Dion from Hobrand visited FireWare today. He had invited a team of 15 people from Argentina for an inspiration session. The basics of realistic staging with technical theatre influences were explained during this session. This was a real eye-opener for the visitors, or a literal translation of what the guests said: “this breaks my skull open”...
Demonstrating the fact that really any environment can be used as a training centre with some simple resources was incredibly valuable to the visitors. Soon everyone had entered into extensive discussions regarding how this could be implemented in Argentina in the short-term. Without the need for this to instantly go hand in hand with enormous investments.
It goes without saying an event like this should certainly also include a suitable lunch. At the end of the workshop we took a somewhat more in-depth look at terms like: “patatje oorlog” (fries with peanut sauce, mayonnaise and onions), “peanut sauce”, “frikandel” (minced-meat hot dog) and, of course, the “bitterball” (meat-based snack). We addressed the basic vocabulary of the Dutch fries culture in great detail, allowing the participants to give this their own interpretation over lunch!
This day was another valuable contribution to FireWare’s mission to allow emergency response team members from all over the world to become, and continue to be, qualified and skilled using theatre techniques!
