Forum Theater of the Classroom

What participants gain

• Develop somatic awareness of how bias and tension manifest in the body.
• Practice and refine real-time verbal interventions for classroom microaggressions.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of different disruption strategies through immediate peer feedback.

Materials needed

• Open floor space with chairs pushed to the edges
• Printed scenario cards based on real higher-ed situations
• Empathy Map canvases for reflection
• A physical prop (like a talking stick or a bell) to signal 'Freeze'
• Whiteboard for capturing successful phrases

How to run Forum Theater of the Classroom, step by step

1. Clear the center of the room to create a 'stage' and establish strict ground rules for emotional safety and 'stepping out' of character.
2. Ask for 3-4 volunteers to read through a provided scenario card depicting a common classroom microaggression.
3. Direct the volunteers to act out the scenario once completely, without interruption, while the audience observes.
4. Instruct the actors to begin the scene a second time, telling the audience they can yell 'Freeze!' at any moment.
5. When an audience member yells 'Freeze', ask them to step onto the stage, replace one of the actors, and attempt an intervention.
6. Allow the scene to play out with the new intervention strategy for 2-3 minutes.
7. Stop the action and facilitate a brief 'retro' asking the actors how the intervention felt in their bodies and from their character's perspective.
8. Capture effective phrases and strategies on the whiteboard.
9. Repeat the freeze-and-replace process 3-4 times per scenario to test multiple approaches.
10. Distribute Empathy Map canvases and ask participants to silently reflect on the emotions and thoughts of the marginalized student in the scenario.
11. Conclude with a physical 'de-roling' exercise, having actors shake out their limbs and explicitly state they are leaving the character behind.

Facilitator tips

• The facilitator acts as the 'Joker' (director), ensuring safety and keeping the action moving.
• Never force anyone to act. The 'spect-actor' role of observing and suggesting is equally valid.
• If an intervention goes poorly, celebrate it! This is the place to fail safely.
• Ensure the scenarios are realistic but not re-traumatizing; avoid enacting extreme violence or slurs.
• Strictly enforce the 'de-roling' at the end to prevent emotional bleed-over into the rest of the day.

Common challenges

• Reluctance to volunteer - The facilitator should model the first intervention to break the ice.
• Interventions becoming overly aggressive - Guide participants toward Non-Violent Communication techniques.
• Intellectualizing instead of acting - Gently push participants to 'show us, don't tell us'.
• Emotional triggering - Have a designated quiet space and a co-facilitator ready to support anyone who needs to step out.

Running it virtually

Use Zoom gallery view. The 'actors' keep their cameras on, while the audience turns theirs off. To intervene, an audience member turns their camera on and says 'Freeze', then takes over the role.

Expected results

Participants will gain tested, practical phrases for intervening in bias, and experience an embodied understanding of the emotional dynamics of microaggressions.

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