Macau | ‘Theatresports’ promotes anti-drug message to youth

Local youngsters competed against one another last night in an impromptu drama competition at Pui Ching Middle School as part of the government’s anti-drug efforts targeting local youth.
The second edition of ‘Theatresports’ organized by the Social Welfare Bureau and Theatre Farmers saw a total of seven participating teams, two more than last year’s, giving the teenage contestants an opportunity to hone their improvisational performing skills while spreading the message of rejecting drugs across the city.
Held every year since 2001, the group’s founding member Jacky Li introduced the concept of improvisational theater to the city, based on an idea he saw implemented in Canada. The local theater promotion group holds a regional championship where stage actors from surrounding Asian countries come to the region to pit themselves against each other for titles.
The idea of the miniature championship came about last year as part of the government’s strengthened efforts to combat drug abuse among local youth, using a similar format.
With props available for use on the stage, participants equipped with anti-drug knowledge through earlier training had to battle it out in the first round, which consisted of 14 games, to get through to the second round, also known as danger round, that was to determine the final champion out of only two finalists. The competition also had other awards to recognize outstanding teams for their command of anti-drug knowledge or teamwork.
One interesting feature about the impromptu drama challenge is the audience’s involvement, as it requires spectators to set the context in some of the games.
“Its biggest feature is the interaction with audiences, as they sometimes have a chance to suggest roles such a nurse or street cleaner and a scene, based on which the contestants improvise a story,” said Sun Li, program coordinator at Theatre Farmers, also among the personnel assisting last night’s function. “Different games give the audiences freedom to set the scene to different extent.”
‘Theatresports’ was first pioneered by British-Canadian theater director Keith Johnstone, who wished to spice up theatrical activities by turning them into a sport-like competition, where two sides or more vie on the stage as a way to entertain the audience. Staff reporter