"The art is to life as the wine to grapes”
V. Mejerch'old
Grundtvig Workshop 2011: Theatre for Integration
Why think about theater and theatrical fiction for a true and real integration?
This is the question? We tried to answer with this workshop held in summer 2011 as an European Program for Lifelong Learning supported and funded by the National Agency Lifelong Learning Programme, Italy.
The theatrical fiction obliged to seek the truth on another level, the level of human relationship. The audience knows it's all fake but is captured by the magic of the situation, the eneregy of place and time. That's why working with the theater can help us to find high quality of presence and of listen that can change us in life.
The workshop has proposed some techniques to prepare each one for a real meeting with the other, how to create space inside to allow others to come, how to find a creative and fruitful way to cohabit a place. For many participants, this workshop was important and it has changed something about themselves and their own experience of being in the world and this is, for us, the highest goal.
Beatrice, a Romanian girl of 25 years says: "This totemic experience was for me the opening gate to understand better you all and most of all to understand me, myself and I"
And here are the words of Despina, a Greek girl of 31 years, one month after the end of the workshop: "This workshop has shown me a different way of learning and teaching"
And again Cati: "..simple words are unsefull to discribe the real meaning of this workshop...it was just another worskop or it was a new open door to the future?...
This workshop was not only about theatre...it was about all of us....
everything is/ will be about how we grow, how we understand and respect , how to discover ourselves....about sharing, giving, being an actor of life, having a rythme..about how to see behind many closed doors... It was hard but not impossible to be in harmony with my self, with you ...with ALL...as I told this before, I think we have created a special mirror: and a piece of it came back with me, to and in my "home"....
The workshop was held in Toscana , in the country, in a beautiful and magical place , MONTEVASO. It 'lasted 10 days. These were days of great work and we see that the work is continuing. Was attended by 18 people, 4 of which are Italian and 14 from other European countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, France, Greece, Spain. Age of participants quite varied between 20 and 60 years. The applications have exceeded the number expected learners and so it was possible to create a selection with people with difference country, age, background, but with the same willingness to work.
Anyone wishing to learn more about the workshop "Theatre for the 'integration' can be found at dedicated section of this site or other sites on the web, for example the next ones:
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