how did people feel about being here, and what did they want to get out of it? After registration, the footage was edited in one of the hotel rooms for broadcast later in the day… An exhausting and meticulous process, after viewing the footage and organising it into themes and a storyline. {For confidentiality reasons, we unfortunately can’t show the films here. You’ll just have to take our word for it that they were funny, insightful and very nicely put together. VERY nicely put together!}

The performers told delegates, if asked, that the camera was there because they simply wanted to make a film about the conference for their partner, who had gotten a little peeved at all the travelling they were doing and was on the verge of asking if there was another woman or man on the scene…

What we found was that pretty much everyone responds to a warm smile and a welcoming approach. People are interested in each other – we were reminded that trust and openness come naturally to some people – certainly, to those who need to lead. There was much laughter at the screenings – and our brief – to shift people’s ideas, helping to make them feel that this would be a conference with a difference – enabled us to have some fun with what we did.  Thanks to Sanlam for the opportunity, and for all the room service!

With an ‘attractor loop’ featuring the performer, Celia Ncalane from Artists1, whispering to passersby in the visitor centre, the short video is then triggered by motion sensors and plays from a mock-up doorframe between exhibits.

Working on a tight budget and with a brief to develop interest amongst younger visitors in a career in nuclear science, we used the theme of ‘magic‘ to describe the sub-atomic world, playing to the idea of infinite possibility both within the nuclear realm and within a career in the industry.

Michael’s animation was the magic element … So have a look. Tell us what you think…

Simultaneous launch events in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban saw teams of freestyle footballers, refs and linesmen ambush the workplace, interacting with staff and handing out invitations to matches, in the shape of dedicated tickets, that functioned as competition entry forms.

Here we see Keeno-Lee Hector ‘hectoring’ a few of the locals in between some more futbol wizardry, and handing out some of the cherished entry forms…

Staff were encouraged to watch matches at work, and all staff in smaller centres were couriered fan packs sourced and designed by TakeAway, containing vuvuzelas, crazy glasses and wigs, facepaint, soccer balls and other paraphernalia. These went down a treat – and, in the month of futbol madness, we all felt that deep sense of belonging that makes the heart of any community beat a little faster, and more proudly.