I learn new methods which I can use when I work with people. Theater is a good way how to integrate people in society even if they don`t speak the same language."
Border Crossings project “Intercultural Theatre Training Laboratory” took place in London, UK from 22nd till 28th April. There were participants from 4 countries – Greece, Romania, Germany and UK. Activities were led by Michael Walling and Lucy Dunkerley.
The project started on 22nd April when all the participants met for dinner and were introduced with course and schedule, and everyone introduced with themselves and also explained their expectations and why they are participating in this project.
All the participants were divided into 3 groups and had to do “field work” or becoming researchers. Each of group had a list with places where to go and tasks what to do. I was in a group with Romanian and Greek participants and our task was to go to Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and Victoria and Albert museum. First we went to see Place of Worship but since we were 2 women and 1 guy only Adrian were able to see it from inside because for women “area” we needed to have a special permission to see inside and talk to people. Another interesting experience I got in Victoria and Albert museum where we went to seminar “Deash squat: European Counter-Cultural Takeover” where we read Greek author Script while sitting around table and later discussed about Brexit and national identity. The most interesting line what I heard from British woman was “I am ashamed to say I come from Great Britain. I better say – I`m Londoner. ”.
The other groups went to Seven Sisters\Tottenham, Barbican Centre and London Bridge-(Shakespeare Globe-Modern Tate), Hampstead Heath-(Bishop Avenue). Through the whole day we had to write down notes, make photos and record sounds or conversations.
On Monday we finally met all together and shared our research material. After each story we had to write down most important key words, phrases, and situations and then we had to choose one and play small etude. In the end we had full wall of small papers with notes. It was very interesting to hear all those stories because everyone was in different parts of cities and had different experiences. London is full of contrasts. After discussion and etudes we were divided into groups and started to work on plays where we showed moment when we don`t want to speak to anyone. For example, there were plays with silence and ignorance in morning, in party when everyone try to make a perfect selfie in end up using phones all the time and not caring that they came together and the moment when boy meets girl and is too shy to start the conversation but in the end using their body language they find the way to each other hearts. Then we divided into pairs and made plays when one person doesn`t speak but other speak in language which no one understand. After every workshop we analyzed how we did felt and what we think they said in plays. I was surprised when we were able to understand what does everyone shows and say even if we don`t know the language.
Every day’s activities were based of our research on Sunday and we were improving our plays with adding new methods. Highlight from Tuesday was “human statue” workshop. We divided into groups with 3 people and each of us chose a feeling from a wall. Then we made statues which express chosen feeling. Every group had 3 human statues which we turned into play. After each play we discussed what we tried to express and then added also music. It was the first time when I had goosebumps in workshops because all the plays were so powerful and impressive. After workshop we went to The Place Theater for ACE Dance and Music performance “TEN”. This was dance performance about moving away from lives they`d always thought they`d live.
The next day we started with discussion about last night’s performance. Each of us had a different opinion about it and we saw something else – starting from love story ending up with finding home/ trying to get back home and being rejected. It is very interesting how different opinions were. After we divided into groups and worked on plays where 2 people speak the same language and 1 speak language no one can understand. We made plays using 18 lines – 6 each. It was a bit hard to make a play with only 18 lines and we realized when we did it the first time spontaneously it was very good but then when we tried to write it down it was very hard because we just started to think too much and forgot the main point of it. Afterwards we did individual exercise where we picked some line from the wall and wrote monolog. We could have used any other language, not only English. There was part of us who wrote it in mother tongue. I was surprised that even if I didn`t understand anything in Greek or Romanian I was able to understand the main points and meaning only if I heard the intonation and saw emotions. After workshops we had free time and we decided to go to Buckingham palace and do sightseeing together.
Thursday was the last day when we were doing workshops. Since we really wanted to go to British museum we decided to do one workshop and finish earlier. The last workshop of our great adventure was individual. First we went through all the things we had done during the week and wrote down key words, feelings, emotions, activities. Using all our notes and other ideas we wrote our own scripts for play. Every script was very different and we were going very deep into topics, and it would have taken few days to actually put the scenes together and play it.. so, project was a bit too short for our scripts! Some scripts included a lot of characters but some was only all about one person’s life/part of life. It was great to see how personal and deep scripts are.
Friday was the last day of this amazing project and we had an evaluation meeting. It was a great adventure because I have never been involved in theater but most of participants were dancers or playing theater. I learn new methods which I can use when I work with people. Theater is a good way how to integrate people in society even if they don`t speak the same language. The best thing in this field is – there is no wrong or right way to do or create something. Every of us had a different perspective and backgrounds and we did the best we can. As a group in the end we made a conclusion that the most descriptive line for this project is “make yourself better”. We definitely made ourselves better!
The project started on 22nd April when all the participants met for dinner and were introduced with course and schedule, and everyone introduced with themselves and also explained their expectations and why they are participating in this project.
All the participants were divided into 3 groups and had to do “field work” or becoming researchers. Each of group had a list with places where to go and tasks what to do. I was in a group with Romanian and Greek participants and our task was to go to Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and Victoria and Albert museum. First we went to see Place of Worship but since we were 2 women and 1 guy only Adrian were able to see it from inside because for women “area” we needed to have a special permission to see inside and talk to people. Another interesting experience I got in Victoria and Albert museum where we went to seminar “Deash squat: European Counter-Cultural Takeover” where we read Greek author Script while sitting around table and later discussed about Brexit and national identity. The most interesting line what I heard from British woman was “I am ashamed to say I come from Great Britain. I better say – I`m Londoner. ”.
The other groups went to Seven Sisters\Tottenham, Barbican Centre and London Bridge-(Shakespeare Globe-Modern Tate), Hampstead Heath-(Bishop Avenue). Through the whole day we had to write down notes, make photos and record sounds or conversations.
On Monday we finally met all together and shared our research material. After each story we had to write down most important key words, phrases, and situations and then we had to choose one and play small etude. In the end we had full wall of small papers with notes. It was very interesting to hear all those stories because everyone was in different parts of cities and had different experiences. London is full of contrasts. After discussion and etudes we were divided into groups and started to work on plays where we showed moment when we don`t want to speak to anyone. For example, there were plays with silence and ignorance in morning, in party when everyone try to make a perfect selfie in end up using phones all the time and not caring that they came together and the moment when boy meets girl and is too shy to start the conversation but in the end using their body language they find the way to each other hearts. Then we divided into pairs and made plays when one person doesn`t speak but other speak in language which no one understand. After every workshop we analyzed how we did felt and what we think they said in plays. I was surprised when we were able to understand what does everyone shows and say even if we don`t know the language.
Every day’s activities were based of our research on Sunday and we were improving our plays with adding new methods. Highlight from Tuesday was “human statue” workshop. We divided into groups with 3 people and each of us chose a feeling from a wall. Then we made statues which express chosen feeling. Every group had 3 human statues which we turned into play. After each play we discussed what we tried to express and then added also music. It was the first time when I had goosebumps in workshops because all the plays were so powerful and impressive. After workshop we went to The Place Theater for ACE Dance and Music performance “TEN”. This was dance performance about moving away from lives they`d always thought they`d live.
The next day we started with discussion about last night’s performance. Each of us had a different opinion about it and we saw something else – starting from love story ending up with finding home/ trying to get back home and being rejected. It is very interesting how different opinions were. After we divided into groups and worked on plays where 2 people speak the same language and 1 speak language no one can understand. We made plays using 18 lines – 6 each. It was a bit hard to make a play with only 18 lines and we realized when we did it the first time spontaneously it was very good but then when we tried to write it down it was very hard because we just started to think too much and forgot the main point of it. Afterwards we did individual exercise where we picked some line from the wall and wrote monolog. We could have used any other language, not only English. There was part of us who wrote it in mother tongue. I was surprised that even if I didn`t understand anything in Greek or Romanian I was able to understand the main points and meaning only if I heard the intonation and saw emotions. After workshops we had free time and we decided to go to Buckingham palace and do sightseeing together.
Thursday was the last day when we were doing workshops. Since we really wanted to go to British museum we decided to do one workshop and finish earlier. The last workshop of our great adventure was individual. First we went through all the things we had done during the week and wrote down key words, feelings, emotions, activities. Using all our notes and other ideas we wrote our own scripts for play. Every script was very different and we were going very deep into topics, and it would have taken few days to actually put the scenes together and play it.. so, project was a bit too short for our scripts! Some scripts included a lot of characters but some was only all about one person’s life/part of life. It was great to see how personal and deep scripts are.
Friday was the last day of this amazing project and we had an evaluation meeting. It was a great adventure because I have never been involved in theater but most of participants were dancers or playing theater. I learn new methods which I can use when I work with people. Theater is a good way how to integrate people in society even if they don`t speak the same language. The best thing in this field is – there is no wrong or right way to do or create something. Every of us had a different perspective and backgrounds and we did the best we can. As a group in the end we made a conclusion that the most descriptive line for this project is “make yourself better”. We definitely made ourselves better!