EXERCISE: Role playing
From WRIWiki
Role Playing
1. Roleplaying is used to develop a sense of tactics, individual competence, and group cohesion. The main advantage of roleplaying over other tools is that by its nature it involves people's emotions as well as their intellects in the experience. Because participants are more deeply engaged in roleplaying than they are in lectures and discussions, they learn more, and probably more quickly, from roleplaying than from most other training experiences. It is thus an important tool to use at the beginning of training, when participants should be encouraged to get as much from the training as they can.
Participants can be expected to raise the question of realism and artificiality in roleplaying; and it should be answered fairly. Roleplaying is not 'like' the real situation and must not pretend to be. Roleplaying is a training tool, nothing more. Roleplaying simulates crucial aspects of reality and ignores others so that these central issues can be explored in a way that people become aware of the issues and of how to meet them in real situations. In fact, when people question the realism of role-playing, they often do so defensively; their reaction can be an indication that the experience came too close to realism for comfort, particularly the emotional aspects of the situation.
There is also a tendency in roleplaying to view the experience as a game, since roleplaying enables people to reduce tension. While this tension-reduction is a valid reason for role-playing, participants can be helped to make it more than that.
Avoid stereotypes such as the evil landlord and the faceless authority by defining the context and the plot very carefully. For example, directions should not call for 'a march', but 'a march to educate the public about chemical and bacteriological weapons.' The context of the action always provides more issues and provocation for action than the strategy alone.
An example of roleplaying:
Plot: An anti-war rally is taking place. Three marshals are standing in front of the speakers' platform where one speaker is talking. Four disrupters move from the crowd, demand the right to speak, and finally charge in an attempt to seize the podium.
Cast: Speaker, 3 marshals, 4 disrupters, crowd.
Discussion points: What should be the role of the speaker and marshals in keeping the crowd cool? What about interposition of marshals in front of the speaker's stand? Does anyone attempt to reason with disrupters or engage them in conversation? Can people cool a situation by sitting down, etc.? .
After giving just enough information to start, the groups are given a few minutes to map out tactics, and the roleplay begins. After the most important issues are uncovered, or when the role-play comes to a natural conclusion, the director cuts the action. After a brief pause, evaluation begins. This should be brisk and go on only as long as new issues are raised and participants are exploring problems and alternatives. It is better to stop the evaluation before all the issues are explored, than allow it to drag on. Usually twenty minutes is enough. It is often helpful to start another roleplay rather than continue the discussion. One way to do this is to repeat the same basic plot with different people in the roles, or change the situation by bringing in new roles, such as police or crowd reactions in the example given.
Most limitations of roleplaying arise from poor direction, slow pace, or irrelevant plots. When issues are clear, when the plot is carefully defined, when the pace is brisk, and when participants are involved, roleplaying is the strongest training tool available for its purposes.
