theatre of senses
If you love theatre and you have a warm feeling for people with a mental handicap, you must know all about De Lachende Zon. The name of this theatre group means: ‘The Smiling Sun’ and they really succeed in making their public smile.
DLZ exists almost 10 years and was founded by Elco van Alphen. He has always been working with mentally handicapped people and he discovered that there was no specific theatre for people who were very serious limited in their functioning.
He started to develop a way of theatre which is comprehensible for people who cannot talk. Furthermore, the mental age of the public is about 2 years old, but their real age is mostly much higher. However, they are adult people and you must not treat them like kids. Apart from their mental limitations, the public has a lot of physical handicaps. They are often in wheel chairs, for example.
Instead of looking at all the disfunctions they have, you must depart from their abilities. The public can hear, feel, see, smell, taste, make sounds etc. They can be reached by their senses. It was clear from the beginning that the central idea of the theatre performace should be: stimulation through the senses. The only way to make contact with the audience, and that is what theatre is all about, is to activate the senses.
The public is in a large room, for example a sports hall, and they can sit or walk wherever they want. Two actors dressed in all kind of materials observe their public. No more than 15 people with a mental handicap are allowed to attend the performance in order to have direct contact with everyone in the public. The actors try to stimulate the audience by making rain, wind, cold and sounds.
The play is based on a story which the public does not understand. But that is not important. When somebody in the audience opens his eyes and smiles just a bit, or has sparkles in his eyes, then you know you have touched him. So, at the end of the show there will be no loud applause but some parents or professional councellors who are impressed. But most importantly, the handicapped people have experienced a theatre play which they could follow.
At this moment in time, DLZ is performing its third play at different homes for handicapped people. The way of communicating, introduced and developed by DLZ has become such a success that they are passing on this information to others. The two actors are giving workshops to councellors and family members of handicapped people. The best way to teach this communication method, is to let the pupils observe each other and then let them imitate what they see. By introducing small changes in behaviour, you can start to manipulate the interaction. This is where communication starts.
In the future, DLZ wants to use its abilities and knowledge achieved in working with mental handicapped people for people who do not have these kind of handicaps. The actors are now producing a show for theatre festivals based on stimulation of the senses. To succeed in this, it is very important to earn the faith of the audience. Then, you can do almost everything, like covering the eyes of someone in the audience and let him taste something. The Smiling Sun is giving pleasure! If you open your mind, you will experience them in the future.
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