By Mark Wentworth
Edited by Per Henriksson
Dynamic Theatre (DT) was created in 2003 by Mark Wentworth and Filipe De Moura. It is unique synthesis of psycho/ sociodrama, shamanism and systemic therapies.
It has since been introduced on the psychodrama stage by various people as “the blind auxiliary” Or “incognito auxiliary”.
But Dynamic Theatre is a system and technique in its own right.
Of course it is not born out of nowhere and we have the utmost respect for Jacob L. Moreno and him being a great inspiration for dynamic theatre.
Background
A problem in action methods is the danger of ego projections by the director and fears of auxiliary egos to present something that may upset the protagonist, thus taking away some of the spontaneity that was one of Moreno’s main goals.
Out of frustration and sadness over this, many group experiments led to the birth of the pearl called “Dynamic Theatre”. (DT)
Since its first presentation in 2006, it has grown in depth and strength and has so far been presented in many countries in Europe, in the US, and now in the Middle and Far East.
It was introduced as an innovative new approach working with actions methods in the community as a way to restore our losing sense of belonging and togetherness.
In the shamanic form of spirituality, when one person falls sick the whole community becomes sick, when one is out of balance the whole community is. Therefore everyone comes together for one persons healing thereby knowing that the whole community will benefit from this. Anthropologists date shamanistic spirituality back to between 40000 and 100000 years.
DT honours these ancient beliefs and acknowledges that here we find the roots of all drama and theatre. For example, Native-American warriors would re-enact their battles with the whole tribe as a way of sharing their story. If he had taken a life, his guilt would be shared by the community by re-enactment and he would during the play be welcomed back into the community rather than be left alone to deal with his ghosts of war.
So what is DT?
The principle difference between DT and Psychodrama is that all Auxiliary egos are played blind, or incognito. It is only the director and the storyteller that know the identity of the auxiliary egos. This we believe, allows the true hidden dynamic to reveal itself in any given situation in its purest form without any personal interference from the people being auxiliaries. In other words, the auxiliary ego is free from “a role” which allows him/her to express spontaneously from his/her most inner core. There is no fear of offending the storyteller or saying the wrong thing because everything is valid.
For someone who has not experienced DT, he might find the concept - that it is not only possible but very easy to communicate the energy of the storytellers’ mother, or organisation, or a cancerous growth or an ancestor – quite preposterous.
But to see that person become that element in the drama is truly inspiring, not being hindered by the restrain of knowledge or control.
As the great German poet Herman Hesse says:
“Only within yourself exists that reality for which you long.
I can give you nothing that has not already its being within yourself.
I can throw open to you no picture gallery but your own soul”
In other words, we simply would not be able to access these levels of being, were we not already connected.
Sociodramatically, taking the energy of something of our world, could well be something of importance for society. We have seen how a group, a dream, a fear could reveal profound new truths for the society involved. It can give a process that allows for some deep questioning and exploration of the shadows of society. If the important auxiliaries would have been known in advance, we would miss out on the social reactions that are not in line with our egos. That is we would not reveal the shadows within ourselves, within the group or within the society. But, and this is profound: “we simply would not be able to access these levels of being were we not already connected”.
DT offers a technique and system which allows us to access the shadows of our communities. It reveals to us that in every nation there are wounds to heal and that in every heart there is power to do it
©MW08
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