activities for schools
Theatre for EU
International Theatre Project
The youth meet on the stage.
If you are interested on taking part, please contact us.
The whole project is coordinated by the directors and drama teachers Marco Pejrolo and Davide Di Palo.
Who is involved in the project
The event is aimed at Secondary School students.
“Theatre for EU” is a project aimed at secondary school students with the following objectives:
- Giving students from different countries and cultures the opportunity to meet, know one another and start a creative process together which will enhance their communication skills in order to achieve a common aim.
- By studying their historical past, finding together the value of memory and its preservation as a source of awareness to build up their future.
- Comparing different approaches to the study of their cultural roots, noticing the different perceptions of recent historical events in each country.
- Developing their creative and planning skills in order to set up a performing event which follows the strict rules of the theatre stage.
- Developing listening skills and mutual respect as fundamental elements of real knowledge of the other, without prejudice and superficial judgment.
- Being aware of the importance of each participant in setting up “a work of art”, sharing responsibility in the project.
- Giving students the chance to use English as a working language, since rehearsal and classes will be in English.
- Creating the opportunity to plan other cultural events related to the project such as school trips to historical sites, lectures, etc… Other school projects may also begin as a result of the activity and cooperation among schools.
The teaching activity uses the methodology of theatre pedagogy following the Anglo-Saxon school.
The whole work is divided into three phases:
1. Self-awareness and awareness of the space where the performance takes place: it’s the listening phase. Participants explore the theatre space, the protected place of possibility, and learn its fundamental rules. Going through the typical training process of an actor, they meet, recognize and develop their listening skills and focus at first on themselves, then on the outside space and finally on the others. The group realizes it is made of similar people who have started a journey that will take them all to the final performance.
2. Awareness of one’s own expressive capability. The actor starts interacting with other people in communicative events which follow the rules of the stage. He/She realizes the need of other people’s presence as founding tool of his/her own creativity. Trust in other people’s work stimulates an original and rich creative process. The actor realizes that theatre communication requires coherence and honesty in order to be effective. Credibility on the stage is the result of careful and constant work of the whole group. The actor trusts his/her “work of art”.
3. The creation of the performance. Before setting up the performance, the actors experiment a new narrative dimension that uses objects and parts of the body as actors of short performances: this happens with the “new eyes” of the clown.
The whole group starts researching and experimenting in order to build up a performance where students will be the protagonists. In this phase they will work with their German colleagues to prepare a common performance. The two groups will rehearse together for two days and will work side by side on the stage.
Planning and timeline
- Workshops: teaching activity with secondary school students. (Winter -Spring-Summer 2013)
The team of teachers will travel to the various countries and will work with the students involved in the project.
The students from two Schools (as partners) will work in parallel. Each group in their own country will get the training provided by Marco Pejrolo and Davide Di Palo. Lessons will be divided into five modules (weekends or some afternoons during the week according to the needs of each School).
The project is aimed at secondary school students aged 13-18.
Final result of the activity
The objective of the activity is to create a theatre performance that will be shown twice in each country involved in the project.
1. Workshops: Winter-Spring
2. The students rehears the show together: three days before the “Premiere”.
3. The Show: Premiere