Creative Arts
Big Step for the Pacific
Vanuatu’s Wan Smolbag Theater Co. Makes People Think — and Act
When Charleon Falau auditioned for a theater group in Vanuatu in the late 1980s, he had little idea that the actors would emerge at the forefront of many controversial political and social issues — not just in Vanuatu, but in countries throughout the Pacific region.
Vanuatu’s Wan Smolbag theater company started out with a health thrust in the late 1980s. In the early days, it gained popularity with plays targeting the spread of HIV/AIDS. The skit, "Like Any Other Lovers", was so well received that the Sec-retariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) funded its production as a video that was widely disseminated in the Pacific. In recent years, Wan Smolbag (WSB) has expanded its horizons, tackling child and spouse abuse, sexual health of young people, prevention of TB and malaria, fisheries and forestry awareness, conflicts between village and urban life, and good government issues.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Overcoming ignorance and challenging out-dated ways of thinking is at the heart of what WSB is all about. The Vanuatu theater company is constantly pushing the envelope of what is considered acceptable by island standards to get issues that some would rather not talk about out on the table for public discussion. They’ve traveled to schools, villages, and prisons, as well as made presentations to prime ministers and parliamentarians. The use of theater breaks through normal communication barriers on sensitive subjects because the performances are spiced with witty dialogue, music and often-hilarious action by the actors. "Drama works in the Pacific," Falau said. "People love it."
 |
|
|
Since WSB was founded in 1989, it has grown into one of the largest non-governmental organizations in Vanuatu, with 11 core group actors and four office and program managers. It includes WSB Kids, a more recent addition, composed of six young people who never when to school or dropped out, plus their manager. WSB also has a Health Force Theater, another group made up of young school leavers. And its youth clinic, started in 1998, is staffed by two nurses and eight outreach workers. The organization has another 60 part time staff and volunteers throughout the country.
The catalyst for WSB was the partnership of Jo Dorris and Peter Walker, expatriate teachers who moved to Vanuatu from Zimbabwe. Walker had trained as an actor in England and Dorris, aside from teaching skills, is a writer. They launched an active theater group from a school at which they taught in Zimbabwe, which toured Zimbabwe, Botswana and the UK. But once they moved to Vanuatu, they teamed up with interested Ni-Vanuatu to start WSB — giving up teaching for the full time behind-the-scenes work of writing and directing dramas, and securing funding.
 |
Speaking about one of their early AIDS plays, Falau said it was difficult for the village-based nurses in Vanuatu to talk openly on AIDS because of cultural taboos about talking about sex. When the nurses lecture, they didn’t get large attendance or much reaction, he said. "But after our play, people were shouting questions," he said. "We break the ice with drama and make people feel free to talk." Still, said actress Helen Rarua, they often ran into Vanuatu villagers who said "we shouldn’t talk about AIDS," including some who threatened them with violence if they didn’t stop. Falau’s matter-of-fact reaction to these threats to his personal safety was to say, "we have to give you our information. If you don’t like it, then throw it away. But I’m not leaving this village without sharing the information." In some cases, before making their presentations, the actors have had to sit and have lengthy discussions — even negotiations — with village chiefs, religious leaders and others who have objections to Wan Smolbag openly addressing issues involving sex and body functions relating to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Their persistence, however, usually pays off — and with the reputation WSB has gained over the years, their programs are, more often than not, in great demand.
In at least one instance, Falau was threatened by an ax-wielding villager. But Falau wasn’t phased by this because he said the vast majority of people want to learn and participate in the program. Both Falau and Rarua say that a key element of their programs is the discussion that follows their plays. "After our plays, we talk straight," Rarua said. "People have lots of questions. Sometimes, we’ll sit and talk for hours. Even when we’re getting ready to go to bed, people come by and ask us questions." All of the actors have become well-versed on the health themes that they target.
Is the theater company having an impact on people’s behavior? Yes, say both Falau and Rarua. In one Vanuatu village, a chief was stopping young girls from using contraceptive pills. Following Wan Smolbag programs in the village and visits with the chief, "we find the girls are now allowed to use the contraceptives," Rarua said. In other instances, village nurses report that following a visit by the theater company, villagers’ visits to the health clinic increase significantly. Regional organizations have recognized the effectiveness of WSB’s dramas. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has contracted with WSB to train groups of nurses and health educators around the Pacific in the use of drama for health outreach.
During 2000, WSB teams worked with organizations such as Youth to Youth in Health — which employs a similar drama model for health promotion in the Marshall Islands — and also trained a Kiribati group in taking three stage plays and turning them into radio dramas. Similarly, OXFAM New Zealand is funding the building of a recording studio in Vanuatu in return for a series of radio "soap" dramas on reproductive health themes. These have spread WSB’s influence far beyond the intimacy of a drama performance for a small village audience.
Their involvement in the recent national election campaign was a landmark for the theater company. The European Union funded public education around the election, which involved teams of actors going village-to-village talking (through drama) about good government, ethics of politicians, corruption and people’s right of free choice.
The election "was our biggest tour," said Falau. "We went to villages all over Vanuatu." It got to the point, he said, that villages were telling the candidates not to come until after WSB had visited and performed first. Wan Smolbag, obviously, is no ordinary theater company. Besides its grassroots popularity, it has attracted funding support from a diverse group of international donors, including the European Union, Department for International Development (UK), United Nations programs, AusAid, World Wildlife Federation, New Zealand Overseas Development Assistance and OXFAM New Zealand.
Going beyond drama to directly link their health promotion to health service delivery — particularly for the chronically under-served youth population — in 1998, the program launched its own health clinic and drop-in center. It runs outreach workshops and offers a program for 10-14 year olds on how the body works and the changes of adolescence. It also provides confidential reproductive health counseling and services. The clinic started as a result of a community play project and WSB actors form a day-to-day management committee, while health department staff and other community/NGO representatives participate in a wider oversight committee for the clinic.
Wan Smolbag is providing a much-needed mirror for Pacific islanders — people who are stepping, often in one generation, out of a relatively isolated, subsistence-based existence into the modern world of AIDS, gender discrimination, political corruption and numerous conflicts between traditional and urban ways of living. And they’re doing it the Pacific way: with laughter and music and story-telling.
