Image Theatre
Aims
- Develop visual ideas of community
- Encourage young people to think about how communities can be improved
Resource
Image theatre playing cards
View resource 
playing_cards.pdf
Instructions
Create (10-15 mins):
Young people should work in groups of approximately five.
Give four or five 'Image Theatre Playing Cards' to each group.
The cards describe a community problem relating to one of the sections of the Sustainable Communities Wheel.
Tell the groups to create a frozen image, like a still picture, that demonstrates the problem written on the cards. The young people need to create a separate image for each card.
They may want to take it in turns to be a ‘sculptor’ and direct the other members of their group into position. It may be advisable to talk about appropriate and inappropriate body contact.
Allow the young people approximately 10-15 minutes to devise still images and explain that they will need to perform the images.
Perform (5 mins):
The groups perform these images as a sequence for the rest of the class. You could clap every time you want the group to move onto the next image. You should advise the young people to hold each image for five seconds before changing to the next.
Change (20 mins):
Ask the groups to perform the images again - this time holding the images for longer and asking the remaining young people in the audience, 'what's happening?' Now invite young people in the audience to become sculptors to physically change the images, transforming them from negative community images to positive ones. For example, a scene depicting bullying can be changed to a scene depicting friendship. The sculptor must describe or show how they want the image to change physically. Members of the audience may want to join the scene to help improve it.
The images created can be recorded throughout with photographs, which can then be used in follow up sessions.