The Hive 🐝— immersive community theatre
The Community Theatre format “The Hive” that took place at David Farm on the 21 & 22 of April 2023. It was an improvised roleplay journey that brought together a group of Israelis, Palestinians and volunteers from around the world to connect through play. We lived out a story of a new Queen Bee election for the Hive, to explore themes of belonging, power and responsibility.
In play, there is no agenda. It has a unique potential to create bridges and bring people together. We play as kids, and modern life makes us grow up and loose this childlike wonder. This experience was an invitation for us all to play again, freely, without judgement or expectations, to reawaken our inner child.
What is Community Theatre?
A Community Theatre experience prioritizes bringing people together from various walks of life, to connect and use story and play to deepen the relationship to ourselves, and the communities we are part of.
This is NOT a performance piece: it is an interactive theatre format that actively engages all participants to create the story and their characters together.
You DO NOT need to have prior theatre experience!! At the core, this format wants to make theatric play accessible to everyone, regardless of experience or background. We borrow elements of Improvisational Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, Clowning, LARPing, and more to create and play together. It’s fun and educational!
Play as you are! Everyone is encouraged to play however they feel and change anytime. Our bodies lead the play: if you are angry and want to release, play an angry persona. If you are sad and want to embrace this emotion, use the sadness to inspire how you play. And if you are tired and want to relax, then your persona will be all about chillin’ the f*ck out. There is no right or wrong — think play-inspired, emotional release**.**
Building worlds together is a collective act in which all participants commit to the story and create the art, theatre, and food together.
About the Hosts - David Farm
I was lucky to work with my friend Sharon and use the incredible David Farm as our stage for the the theatre experience. It is a space that many participants were familiar with, and feel at home. It is also a mixture of revolutionary spirits, DIY builders and eco-artists, with 20+ cats, 2 1/2 dogs, volunteers, a food garden and loads of tables and materials to work with.
About the Play - The original Beehive
The inspiration for the experience came from a Berlin based community called “The Beehive”. Every Solstice the community gathered to crown a new „queen bee“. This archetype role can be played however the elected queen pleases, while giving an invitation to explore power and share responsibility for personal and communal development.
For this proof of possibility, we wanted to create an experience that helps participants step beyond the Isr-Pal conflict / dialogal process of meeting each other and use play as a regenerative source to explore culture, traditions, and connection.
The experience day started with a symbolic bullshit-ceremony, during which all participants and hosts were invited to “let go” of emotional baggage that might hold them during the experience.
During a following character & story workshop, participants were guided to explore their current emotional state, and use that to inspire their bee-persona. We explored our characters purpose, how they move, feel and interact and invited everyone to create their own improvised backstory. We also created a “shared language”: finding ways of greeting, thanking and expressing appreciations and boundaries in our own unique Hive way.
The experience and day became increasingly bizarre. The highpoint was reached during the celebratory ritual dinner, for which we put up a gala table and invited the local cats (our Gods in the story), to eat from the table and pick the last nominee.
Feedback
People with no previous acting or improv experience felt anxious and challenged at the start, but gradually relaxed into the experience and were among the most enthusiastic participants by the end.
“Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be intentionally transported back into the imagination of your 5 year old self with a group of like-minded humans and create a shared world by releasing expectations of normal behavior? So like that.” - Yaniv
“A lovely demonstration of an open space for playfulness and connection” -Dannah
Host your Community Theatre
If you are part of a tribe or community that would like to explore theatrical play to build stories and connections between humans, the land and history of your place, send me an e-mail to kuba@humanatplay.com !