Origin stories are not only good for film franchises, but also good for communicating a unique approach to work. I recently asked around the Play:Disrupt workshop for the ideas, people, books and so on, that have shaped how and why we do what we do. Here’s what I found out.

Malcolm Hamilton, our co-founder and director told me about Counterplay,  in Aarhus, Denmark. This unique  “festiference” or “confestival”, founded by Matthius  Poulsen showcased the many settings, beyond theatre and playwork, in which play was a key element. Malcolm bumped into Counterplay in the early stages of his Leverhulme Fellowship, attached to Bristol Old Vic, in which he shifted the focus of his practice towards play, and eventually conceived Play:Disrupt. Here, Malcolm experienced the possibility of play as activism and interventionism—as joyful and useful disruption. Of the festival, game designer and ‘fun theorist’  Bernie DeKoven (1941-2018) is quoted on the festival’s archive website as saying that CounterPlay brought “…together people from widely divergent disciplines…united by their devotion to making the world a little more playful.” 

It is not surprising then, that DeKoven’s book, The Well Played Game, made its way onto Malcolm’s reading list. This influential book adeptly looks at how people play and the distinctly human qualities that are nurtured through play. It was this book that Malcolm suggested when Nia, our operations manager, asked for recommendations when she arrived at Play:Disrupt. Of it, she says, ‘it had a big impact on me – it made me think more deeply about all of the elements that allow people to be in the right physical and mental space to be able to play together.”

Around the same time as Malcolm’s fellowship, I was doing an MA that explored participatory arts and performance in placemaking and public space design. For it, I read architect, Jeremy Till’s “The Negotiation of Hope”, from his book Architecture Depends. Till identifies the shortcomings that can plague conventional consultation in architecture and development and exposes how they can lead to tokenism, consultation fatigue and loss of trust. As an alternative, he outlines the qualities that enable ‘transformative participation’, in which participants with knowledge and lived experience are respected as equal experts. He suggests that communities be integrated early in the process to ensure genuine influence and impact on design outcomes. This approach, while sometimes messier and more time consuming, leads to better, more democratic outcomes for all involved. Malcolm and I talked a lot about the concerns raised in article as he and Jenny Male designed Play:Disrupt’s approach. (The photo below is from Malcolm’s One Play Thing event, photo by Jack Offord)

Ah— I promised four readings, and I’ve only offered two so far—so here are two more that have shaped our practice:

Small Change, About the Art of Practice and Limits of Planning in Cities, by Nabeel Hamdi was another book I used in my research. Hamdi is an architect and teacher with international experience, credited with being one of the pioneers of participatory planning. Like Till, he had seen the negative impact of top-down processes. His work prioritises the knowledge and lived experience of the community and the book offers excellent case-studies. These human-centred projects show the value of creatively embedded, asset based community development (ABCD- although to my memory, he does not directly refer to it as that.) Having worked in parts of the world where he has supported resource-strapped communities to recover from ill-considered ‘development’, his approach is irreverent yet effective. He ultimately proposes (based on experience, and in poem form, no less!) such things as ‘….Embrace serendipity: get muddled/ Play games, serious games…Work backwards: move forwards / Feel good”. All great advice that we’ve integrated into our approaches. 

And finally, no play-based approach would be complete without Impro, Improvisation and the Theatre, by the late Keith Johnstone. This is a well-thumbed source of theatre games and exercises, by a well-loved teacher of improvisation.  Johnstone co-founded the Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary, Canada and taught internationally, influencing many of UK’s most notable companies such as Improbable Theatre. Many of our readers will be familiar with the essential ‘Yes, And’ game (expanded below), which is attributed to the sociologist and early influencer of the play movement, Neva Boyd, who was a teacher of improvisation pioneer Viola Spolin.  Embedded in this game is the the basic skill of accepting and building on ‘offers’;  Johnstone developed numerous, nimble variations to this, resulting in beautifully nuanced and entertaining performances. While many within the theatre profession will have Johnstone somewhere in their roots, Play:Disrupt apply many of the core ideas of improvisation to our community engagement activities to invite people to bring their collaborative skills, imagination and creativity into the mix.  

So here you have it! Just a few of the rich sources of inspiration that underpin our work. We’d love to hear from you about the ideas that have shaped you. Maybe there’s a book club in it! Or maybe just a good reading list for the colder months ahead. Enjoy!