Image: Jason Mraz and Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein performing on the stage together with two youth performers from Human Drama theatre forum troupe. Photo © MTV EXIT
The Project
Human Drama is an arts for social development project which aims to utilise forum theatre as a means of empowering Myanmar communities to challenge social issues. In December 2012, the troupe was invited by the Regional Office of MTV EXIT to train 40 youth from ten non-governmental organisations in Myanmar about theatre forum skills to help with an anti-human trafficking campaign.
The campaign was planned to coincide with the first ever international music concert on ending modern slavery by Jason Mraz at the People’s Park in Yangon in December 2012. A number of Myanmar music icons together with Slot Machine from Thailand performed with Jason.
The concert included an exhibition on raising anti-human trafficking awareness and the youth performers and trainees from Human Drama performed a play to an audience of 130,000 people.
After the concert, the theatre troupe were invited to perform a play with Jason Mraz and two famous Myanmar singers, Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein and R Zarni as part of MTV World Stage.
Jason Mraz Live will be shown worldwide on MTV channels on 8, 9 and 10 March 2013. You can see the live performance on the MTV EXIT website.
Following the success of the use of theatre forum method in raising awareness of anti-human trafficking, the Human Drama theatre group were invited and sponsored by MTV EXIT and World Vision to train youth leaders from Hpa-an (Karen State) and Mawlamyaing (Mon State) in theatre skills and performance. Plays about anti-human trafficking were attended by thousands of local community members.