Knowledge-Experiences-Reflections. | ASSITEJ International

ASSITEJ Denmark, Knowledge-Experiences-Reflections.

Cuban theatre caravan La Cruzada Teatral on the road again.

Every year in the period of January 28 – March 3 the unique theatre caravan called La Cruzada Teatral presents…
Knowledge-Experiences-Reflections.

Boomerang – Documents of poverty and hope

An international theatre project. Dirk Neldner Project Director Three theaters from Europe (lead organisation Teatro Elsinor, Italy, Teatro O Bando,…

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Diversity, Representation and Culture in TYA: 4th ITYARN Book

14 December 2020 21 h 51 min

By: Kaatje De Geest

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ITYARN, the International Theatre for Young Audiences Network is the official research network of ASSITEJ. Every three years, at ASSITEJ’s... Read more →

ITYARN, the International Theatre for Young Audiences Network is the official research network of ASSITEJ. Every three years, at ASSITEJ’s World Congress and Festival, ITYARN organizes a conference, where researchers, as well as artists, from all over the world share their insights and perspectives.

This is the fourth ITYARN book, compiled from two conference events, one held in 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa on “Cultural Exchange and Diversity in TYA,” coinciding with the XIXth ASSITEJ World Congress and Festival Cradle of Creativity, and one held in Kristiansand Norway on “(Re)presenting Childhood,” coinciding with the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering Confronting the Present.

You can read a chapter from the book here, by Sandra Grehn: “Performativity and the Construction of Children’s Citizenship in Backa Theatre’s Staging of Lille Kung Mattias.”

Twelve presentations were selected from these events and together they offer a rich mosaic of research areas in Theatre for Young Audiences — inquiring into the portrayal of and performing for children with cognitive and physical disabilities, disrupting narratives on settlers and indigenous populations, connecting spectatorship and diversity, questioning the male gaze while watching girls perform, analyzing trauma and spiritual healing in TYA plays and performances, examining theatre for babies and theatre for/by/with young adults. Each article is framed by the individual scholar’s cultural and ideological background. This diversity of perspectives and scholarly modes of discourse contribute to furthering the research and practice in the field, opening up horizons and inspiring innovation.

More information

Orders instructions

ORDERS can be placed through ASSITEJ SA (e-mail finops@assitej.org.za). Please note that books can be collected from our Cape Town and Johannesburg offices, or couriered directly to you, at the cost of the person ordering.
Online purchases of the ebook are available through Amazon and other e-retailers, including www.bokus.com and www.kriso.lv

Categories: ITYARN, Knowledge-Experiences-Reflections.

Tags: article, Book, ITYARN, News, Publication
Everything I Learned from My Engagement in the Shanghai Teenagers Theatre Festival

14 December 2020 16 h 11 min

By: Kaatje De Geest

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By Scott Yanshun Cai Towards the end of 2020, I participated in the 2nd Shanghai Teenagers Theatre Festival – as... Read more →

By Scott Yanshun Cai

Towards the end of 2020, I participated in the 2^nd Shanghai Teenagers Theatre Festival – as a member of a 5-person team representing our School in the show night of the Festival.

The Shanghai Teenagers Theatre Festival is the talent pipeline for the College Drama Festival of Shanghai, a flagship performing arts festival of the metropolis since 2004. Not surprisingly, therefore, the core organizers are the same for these two Festivals. It’s very very official (in other words, the Festival differs from a simple theatre carnival put on by any independent production company).

Dream work at play

In my observation, of all the 45 participating schools there are some unique features. One heavily-represented segment is the international schools (including bilingual schools), which is quite understandable as artistry education has historically been an integral part of school curriculum by western convention. But for the rest, one could hardly find any ‘chicken blood schools’ engagement. [‘Chicken blood school’, in Chinese, refers to those whose students work extremely hard to be high-graders in Gaokao, the national college entrance exam.]

There’s also a big disparity in art resources. We have the luxury of getting huge school support and having professional art directors coach us through the production. One peer school has an arts director and lighting designer who is a Russian artist… But not every K-12 school in China is in the same situation. For a lot more ‘under-resourced’ schools with no arts directors or arts programming, I think some practices by our arts director may serve as a helpful tool kit —

First, invest heavily in boys (at least in our country – the teen’s theatre field — they are the minority) – motivate, train and retain them! Second, 1-or-2 grade may pose as a ‘generation’ gap among younger players; hence it’s incredibly vital to transform the focus on skills training into organizational learning: every single time we rehearse, when we do the stage set, music and lighting, our director will invite our troupe members who are 1-or-2 grade junior to sit in and witness; the digital archiving of the play helps to pass on the critical know-how to the future ‘generations’ of club leadership and players alike, both from an artistic and management point of view.

Teamwork makes dream work. We rehearse for about eight weeks to make this play happen. We grow into a tight, cohesive team to uplift one another as people and actors. We share a couple of theme songs in our app chat-group – these beautiful songs serve as a reminder that we are part of something meaningful and that we have the teammates to lean on despite the difficulties lying ahead…

Again, back to the ‘chicken blood school’ issue, it’s all about hope and how young people see their futures, isn’t it? According to a joint research by the American National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, young people discover and develop hope through the performing arts.

“We think there is an explanation,” the report quotes expert Lindsey Maliekel (director of education/public engagement of New Victory Theater) as saying: “As you raise kids’ ability to think about lives other than their own, and simultaneously raise their ability to practice imaginative skills, you raise their ability to wonder ‘what if?’ and adjust their own hopefulness for their future.”

In light of that, it’s so reassuring to do some ‘dream’ work – to fantasize about our futures not merely defined by GaoKao success; our futures of way more imagination!

Social distance can be a barrier – and an advantage

In the 2020 Shanghai Teenagers Theatre Festival, we put our performance on the stage during the global pandemic. As a result, not as many audiences were allowed in the theatre as usual. What’s more, the audiences were seated with social distancing requirements.

We were, however, not let down by the lack of audience seats. I would rather see it as a ‘small-venue show’, which has its own strengths.

The delivery of a small-venue show is different from facing a super large audience. For the latter, using costumes with large heads might be helpful, as such costumes enable audiences to see characters clearly on a large stage and from a distance. In our show, however, we focused more on lights, emotions and sound volume, trying to create a more intimate setting and a closer relationship with the audience. I can feel that the distantly-seated audiences are impressed by the impact of our voice, actions and overall lighting set and can form shared bonds.

With this accidental experience of a de facto ‘small-venue show’, I grew more interested in the concept of ‘tiny theatre’ and ‘nomadic artists’ as well.

Getting a new window opening

Indeed, the engagement in the teenager theatre festival brings me a whole new horizon – seeing what is possible by synergizing performing arts with other disciplinary endeavors.

Drama therapy, for instance, is an interdisciplinary domain between drama and psychology that I am now tremendously interested in. It is an active, experiential form of expressive therapy that can help teens better identify their own [as well as others’] feelings, explore new problem-solving skills and personal growth.

I have spared no time in getting in touch with Ms. Gao, the faculty leader of our school’s psychology club, letting her know about my 4-year experience in stage performance and expressing my intention to join her work of creative therapy in the next semester.

What excites me, then, is the prospect of adopting my drama and theater techniques – including improvisation, role playing, puppetry, effective ways of relating, and acting out stories – to explore the wonders in the field of drama therapy.

I am a big believer of ‘21st century skills’ and in shaping our future as new-generations of global citizens who embrace interconnectedness, diversity and have the capability to take action in meaningful ways; theatre can make us more self-aware, compassionate and empathetic.

Last but not least, I have been scheduled to spend three weeks at a summer school near London in July-August of 2021, where drama training [amongst science and mathematics] is one component of the course offerings. It is my genuine hope to get a taste of the classical theatre training – perhaps interacting with Shakespearean trained actors/tutors! – and to sharpen my stage performance caliber in an entirely-English setting.

About the author: I am currently a student in a bilingual middle school in Shanghai. We thank teachers Willie Ma, Zhou Xumei and Liu Zelin for making such a wonderful experience possible for us; and I congratulate my teammates Zheng Yan, Ruan Yichen, Liu Yiting and Gu Yijia for the great job as well.

Categories: Knowledge-Experiences-Reflections.

Tags: China, festival, report
“The Curious Theatre” – an inspiring allegory by Goran Tomka

30 November 2020 15 h 06 min

By: Louis Valente

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“Curious theatre is filled with talking trees,self-doubting critics,permeable borders,welcoming smiles,migrating plants,inexplicable hopes,never-ending deadlines (…)” Video: Hear Goran Tomka read the... Read more →

“Curious theatre is filled with talking trees,
self-doubting critics,
permeable borders,
welcoming smiles,
migrating plants,
inexplicable hopes,
never-ending deadlines (…)”

Video: Hear Goran Tomka read the full text including sign language interpretation.

European Theatre Forum

The Keynote was presented at the European Theatre Forum 2020 shaped by a consortium of performing arts networks including ASSITEJ & produced by European Theatre Convention.

About Goran Tomka

Goran Tomka is a researcher and lecturer in the field of audience studies, new media, cultural diversity and cultural policy and management. He is assistant professor at the TIMS Faculty from Novi Sad, and UNESCO Chair in cultural policy and management from Belgrade, Serbia.

He holds a doctoral degree in culture and media studies from the University of Arts in Belgrade. Outside academia he is active as consultant, trainer, critic and advocate: he was a trainer in Al Mawred Abbara programme for capacity building in the Arab region; a coordinator of long-term cultural planning of the city of the Novi Sad European capital of culture 2021 and a national author of European Council’s Compendium for cultural policies.

His latest book “Audience Explorations: Guidebook for Hopefully Seeking the Audience” was published in 2016 by international theatre network IETM, Brussels.

Categories: Knowledge-Experiences-Reflections.
Open space for all members to share online resources

17 April 2020 13 h 13 min

By: Louis Valente

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A group of ASSITEJ Centres have created “Upside Down World Day of Theatre for Young Audiences”. The slogan is “Take... Read more →

A group of ASSITEJ Centres have created “Upside Down World Day of Theatre for Young Audiences”. The slogan is “Take the THEATRE to a CHILD, Today!”
The Facebook group is an open space for all members to share online resources. Due to the unprecedented state of crisis in the world, we are going to continue to run this initiative for the foreseeable future.

We have changed the platform from an event to a group.

Go to the Facebook group here

Categories: Knowledge-Experiences-Reflections., Uncategorised

Cuban theatre caravan La Cruzada Teatral on the road again.

Boomerang – Documents of poverty and hope