PIM's 7th BIRTHDAY

An invitation to PIM trainees and practitioners and MPS members,

On the 22nd of July 2001, the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne emerged. In May, 2001, urged on by many people to start a training institute, an idea emerged in me. The idea expanded as we talked and discussed and dreamt. Look what happened. PIM was born and here we are still!

While PIM is a psychodrama training institute, covering the methods of role training, role theory and its various applications, sociometry, sociodrama and groupwork, the training groups provide a haven, a place of growth and an opportunity to be part of something for each person. Together we created and continue to create PIM. We are affiliated with La Trobe University, Masters in Counselling Course, in the School of Public Health. From PIM came the Friends of PIM (FoPIM) and then the Moreno Psychodrama Society. Later, the Advisory and Assessment Board of Psychodrama came into being - now the Australian/Aotearoa Board of Psychodrama. We've given birth to reading groups, interest groups, including the latest children and adolescents interest group, writing groups and two conferences, including an International Psychodrama Conference in 2006, pictures of which you can still see on the PIM website:

www.psychodrama-institute-melbourne.com

We published a newsletter Social Atom News, which later, gave way to this blog, the e-newsletter of MPS and PIM. We developed the Theatre of Spontaneity, which is in its second year and the only sociodramatic event, which is run monthly and open to the public, in the world. In the library there are 79 articles, written by trainees and practitioners and trainers over these 7 years.

Two Celebrations

To celebrate this auspicious birthday, we've planned two events. On Sunday, 2o July we are holding an Afternoon Tea from 4 - 6 p.m at Langridge Street. We ask that you bring something for the table and also something for the psychodramatic table. It might be a poem, a photograph, a drawing, a presentation in action of what PIM means to you, brings out in you, and affects you in your life today.

The second celebration is the following Saturday, 26th of July from 4 - 6 p.m at my home, 104 Simpson Street, East Melbourne (RSVP 9416 3779). We are having a fire, and a dvd of Zerka Moreno - who is 91 - and our psychodramatic patron, conducting a brief and poignant psychodrama with one person. This goes for 1.5 hours. We'll look at her use of auxiliaries, the role of the auxiliary as double and other aspects of the method. I have seen this dvd already and found it very moving and really special in her using this medium in such a fine way, given the sensitive nature of psychodrama, which is based on feeling (tele), and therefore usually quite antithetical to the video medium. We are providing drinks; tea, coffee, juice and wine.

It is with great pleasure we, the Faculty of PIM invite you to these celebrations. Without you, PIM wouldn't exist. Thank you!

With love,
Sue

2001 PIM Brochure designed by Ted Bugarski

2002 PIM Brochure designed by Yvonne Sherring-Howard

Theatre of Spontaneity in June

Commencing at 7.30 p.m this coming Friday evening, June 27, the sixth Theatre of Spontaneity is being held at the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne, 155 Langridge Street, Collingwood. Sue Daniel is leading this month's Theatre.

The session is Sociodramatic and Sue will employ the Magic Box and Living Newspaper techniques, focussing on world and local events happening on Friday, and how they affect you.

Fee: $20.00 ($15.00 MPS Members) Supper is served with coffee and tea.

RSVP 94163779

Doors open at 7 p.m.

Babies in PIM

Love and good wishes to Hien Bui (Level 2) and her husband, Peter and son Johnathan, on the 27th of May arrival of daughter and sister, Mayella, and also to Brigitte Walker (Level 3) and husband Marty and young son Leo, on the arrival of a son and brother, Noah, born on 5 June 2008.

From your peers and colleagues at PIM.

The Warm Up

Not sure How
It all happened,
This Warm Up
Shared Last Week.

We need
O2!
And,
H2O!
We said.

Release!
This CO2.
Take In!
O2 – Sue Said.

And Breath,
And Live.
Spontaneously.

Electrons,
Positrons,
Nuclear Cosmology!

The Dramas that Unfolded.
So full of life and dreams!

Not sure How It All Happened,
This Warm Up
Shared Last Week.

No lower level Nucleons (Protons, Neutrons),
In our
Spontaneity!

Our Dramas
That Unfolded
Were filled
With
Chemistry.

Liliana Melone

Animator - a 'moving cartoon' via Olga

Olga Nikitina, (Level 1) sent this little moving cartoon which she discovered recently, a fitting mirror for the Theatre of Spontaneity last Friday night. Patricia Green and Rachael Zyznikow were the leaders for the evening. The following sharing is also from Olga:

I wanted to thank you and the directors for the wonderful Theatre of Spontaneity session yesterday, what a journey a dance of life turned out to be, from the story of the Creation and Babel tower to the small piece of the Werribee land. The world hasn't changed all that much in five thousand years - people still sit by the river and weep, hope and dream and they are still working out a solution of working and living together peacefully.

I worked out for myself that I get the most benefit from the psychodrama sessions by participating as much as possible and I went through a number of motions yesterday - from juggling two balls while everyone else was absorbed in their own dance, to skipping and jumping through the flow of people in the crowded street, I was imagining myself to be a character from Isaac Azimov's book - in this book the city was highly technically advanced and there were no cars, people moved standing on the running tracks which covered the entire city, only for the teenagers of this city the speed wasn't enough and they played a game by jumping from the track to track and overtaking other passengers, there was not much meaning in my movement, pure desire of speed and the experience of lightness and energy, but also the joy that we have talked about in the sharing - the joy of moving freely and yet cooperating with the crowd and not hindering the movement of everyone else.

After this came the dance, and the sensual rhythm of the African drums and how wonderful it was to see a person transformed, her whole body flexible, flowing, alive. I've joined in, initially thinking of playing a strong African man, but I couldn't quite get into the role and changed to a more self-conscious shy African girl learning from her more experienced friend. This sensuality carried through to the next scene, although I wasn't really aware of it until I thought about it later, I was immediately attracted to the story of the small piece of indigenous land and the new brave builders who are going to look after it and I almost jumped out of my seat when the river was introduced, I knew I was the River. I loved the idea of the wild and strangled river and wanted to be the constant flow of water that changes its rhythm depending on season, rain, dams, the intrusion of people, the river takes everything in, struggles and still keeps going, flowing through, washing out the old troubles, cleansing the face of the young girl, who became thirsty thirty years ago and turning the bones of the old kangaroo that passed away hundreds of years ago whiter than white.

Somehow, I missed the connection with the land, I was the River and I was the Water, the Flow, but there was no ground, the river was shifting and turning in its bed and I forgot about the Earth and then the someone came to the role and showed me the sexuality of the River and its union with the Earth and I was dumbstruck about how I have missed it, and yet later in the sharing she said that she saw it in me, and that surprises me even more, that I could miss or ignore something that was so strongly present already, so I went back and tried to be the new river, lying now on my back, comfortably and to be sensual and open and suddenly I was aware of the people looking at me in this way and it made me a bit self-conscious again but I told myself to relax and let the energy just flow and be myself. And then the strangest thing happened - the people have gathered all around me, standing above me and singing, enclosing me in a warm circle and I could feel the love flowing from them to me, lifting me up and holding, if I truly was the river, there would be water evaporating from my surface and rainbows dancing in the little droplets. I was so moved I started to cry, I was immersed in love and I was Love.

But then the song finished and it was time to share our experiences with each other, as I hope you will share your response to my entry. I also wanted to share with everyone this cartoon about the Creation which ties in perfectly with our theatre and our dance.

Hope you enjoy it and thank you, Olya