MetaPlay

Participative Theatre Co.


MetaPlay is a participative theatre company set up to deliver participative theatre projects in and with communities.

Our aim is to get people involved in making theatre - and we feel that the best way to do this, is to engage people with issues that affect them directly.

Story is at the heart of what we do and our theatre revolves around telling good stories in dramatic ways - stories that mean something to our audiences because they originate with the experiences of our audiences, who are often also our participants.

We are very influenced by Boal's Forum Theatre , and are always interested in ways in which we can break down divisions between the actor and the audience - but also we enjoy taking our participants through processes where they can tell explore ways of resolving difficulties by using theatre as a rehearsal for life.

As a company that champions participative theatre, we don't stick to one technique - our facilitators come with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds from both professional and community theatre and our aim is to use the range of techniques at our disposal in order to develop skills and create interesting and exciting theatre.

It is our belief that play is essential to human development and that by engaging in play, we allow ourselves room to grow and to change. That play and playfully looking at our stories can give us distance and depth and the opportunity to explore different points of view.

Since we first started working in March 2006, we have run workshops with about 410 children and refugee adults. We have performed to over a 1400 people in schools and community centres and have launched a very successful show for refugee women in community centres. We work with trained facilitators and with volunteers.

Currently we are expanding on our three main projects:

• "Ask the Kids!" - participative theatre in schools
• Holiday fun programme -a skills based approach to performance
• Refugee Theatre Programme - a community project

We hope to encourage you to contact us, suggest collaborations to us, work with us.