for Personal and Social Change

Psychodrama, Sociodrama and Art Courses by Ken Sprague

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• WHY action methods?
• WHO leads the workshops?
• WHERE are courses held?
• WHEN are the workshops?
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HOW WE LIVE
It came together for me in a car from Stansted to the M4 - a distance of 55 miles. It took two and a half hours of petrol choking misery, thousands of cars nose to tail. The cost in time and money must have been huge, the environmental damage monstrous, and the human stress devastating. Many drivers do such journeys twice a day, five days a week, Meanwhile, our railways are the worst in Europe. It feels crazy, and changing it feels right.

UNIVERSAL PEACE
We are told that on Sept 11th 2001, the world changed. The world didn't, change, but the USA did. Americans felt on their own soil the tragedy and horror their military has been exporting world-wide all of my life.

Our Ministry of Defence has asked for an extra five hundred million pounds annually for the next four years, to cover the cost of the Afghan war. Yet we're told that more veterans of the Falklands War have committed suicide than were killed during the battles. Surely that suggests it's time to put the guns down.

However, the good news is that the people of Ireland are still moving towards peace, against all the odds. In South Africa, after apartheid, a commission of reconciliation took that country towards peace. And we should not forget that the people of America forced their president to "bring the boys home", helping to stop the Viet-nam war.

HELPING MEN TO CHANGE
Increasingly, in my community work at home and abroad, I find women looking at their male partners of many years, and asking, "Is this all there is?" Now, more than ever, women need to achieve their creative potential. They need change, their men don't. In fact men have a real problem. They are conditioned by hundreds of years of learned behaviour, one bit of which is positively dangerous - i.e. the aggressive macho man so beloved of Hollywood film-makers and arms manufacturers. Society isn't helping, for society itself is rooted in a global profits system that opposes change. Positions of power in finance, industry politics arms manufacture and military might are in the hands of older men, also trapped by out-dated behaviour.

USING OUR CREATIVE POWER
Brenda Ueland says that we must all use our creative abilities "because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money."

Those are characteristics and attitudes needed if social justice is to be achieved. We need to move the letter "C" in "reaction" to make the greater word "creation". My courses are about changing our reactions to current problems, (whether motorways, war or human relationships), in a creative way.

Ken Sprague, Lynton

WHY ART?
Art is certainly one of the first action methods. Art isn't about talking, it's about doing. We are all spontaneous and artistic. They are the gifts of birth. Watch any group of four-year-olds. They don't say "I can't draw." "I can't paint or dance or act", they just do it. But society intervenes, demanding work, conformity and profit, and suggests we leave art to artists. But art is too important to be left to artists. At Creative Action Workshops, the artistry of everyone is seen as vital to the process of change, both personally and socially.

MAKING ART RELEVANT
At Creative Action Workshops, the artistry of everyone is seen as vital to the process of change, both personally and socially.

A founder member of the British Psychodrama Association, he studied with Marcia Karp, Zerka Moreno, Merlyn Pitzeli, and many others of Dr Moreno's original band of students. He gained the Holwell diploma, was the designer, builder and later co-director of the Holwell International Psychodrama Centre. Ken studied sociodrama with Warren Parry in Australia. He was Europe's first qualified sociodramatist and is an assessor for psychodrama and sociodrama students. He is also an external trainer.

Ken has drawn since he was four, and had his first engraving published when he was eleven. He studied for the National Diploma of design on an ex-service grant, and later won many awards, including the British Council of Industrial Design Prize for his Martin Luther King work. He was designer of Britain's first Trade Union tabloid newspaper and its first editor, doing much to modernise labour movement journalism. Ken has been cartooning for progressive journals for 64 years. He travels the world, and finds that people are more alike than different. He thinks of himself as an Internationalist, proud of his English heritage. He wants to see Britain's subservience to the United States government replaced by true friendship with the American people.

He is available for talks and workshops for your own organisations and community projects.

PSYCHODRAMA AND SOCIODRAMA COURSES
Action method workshops are held at the Ken Sprague's studio - 8, Cavendish Place Lynton N. Devon EX35 6AD. Small groups are held at Ken's home, one of the oldest cottages in the village. Large groups meet in the commodious village hall. All are within a few minutes walk of each other, and of local accommodation.

Each course is tailored to the needs of those attending. There is an introductory get-together at 8:00 on Saturday evening (Friday for weekend course). Main course work begins on Monday at 10:00 am sharp. The first day concentrates on building a safe environment in which participants go at their own pace, respecting the group's need for confidentiality.

ART COURSES
Drawing, painting and printing courses take place at the same venues mentioned above, but also use the remarkable North Devon landscape for drawing and painting trips. Visits to local artists, potters and sculptors studios are arranged. These take place on a Tuesday as a mid-week break. Workshops are based on Ken's belief that "It is not a question of every kind of artist being a special kind of man, but of every man, woman and child being a special kind of artist."

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE COURSES
These are introductions to action methods, using psychodrama, sociodrama and other artistry.

May 10th - 12th £200.00
I'M NOT CREATIVE - I JUST CAN'T!
A weekend of drawing and painting to develop visual skills and imagination, and to find the pictures within each person. Price includes art materials.
Friday 8:00pm - Sunday 5:30pm

June 4th - 6th £190.00
PICTURING THE FUTURE
A weekend workshop to look at the past, present and future of personal and social relationships.
Friday 8:00pm - Sunday 5:30 pm

August 11th - 15th £300.00
WOMEN ARE CHANGING
A new world of opportunity has opened for women, but men are still trapped by outdated behaviour. A week of action methods.
Sunday 10:00am - Thursday 5:30pm

August 18th - 22nd £300.00
GETTING AT THE PICTURES WITHIN
A week of artistry to release the talent, memories, experience and imagination of each participant.
Sunday 10:00am -Thursday 5:30pm

August 23rd - 25th £200.00
I'M NOT CREATIVE - I JUST CAN'T!
A weekend of drawing and painting to develop visual skills and imagination, and to find the pictures within each person. Price includes art materials.
Friday 8:00pm - Sunday 5:30pm

September 15th -19th £300.00
ME, YOU AND THEM
Being the author of your own life script and making your voice heard in the world.
Sunday 10:00am - Thursday 5:30pm

June 11th - 18th
There is an additional course in the magnificent Western isles of Norway.
Full details on application.

Lynton is a popular holiday spot. Make reservations for accommodation as early as possible.

Please arrive at your accommodation before 5pm. All Accommodation is within a few minutes walk of the studio. Allow 5-10 minutes in the morning to arrive at Creative Action for 10am.

ACCOMMODATION LIST

There is a National Express bus from Heathrow Airport to Barnstaple. It leaves from Central Bus Station (near Terminal 2) at 1:10pm.

Trains to Barnstaple leave from London Paddington. From Heathrow take the Rail/Air link coach to Reading railway station, a train to Barnstaple and a bus to Lynton.

Ken will do station pickups by arrangement from Barnstaple for £15.

For full accommodation list write to:
The Tourist Information Centre,
Town Hall, Lynton, Devon, EX35 6BT, England.
Tel: 01598 752 225 Fax: 01598 752 755
Tel: from outside Britain: +44 1598 752 225