This document summarizes notes from a panel presentation by Dale Hamilton about their work using community-engaged theatre. Some key points: - Hamilton has been using a model of inclusive, collaborative community theatre for over 20 years through their organization Everybody's Theatre Company. - Their first major project in 1990, the Eramosa Community Play, had profound cultural, social, and political impacts including stopping a housing development and influencing local elections. - Subsequent projects with Everybody's Theatre Company have explored various community issues through outdoor and multimedia performances. The inclusive approach helps bring different groups together and opens dialogue on challenging topics. - Hamilton believes this form of theatre can catalyze personal and community change, citing examples of

1. Panel Presentation Notes
by Dale Hamilton (Canada)
Comunicação apresentada no Simpósio Internacional Brasil | EUA |
Canadá Teatro e Transformação Social: Possibilidades do uso da
performance como estratégia de intervenção na comunidade, na
Universidade Estadual de Maringá, em 9 de março de 2012.
Thank you Esther. It’s wonderful to work and travel with Esther. We’ve worked together internationally
for the past ten years in Kenya, South Africa, the Netherlands and, of course, Canada and the U.S., and now
Brazil.
It’s a great pleasure to be here in Brazil. I’ve wanted to come here for many years. In some ways
Canada and Brazil are similar and we certainly have many connections. We share a history of colonization by a
European power, we both have indigenous people who have survived contact and provide a great wealth and
depth to our overall national character and culture. And we both have a multi-party political system that is at
least spotted with social democracy and continue to navigate a “complicated” trade and foreign affairs
relationship with the United States. I also learned very recently that our largest city (Toronto) is officially twined
with Sao Paulo, that you have Canadian Studies Centres in some of your universities and that Canada is the
number one study-abroad destination for Brazilians. But you have football fever and we have ice hockey as our
national sports obsession. And another thing we don’t have in common is climate. When I left Canada a few
days ago there was a snowstorm that had forced businesses and schools to close. So I am very happy to be
here.
My family came to Canada from Ireland and Scotland in the 1820’s and we have farmed and lived in
the same river valley (Spirit Valley) for 6 generations. So you can imagine how difficult it was when I discovered,
in the late 1980s, that my father (who had lost his leg in a farming accident) had sold the family farm to a man
from Toronto who claimed that he wanted to be a hobby farmer. But it turned out that this man really planned
to develop the farm into a suburban housing development – and not houses for people who need houses, but
mansions for rich people who wanted to move to the country and commute to Toronto. Now, you might be
asking “What does this have to do with performance?” I’m getting to that.
I realized that my community was in crisis and that if something wasn’t done, we would be swallowed
by suburbia. And because I’m a playwright, I started to write a play about it – I imagined at first a one-woman
show. But, in the end, it became an epic co-production with a company from England, 2 years in the making
and with 120 people in the cast. So much for my one-woman show.
The project took on a whole new life when, quite by accident, I ran across the Colway Theatre Trust in
England and a movement in theatre that was running on a parallel track with the Theatre of the Oppressed
movement here in Brazil, except it was called the Community Play movement. In Canada, where there is still a
strong movement, we call it Community Engaged Theatre. I ended up doing a two-year apprenticeship in
England and then adapted the model for use in Canada.
Every community and circumstance is unique, so the model is always changing, but here are the
foundational elements that I use:
1) Inclusivity: anybody who wants a part gets a part. 2) Collaboration: the script, design, music and
choreography are created with the community, not for the community. 3) Local Stories: the play is about the
history and contemporary issues of the community. Capacity-building: training, participatory evaluation and
sustainability are built into the process.
I’m going to go into a bit of detail about my first big project (in 1990) because I think it’s a good
example of the potential artistic and political power in this kind of theatre. The Eramosa Community Play had a
profound cultural, sociological and political impact, the effects of which are being felt to this day. For example,
we were able, against all odds, to stop the development on my ancestors’ land, even when the developer
appealed it to a higher court. Even “objective” journalists and academics who reported on or studied the
1

2. project, agreed that the play was the catalyst for this populist uprising. Neighbours got to know their
neighbours in a new way, they became intimate with the details of the issue and three people who were
involved in the play (myself included) agreed to run for the local municipal council so we could rewrite our land
use policies, reject the housing development proposal and create innovative housing within the village limits
rather than sprawling across adjacent farmland and unstable land that could collapse into underground glacial
potholes.
Running parallel to the community play project was a process called “Community Soundings”. It’s
based on a Danish Folk School model dating back to the 1930’s and was adapted by the Rural Learning
Association. Tomorrow, at our workshop, we’re going to get you all involved in actually doing a “Community
Sounding”, so I won’t go into any more details about that now.
This same project also had a profound effect on individuals. We always say, only partially in jest, that
these projects have very high divorce rates – that quite often people (particularly women) spread their wings
with these projects and life at home never looks the same again. So these plays can be catalyst for personal
change. Like this woman (show video clip) who had trained as a professional actor but ended up working in a
prison as a guard. She told us that before the play she was depressed and even suicidal, but after the play, she
was inspired to start a local theatre group that became very active.
After this first project in my home community, I was “hooked” and community-engaged theatre has
been my passion ever since. I realized that it was a marriage of activism & the arts and through a community
development lens. So I formed a theatre company called Everybody’s Theatre Company and I average a
community play every two years. It takes that long to raise the funds and build the relationships.
So now I’m just going to flash through some images of Everybody’s Theatre Company’s other projects
and tell you one quick story about each.
This was the Blyth Community Play Project, which we staged in a turnip factory and in the streets of
the village. This was the beginning of my outdoor approach to theatre. My British colleagues think I’m crazy
(and it may be true) because I choose to stage my productions outdoors. But I have seen the value in defying
the usual line between audience and performers and making use of landscapes and streetscapes as ready-
made backdrops. A Theatrical Walk can be an intensely collective experience at the intersection of the cultural,
architectural and natural worlds and make the performers and the audience intensely responsive to their
immediate environment and to the stories indelibly linked to these locations.
Next came a series of outdoor plays with youth, exploring their issues, such as substance abuse. In this
image a young woman who in real life was struggling with crack addiction, faces the Crack Monster in a back
alley into which the audience has been led.
In Eden Mills there was a raging controversy about whether a heritage bridge should be restored or
replaced. It had formed mean-spirited divide amongst the 300 residents of the village. We did a play that
explored the issue and found that it was much easier for people to talk about the issue in a fun creative
environment rather than “talking heads” meetings that usually became antagonistic.
Then we took on a project that explored the issue of forced amalgamation of small rural townships. We
used the analogy of a marriage and we toured the audience around on school buses because the territory to
cover was too big for walking. The man performing as the groom here went on to become the mayor of the
amalgamated township. We weren’t able to stop the amalgamation, but we were able to make it smaller than
what the conservative government wanted to impose.
In 2003 we undertook a project in the City of Guelph, where there was tension between the new
Canadians who had emigrated from the Middle East and the long-time residents of the city. It was very
challenging for the new Canadians to find the time to participate in the play (because they were still trying to get
settled in Canada) so we developed a multi-media approach which meant we could film the new Canadians in
their homes at their convenience and then incorporate it into the main live production. It wasn’t ideal because
the interaction between the new comers and the long timers was minimal, but I’ve learned that compromise
and flexibility is better that excluding a whole demographic of people. You have to work with people in the
context of their realities.
2

3. The Guelph project also gave us a wonderful example of the beauty of all-inclusive casting. When you
say that anybody who wants a part gets a part, then you have to live with the insanity that can ensue. (show
video clip). So early in the Guelph play process, a young man named Sam appeared at casting. He was legally
blind, suffered from Tourette Syndrome (a disorder characterized in part by uncontrollable outbursts of
inappropriate language). He also weight over 300 pounds and had mobility issues. So how to cast him? Here’s
what we did – he was cast in the role of a soldier who was to escort a man to the gallows to be hung. It looked
like Sam was leading the prisoner to the gallows, when in fact, the able-bodied young man playing the part of
the prisoner was leading and guiding Sam through the audience and onto the stage. Sam’s social worker was
amazed that he didn’t have a Tourette outburst on the stage, seeing as he was very nervous, which would
usually bring on an episode. Sam gave a moving testimonial at the end of the project, thanking the project for
giving him the opportunity to gain confidence – that he’s always wanted to be on stage but never had the
courage before.
Now we’ll jump to two big city projects in Toronto – first Mount Dennis, a neighbourhood plagued with
poverty as the result of the closing of the main employer in the area – Kodak. So this is a scene in front of the
former Kodak building, and several of the cast members were people that had actually worked at Kodak. This
was a neighbourhood telling it’s own story.
My most recent project is in a public housing neighbourhood in Toronto called Rivertowne, Canada’s
first deliberate mixed-income neighbourhood. This project was almost aborted by bureaucracy and politics, so
the lesson for me in this was to keep these projects at arms length to the spider web of big organizations and
governments. But we did see growth amongst the participants, such as this young woman who had an anxiety
attack if she had to perform, but became the prompter who whispered the words from the script to cast
members who forgot their lines.
And I’m very excited about Everybody’s Theatre Company’s next project, which will explore a very
contentious and high profile rural issue. An American hedge fund has proposed the largest open pit quarry in
North America on prime agricultural land and in the watershed of two major rivers north of Toronto. I literally
finished the last grant proposal on the day before I left for Brazil and a team of artists and activists is emerging
that is ready to challenge this American hedge fund corporation.
And it’s important for me to stress that my work is part of an exciting movement in community-
engaged theatre across Canada. Some of my Canadian colleagues work is which is shown in these images. It
is so important to have a community of like-minded individuals and companies doing this work, or it can be
crazy-making.
I’m going to end here. We’re really looking forward to having fun with you in our workshop. We always
say that people should take fun more seriously, so lets have some serious fun tomorrow.
3