Fighting Human Trafficking with Theater

Main Role

Communications

Scope of Work

Print design, video production

Alex Yates

Creative Director

Giang Nguyen

Designer

Manh Nguyen

Videographer

Background

The British Council has long fought to end human trafficking in Southeast Asia. As part of this mandate, it initiated an innovative project that would use Forum Theater techniques to spread awareness and engage local communities throughout five vulnerable provinces in the north of Vietnam.

Forum Theater is an innovative performance style that enables audience members to become involved in true-to-life scenarios, discuss and understand the dynamics at play, and intervene to change outcomes, all as the story unfolds before them onstage. It is designed to model a real-world community intervention in a way that is inclusive, respectful, and easy to understand. And as such, it requires extemporaneous and impromptu decision making by trained actors as they break the fourth wall and bring viewers into the story.

The British Council in Vietnam implemented a “train-the-trainer” approach to use Forum Theater as a means to help community audiences explore different human trafficking situations, and how to respond to them. The first step would be to train a large group of youth leaders in Forum Theater techniques, which they could then take back to their cities and replicate with new audiences. By using local “cascade trainers” to both spread the Forum Theater model and the advocacy and awareness goals of this particular project, the British Council hoped to widen its impact and ensure true local ownership. 

Fourdozen became engaged in the project during its early stages, working directly with Forum Theater experts in Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Our task was to produce complementary digital and print resources in Vietnamese that would support the trainees, film a suite of videos that would bring those resources to life, and produce a final performance video.

Our Big Idea 

Complicating efforts to carry out the plan, and to develop the resources, was the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and subsequent fourth wave of infections in Vietnam, which led to a monthslong, nationwide lockdown that restricted movement dramatically. This meant that the kind of indoor training and performances that The British Council hoped to convene would be impossible, and that Fourdozen’s role of chronicler and storyteller for these events would have to be rethought.

Working with trainers in London, Ho Chi Minh city, and Hanoi, Fourdozen pivoted to a storytelling approach that leaned heavily on our skills as illustrators and motion graphic artists. Instead of traveling to Hanoi, trainees gathered in groups in their home provinces and attended the sessions virtually, with their exercises and mini-performances being carried out in community centers and schools across northern Vietnam. Fourdozen coordinated with the British Council to deploy filming teams at each location, capturing highlights from five days filled with active learning.

Being unable to film an actual performance in person, Fourdozen adapted our plan, deploying the illustrated characters from the beautiful training manual that we were developing as the main characters of four animated explainer videos. With scripts workshopped by Forum Theater experts in three cities, voice talent recorded in Hanoi, and hundreds of hours of animation work, we were able to produce videos that were a perfect balance of informative and beautiful. 

Results

The project took approximately 3 months to complete, and resulted in a 70-page illustrated manual that captures the entirety of the Forum Theater training. Delivered in both English and Vietnamese, the manual is an evergreen resource that can be used regardless of national context, or the social issue that a trainee may seek to address with Forum Theater. The manual is supplemented by four beautiful, animated videos that explain some of the more challenging concepts. Finally, as the lockdown began to ease, Fourdozen scheduled a studio session with two Vietnamese KOLs with millions of followers between them to record a highly-produced video blog drawing attention to human trafficking, and the British Council’s innovative Forum Theater project designed to address it.


Alex Yates

Creative Director

Giang Nguyen

Designer

Manh Nguyen

Videographer

Work with Us

Let us know a little bit about your project.

Hire Us

Interested in working with Fourdozen? No project is too big or too small. Leave us your name and email below, along with a little info about your project, and we will reach out to you regarding our work.