Cultural Vehicles in Education - assisting the needs of vulnerable social groups

To be filled in by the teachers of pilot workshops

Die Wille gGmbH                                               

educational or artistic, if separated - Theatre workshop I/ 26. - 30. May 2008

1. A description of the activities undertaken during the unit, including comments on the reactions of the group/individual participants

First day

-Introduction into the program of the workshop (running 5 days), and its aims. The trainer explains that the participants will perform the result of the workshop on the fifth day.
- Check in: How do I feel today, in this moment. Classifying the answers on a scale (from-5 to+5) on a flipchart.
-Game to get to know each other (some new participants joined the group), using balls.
- Working agreement (hand-out).
-"change the place" - exercise for body movement.
- Inventing a story using 5 key words (e.g. curly hair, red, stony, fountain, desperate): Each participant writes a short story, using the 5 words, then reads it in front of the group. Feedback and discussion.
-Presenting "frozen images": 2 or 3 participants present a situation from everyday life in the form of "frozen image", the audience has to guess the meaning.
-"Grenzen/Boundaries)": An exercise on personal limits, how far can somebody go without bothering another person?
- Passing on a gesture: Basic exercise for pantomime.
-Check out (with scale). Comparison to the scale from the beginning.
-Home task: Remember experiences from your childhood which were very impressive.

Second day

- Check in (with scale)
- Warm up with ball and "Billi, billi, bop".
- Improvisation exercises: Fables from Aesop and newspaper texts. Reciting the texts and fables with different emotions.
- Exercise: "Tongue-twister".
- Exercise "King and Queen": playing with different kinds of status and hierarchies. Role-playing and learning to keep one's distance.
- Improvisation exercises: with imagined sceneries, e.g. at the bakery, the dentist, the hair-dresser a.s.o.
- Rhythm exercise: The participants are standing in a circle, with closed eyes, clapping the hands, after some time accompanied by a drum, then they open their eyes, clap, move their body and sing an African song "Ayelevi me ku lo mido pa pa ayele"
- Brainstorming: Ideas for scenes, forming the topics/agenda for the next day.
- Check out and feedback: The participants express how they feel about the session of today. What could have been different or better?

Third day

- Check in (like before)
- Rhythm exercise, repetition.
- Preliminary choice of the scenes which are to be presented in front of the children and adults.
- Building two teams, rehearsing the chosen scenes, distribution of roles(casting).
- The two teams present their scenes to each other at the end of the day, positive feedback.
- Check out (like before)

Fourth day

- Check in
- Warm up, body exercises.
- Preparation of the dress rehearsal: The schedule of the performance, facilitation, set decoration, props and accessoires, sequencing of the scenes.
- Dress rehearsal, last changes.
- Transport of people and props to the kindergarten, where the performance takes place.
- Performance (1 hour duration) in front of the audience: children of the 3rd and 4th class elementary school.
- Interactive communication between actors and children.
- Feedback
- Transport of props etc. to Die Wille, where the second performance takes place on the fifth day.

Fifth day

- Check in
- Warm up, body exercises.
- Preparation of the scenery, the props and accessoires.
- Exercises for concentration
- Welcoming of the audience (members of the group who could not take part in this workshop, staff of Die Wille)
- Performance of the program
- Discussion between the performers and the audience, evaluation.
- Distribution of the certificates of attendance.
- Buffet with various dishes from different cultures, prepared by the participants.

2. Was the aim of the unit achieved (the implementation of practical skills and the pedagogical aim)?

The aim of the unit was achieved. The extraordinarily lively and motivated participation of the learners was sufficient proof of this. Shy people lost their timidity and discovered unknown competences by themselves.
More passive persons were motivated and carried along by the active ones. The participants gained confidence in their own potential and were very proud of the work they had done together - the developing of theatre scenes by themselves, the performance in front of two different audiences, to act a character which is the quite opposite of their own. They comment that the trustful atmosphere made it easier for them to risk something and to communicate more openly.
For most of the participants this kind of working and performing was new, and they never had thought to be able to do this before. They gained new communication skills and practical knowledge in the field of exercises, games, warm ups and methods of acting/theatre. Also, their self-confidence and self-assurance was enhanced.

3. Other remarks (for example on the interaction between artistic and educational elements)

The artistic and educational elements worked in a synergetic way in this workshop. The process of learning can be described as an active and creative one. The cultural vehicles, like poems, fables, song texts, little scenes and different methods of acting and performing helped them to enhance their social and communication competences and to express themselves better. Simultaneously their knowledge in the field of theatre became enlarged and they learned how to use it for their own personal growth and for effective communication with others.