Promoting Health with Live Performance: The Methodology of a South India Community Theatre Organisation

This manual - originally published in January 2005 and released as a revised version in September 2008 - describes the methodology used by the Chennai, South India-based organisation Nalamdana, which draws on community theatre (live performance) as a health promotion tool for semi-literate and illiterate people.

Nalamdana, meaning "Are you well?" in Tamil, uses street theatre as a strategy for HIV prevention, and for promoting the health of mothers and their babies. This methodology, which has predominantly been influenced by modern Tamil-style cinema, also incorporates elements of traditional folk theatre, such as comedy, drama, and music. Interaction with audience members is also central to the Nalamdana experience. "Scripts are developed to provide 75% entertainment and 25% health and social messages, as too much education results in a bored and distracted audience." Nalamdana also conducts adolescent discussion groups, peer education sessions, and community participation programmes in an effort to raise awareness and promote behaviour change.

The manual "has been developed to assist people who are working on community-based health promotion projects. A practical resource, it can be used by civil society organisations and performance groups to develop and enhance projects that require a mass communication strategy, especially among semi-literate and illiterate people living in difficult to reach communities. It aims to encourage a collaborative approach among community members, performance groups and health promotion practitioners, ensuring a successful combination of accurate health and social messages and audience engagement and satisfaction."

Contents:

• Introduction
• History of folk theatre in Tamil Nadu
• Identifying the health and social messages
• Developing the script
• Engaging the audience with pre-play entertainment
• Technical issues
• Managing risk
• Evaluating community theatre
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Staff members at Nalamdana - December 2004
• Acknowledgements

The manual emerges out of a 3-month knowledge-exchange project, conducted by Susie Prest with a grant from the Australia-India Council. Prest has designed and published this manual with small images, minimal colour, and plain text to decrease download time and improve accessibility in places where there is low bandwidth.