Reading Chronicle, 1st May 2005

Two members of staff are deep in dispute and the boss is struggling. But visitors to the official launch of the link up between Headline Training in Swallowfield and CentreStage Roleplay in Ascot, got a chance to sort the situation out themselves.

Guests at the event on April 7 were being shown the scenario on screen when suddenly the CentreStage actors burst in.

'Susan' was aggrieved at the way colleague 'Peter' treated her - calling her 'Suzie' and asking for frequent coffees. "But you make a very nice cup," he assured her. Boss Dominic wrestled with how to deal with the row.

So to help out, the audience of guests were asked to make their suggestions. They rearranged the seating and called for changes such as softening of attitudes and asked for Dominic to take better control.

The scene was to illustrate CentreStage Roleplay's input (called Forum Theatre) which takes the roleplay concept out of the hands of the employees leaving them to direct the scenes.

The acting adds a new dimension to Headline Training's e-learning services.

Headline now adds the live action to many courses, often combining it with e-learning. Guests at the launch included many who deal with HR issues.

Adrian McDougall of CentreStage said the concept allows firms to re-enact realistic scenarios such as those who might find Peter, a bit of a problem.

"This actually gives you the opportunity to address that point of view".

"Most of us know a Peter, a big head. There are people like that in any workplace but you can't engineer that".