Theatre for Development

Using this concept, we looked at a play that was inspired by a folk tale of the Brothers Grimm. This play was performed as a piece of TfD and it is called Lady Will You Marry Me?
The script we got (which is only a section of the whole script) is about Mr. Cat trying to persuade Lady Mouse to marry him, but she is outraged since she cannot imagine a matrimony between a cat and a mouse.

We read the script and interpreted it as if we were going to perform it (as a TfD) here in Japan:
We discussed about it and here's our ideas:
>The stage here would be at a park (maybe at actually a park and perform in an open theatre) since lady mouse says "The sun, the flowers. the fragrance..." and she picks up a flower, thus indicating that this scene is set at a park.
> Incorporating Japanese elements into the play.
-The song "You are my Sunshine" will be sung with a different melody (Sakura or something well known).
> Moral: Don't rush into marriages.
Since divorces are frowned upon in Japan, we are trying to educate people to not rush into decisions like matrimony.
>Grotowski's theory with the poor theatre: Although Mr. Cat is meant to be a cat and Lady Mouse is meant to be a mouse, we will not use animal costumes but rather normal clothes (according to their personality or where they work) and the actors use their imagination to create a cat, or a mouse.
> Comedy: to keep the audience interested (otherwise they will not learn the concept) we will use comedy as an element. Although it is leisure, they will still learn the moral.
> Participation: This will ensure that the audience will watch the play "actively." Kind of like Boal's "spect-actors".
Since this is in a park, the actors could go around the actors so that it seems like this scene is happening for real.
> Mr. Cat will be a "host." They are popular here in Japan, and they are meant to be good-looking.
Lady Mouse will be a rich graduate (who doesn't work and lives off her parent's money). Since she isn't doing much of her life, she is naive in the sense that she doesn't have much experience.