Making Waves: COMPA

Making Waves

Stories of Participatory Communication

for Social Change

COMPA

1989 Bolivia

BASIC FACTS

TITLE: Teatro Trono y Comunidad de Productoresde Arte (COMPA)

COUNTRY: Bolivia

MAIN FOCUS: Drugs, environment, gender issues

PLACE: El Alto, near La Paz

BENEFICIARIES: Street children in El Alto

PARTNERS: Cinemateca Boliviana

FUNDING: Caritas Nederland, Stichting Kinderpostzegels Netherlands (SKN), Terre des Hommes, Ashoka

MEDIA: Theatre

SNAPSHOT

Early in 1991, during a regular meeting of Teatro Trono, street children are talking about creating a new project:

"It's too difficult to have someone funding it!"

"And how much would it cost?"

"Well, we need a house for eight people where the whole group will live, and we need to eat as well!"

"We could steal!" says Ch'ila, a small Aymara boy, he's 13 years old, only looks like ten, "and then we deposit the money in a bank!"

His eyes shine while his hands describe in detail an improbable robbery, in some place in the city of La Paz. A vast list of other crazy and creative ideas follow, and are gradually transformed into what later becomes COMPA, the Community of Art Producers, made of street children and youth, that have joined

Teatro Trono .

Why the name "Trono"? To confer a positive meaning to "tronar" (to be ruined), which is how kids nicknamed the Centre for Diagnosis and Therapy for Boys (CDTV) a government rehab shelter for street children. So now 'trono' will have a new meaning: to place children on a throne as the kings of imagination and fantasy. It is actually at that rehab centre that Teatro Trono was born on Christmas of 1989.

With the amount of personal effort invested, stealing, like Ch'ila had suggested several years earlier, became unnecessary. The persistent work of Teatro Trono during the 1990s made possible the consolidation of COMPA, the street children and youth cultural organisation which, other than the drama group, now includes an art film club, a library, a magazine shop, a group of puppeteers, and coordinates itinerant photo and art shows.

Excerpts from the book: "El Mañana es Hoy", by Iván Nogales Bazan, Claudio Urey Miranda, Angel Urey Miranda and Juan Santos Cornejo.

DESCRIPTION

Teatro Trono is the "point of the lance", of COMPA. It all started in 1989, as a result of the experience of working with street children initially within the framework of a government shelter, but, soon gained independence and autonomy so as to continue developing cultural activities for the children and youth of El Alto.

Most of the initial members of Teatro Trono were once street children themselves. They were successful in building COMPA and Teatro Trono projects where children have a managing responsibility.

Over the years the group has developed an organisation structured to respond to the activities that are offered to the public of El Alto: theatre, library, film shows and art exhibits. Four drama groups are currently active, one of them being a children's group that was established at a boy's foster home.

Teatro Trono has a repertoire of 14 plays, all developed as collective creations. Plays such as A Dog's Life The Legend of Coca Leaves On Donkeys and Flowers Feeling Dreadful have been performed not only for audiences in popular neighbourhoods of El Alto, but also during national cultural events and festivals over 300 performances for approximately 90,000 people. In addition, near 170 presentations were performed for 25,000 people during international tours through Europe and North America.

The topics that were developed during the first years had much to do with the daily life of street children and their relation to the community and the local institutions. A play such as A Dog's Life exposed in a very unwavering manner the miserable life of street children; another play El meón ridiculed the bureaucracy in government institutions for street children.

Gradually the areas of interest widened to cover other important issues. Teatro Trono is exploring some themes that are not sufficiently discussed in marginalised urban areas of El Alto, such as children's rights, national identity, drug trafficking, environmental awareness, gender equity, leadership, etc. This is done in scenes but also through other adapted media: dance, video and puppets. Although in-part some of these might have been donor-driven changes, it also shows that the members of Teatro Trono were evolving towards a more open perspective of their country and the world.

Currently, most of the work by Teatro Trono is on prevention. The life experience of the Teatro Trono initial founders has led them to work with children and youths before they step into the streets, thus supporting the initiatives of other social organisations that aim to strengthen family ties and promote children's rights.

Funding Teatro Trono activities has not been easy; during the first years the troupe performed in the streets and passed the hat to cover its basic needs. Ashoka and other organisations provided small seed funds, and recent three-year support from Caritas Nederland will provide Teatro Trono with a certain stability during the next few years.

The challenge is for Teatro Trono to remain as an independent group, to avoid bureaucratising and to continue functioning within a logical framework of self-management and collective decision-making.

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

El Alto is the poorest city in Bolivia. It was an extension of the capital city only twenty years ago until it became a gigantic low-income neighbourhood and was declared a city in its own right. It has been growing steadily to turn into the second largest metropolis in the country, and may soon equal La Paz. With very limited resources, the majority of the population of 700,000 in El Alto lives marginally, health and education services are precarious, and cultural development is far from being a priority.

Children in particular, live under difficult circumstances. Because of unemployment and migration, there are more than 7,000 street children in the four main cities of Bolivia, including El Alto. Government-run shelters and rehabilitation centres are largely insufficient. Among the children that enter these centres, 25 percent are kept in custody for theft, 11 percent for vagrancy, and 18 percent for bad conduct. There are no entertainment options for children and youth, which make them easy targets of alcoholism, drugs and sexual promiscuity.

More than any other city of Bolivia, children and youth in El Alto suffer from the lack of educational and cultural alternatives. Some cultural groups and NGOs are struggling to provide these alternatives, creating options for adolescents to get involved in artistic activities such as poetry, sculpture, painting, theatre, music, dance, photography and video production. COMPA and Teatro Trono are important examples of these alternatives.

ASPECTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

The changes affecting the lives of those that participated from the beginning in the Teatro Trono experience are clear: they are off the streets now. "They moved from the street to the theatre scene, and the scene became the vehicle to become protagonists in the scene of real life", says founder Ivan Nogales. He adds: "We promote the protagonism of children and youth with the view of searching for leaders for the future. There is a vacuum of leadership among children and young people in this country, and we try to change this through theatre".

The influence of COMPA and Teatro Trono has expanded over other areas of the city of El Alto, and to other cities of Bolivia. Adolescent boys and girls now have access to alternative and informal educational activities that contribute to strengthen their self-esteem, their cultural identities and their gender perspectives, thus allowing them to work on new drama groups that generate their own resources and effectively participate in the local dynamics of the neighbourhood.

Teatro Trono has been providing a decent way of living to many children and youths that otherwise would not have had any opportunities in El Alto. In Teatro Trono are the foundations of COMPA, which over the years has developed an innovative process involving communication, education and culture, deeply rooted in the marginalised social areas of El Alto.

Performances of Teatro Trono have already reached more than 80,000 children in El Alto and La Paz, with messages on environmental issues; and 15,000 with messages on educational reforms. Plays on self-esteem, gender issues, cultural identity and youth leadership, have already had an impact on children and have prompted some groups to organise around cultural activities. Many street children and adolescents have been rescued from drugs and marginality and are now integrated in positive cultural activities of various types.

MEDIA & METHODS

The whole methodology of Teatro Trono is based on collective work and active participation. Though the individual growth of each participant is the most essential outcome, the main purpose is to strengthen the collective. The group is involved at all stages of development of initiatives, either relating to the creation of a new play or to the management of resources. A collective decision is needed in every instance in order to proceed.

Training is done along five "flexible" stages that aim to awaken the critical and creative talents of children and adolescents, through various drama techniques.

The process of creating a new play involves research at the community level, building the characters based on real people, the community "heroes" that can be easily identified by the audience. These are often characterised as people with strong will and determination to fight for their community and to stand for it in front of official authorities and decision-makers.

CONSTRAINTS

The total absence of external sources of funding during the initial years often put Teatro Trono in jeopardy. The troupe had to generate revenues from street performances, which had serious limits.

This had an impact on the young and recently incorporated actors, which for the most part were street adolescents who had no contact with their original families and had already adapted to live the street culture prevailing in El Alto. They were also emotionally unstable and the problems in their personal lives substantially affected their participation in Teatro Trono activities.

Ironically, the fact that COMPAS and Teatro Trono has more access now to external sources of funding, is having an impact on the very nature of its work. External funding has ties and conditions, such as prompting Teatro Trono to become a legal organisation, an institution within the law equipped with an administrative hierarchy and financial procedures. This is somehow resulting in Teatro Trono gradually abandoning street work and focusing more on other audiences, including those internationally. It may soon become a well-respected theatre group, but the risk is that it will be cut from its roots. Certain donor-driven topics, such as environment and gender, have become standard in Teatro Trono repertory.

REFERENCES

Information for this chapter was provided by Ivan Nogales through e-mail exchanges.

A book on Teatro Trono was written by its founders: El mañana es hoy by Iván NogalesBazan, Claudio Urey Miranda, Angel Urey Miranda, Juan Santos Cornejo. Editorial Plural, 1998. 358 pages.

Pata chueca by Stefan Gurtner. Editorial Los Amigos del libro, La Paz, Bolivia, 1998.

A short video documentary illustrates the work of Teatro Trono La Hoja Sagrada Directed by Iván Sanjines. Bolivia, 1993. 17 minutes.

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