4The Community Theatre Project

Under the big tree Uncle Saleh told an old tale, and the little girl wished she could see the tale with her own eyes. That is how the idea was born: a theatre where villagers of every age could take part, sharing their talents and their stories. Fawzooz decided to run the project with Scrum, once he had adapted it for creative work.

How the team worked

“On the stage, everyone became part of the story.”

One design guide. In the first week everyone drew in their own style, and the posters looked nothing like the scenery. So the team wrote a design guide to keep the posters and the sets in one style, and prepared templates that sped up the work and kept its quality high.

A record that keeps every version. The team saved its designs in a record that keeps every version, so anyone could go back to an old version or try a different design without losing anything. A week before the show the young man wiped out the whole “forest scene”, and the record brought it back in a minute.

A shared library. The team kept its drawings and pictures in a shared library that everyone could reach, and that updated for everyone whenever someone changed something. They also added small tools to their design software to handle formatting and the first quality checks.

From the very first day the team thought about what could hold it up: the parents’ approval of the script might come late, and all the wood came from a single carpenter. So they met regularly to go over these risks and adjust the timetable and the resources.

A board on the wall. The team hung a big board on the wall of the hall showing what was done, what was under way and what had stalled. Everyone looked at it every day, and they sorted out whatever had stalled quickly. During each cycle and after it they gathered people’s views and brought them into their work.

At one of the try-outs the grandmother complained that the sound didn’t reach the back rows, so Fawzooz moved the stage forward and coached the actors.

Then came the night of the show. Young and old climbed onto the stage to act out Uncle Saleh’s tale, and on the stage everyone became part of the story.

In this way Fawzooz and his team finished the community theatre efficiently and to the standard a work of art deserves, enriching the village and strengthening its cultural and spiritual values.