After colleagues from the Geese Theatre in Birmingham visited aufBruch rehearsals and the production of “Three Penny Opera” in Tegel Prison as part of the “Cultural Bridge” program in the summer, aufBruch employees Sibylle Arndt (production manager), Peter Atanassow (director) and Holger Syrbe (project manager) undertook a tour of the partner project Geese Theatre in Birmingham from November 19 to 22, 2024.

Through zoom meetings and lively e-Mail exchanges, the stay was well planned in advance and tightly timed. The journey to HMP Oakwood prison near Birmingham started at 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday. While driving through the morning traffic jam, we familiarised ourselves once again with the special security regulations in the English prison and the guidelines of Geese's work. The opportunity to visit a private prison and experience the work processes there was completely new for us. The prison was a new and clearly laid out facility. The staff at the prison seemed to us to be quite young and well motivated on average. The processes were orderly and clearly structured. We could not immediately see any direct differences to state prison facilities. However, there was a clear overcrowding. The number of prisoners per 1000 inhabitants in England is about twice as high as in Germany.

We took part in a 2-day workshop program with a morning and an afternoon rehearsal of about 2.5 hours each. The workshop was conducted by Lou and Dave, two experienced actors and trainers trained in the special Geese methods. A group of 8 prisoners took part. They were all in a prison phase that is intended to prepare them for release and is completed over about 4 months in a drug-free part of the prison. We made contact quickly and easily and were seamlessly integrated into the first group exercises. We quickly learned the warm-up exercises and contact games and plan to integrate some of them into our programs.

The Geese method of working with theatre masks was used intensively over the next few hours, creating game situations with different options for action and solutions, and promoting the expression and perception of feelings among the participants. Using very different approaches, special exercises and games were found for each participant that specifically addressed and involved each individual. Everyone was able to join in the game and discover and contribute their own thoughts and feelings. The direct and expressive charisma of the participants was immediately familiar to us and reminded us of our projects in Berlin.

Although the room was not necessarily well suited for the workshop, as other people were constantly passing through the room and were not always considerate and quiet, the Geese colleagues established a focused and concentrated professional working atmosphere in which many theatrical explorations and exercises were completed.

During this time we were able to learn a lot about the reasons and methodology of the workshop work and the use of masks at Geese Theatre and to see the effects achieved in the participants even in a short time. A highly intensive and professional workshop! Geese's work is firmly rooted in English prison and also in the work in community theatre and immediately set us thinking about the usability of elements of this form of theatre.

In the evening we had arranged to meet up for dinner with almost the entire theatre crew. We had an entertaining and interesting evening together during which a lot of information and anecdotes were exchanged and common problems were discussed.

There was another working meeting on Friday, at which we began to make joint plans and develop concrete ideas for the integration of work elements and joint projects.

https://www.geese.co.uk/