Study guide on the topic “Forum theater as a method of recovery and preventing future conflicts” was published in Russian!

The methodological guidebook on the topic “Forum theater as a method of recovery and preventing future conflicts” summarizes the results of our training cycle “Work on achieving dialogue and peaceful settlement of conflicts with the help of Forum theater”, and explains in detail how the forum-theater method can be used in solving social conflicts caused by war, what should be paid attention to in preparing this important work, how to carry out a careful analysis of the conflict and target groups step-by-step and thus to find areas of common interests for a cooperative dialogue.

The author of the study guide is Edgar Khachatryan, Managing Director of Armenian NGO “Peace Dialogue”, an expert and coach in (international) peace work, violence prevention, initiation of dialogue and gender issues in conflict regions.

Edgar Khachatryan is one of the three coaches of our training series “Work on achieving dialogue and peaceful settlement of conflicts with the help of Forum theater”, which was held from November 206 to February 208 as part of our project “Overcoming the consequences of war together” in Ukraine and included implementation of 6 small projects by training participants.

The head of the series of trainings was Inna Ayrapetyan, a specialized partner of our project from Russia (Chechnya) and an expert in dialogic work and mediation with the help of forum-theater method, prevention of domestic violence caused by the war, and traumatological post-conflict rehabilitation.

The selected exercises on Forum Theatre collected in the appendix were compiled by Vladislava Kryschnaja. Vladislava Kryschnaja, activist and trainer for Forum Theatre from Ukraine (Gorlovka, Saporoshije) is the third trainer of our training series.

Three coaches from Ukraine, Russia and Armenia, having experience in conflict-affected countries, taught Ukrainian civil society activists who were already involved in peaceful work, various strategies of using forum theater as a means of dialogue between conflicting parties and preventing subsequent conflicts. Besides, participants learned additional techniques, such as performances of street theaters and forum theaters through video stories.

Immediately after the first module, participants were able to apply their knowledge in six small projects and work on various social post-war conflicts in Ukrainian society.

In total, 996 people took part in these 6 projects of our participants, including internally displaced persons, former and present participants of the war, representatives of host communities, children and young people from different regions of Ukraine and battle area: 30 of them took direct part in workshops on the forum theatre and staged plays on topical conflict issues of Ukrainian society. These performances were shown to a total of 866 people, who then, together with non-professional actors, participants in small-scale project workshops, discussed the presented conflicts and jointly searched for their solution.

The following 6 small projects, which are also briefly presented in the study guide, received financial support within our project and had coaches present: “I hear you” in Zaporizhia oblast, “Agents of changes” in Kyiv oblast, “Informing about rights and opportunities through the forum theatre method” in Berdiansk, “City Theater” in Bakhmut, as well as the projects “Strongholds during changes” in Odessa and “How can we find a common language?”, which took place in Ivano-Frankivsk.

The study guide on the topic “Forum theater as a method of recovery and preventing future conflicts” is intended for  peacekeeping activists in conflict regions who are already familiar with the forum theater and now want to use it in dialogic and mediation work. In addition, it is intended for all civil society actors who are looking for suitable tools for post-conflict rehabilitation and mediation and who would like to learn more about the forum theater method and its suitability for peaceful work.

Here you can download the study guide in Russian (and later also in English) in PDF format.

In addition to this publication, you will also find all other materials and videos created as part of our project “Overcoming the consequences of war together” and the previous project of the same name on our project website: they are sorted into two separate sub-pages according to the relevant areas of our project’s work.

All materials created in our project “Overcoming the consequences of war together” can be found here.

You can find all the videos created by the project here.