The European Youth on Stage experience with JKPeV in Dresden
From 29.08. until 04.09, 9 young people living in Dresden, Germany, participated in the theatre training of the European Youth on Stage project at the Stadtteilhaus in Neustadt, Dresden. The theatre workshop led by the theatre-pedagogue, Frank Hohl and organized by Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V., had the aim of creating a theatre-play focused on the European Youth goals which are the following: 1) Connecting EU with Youth, 2) Equality of All Genders, 3) Inclusive societies, 4) Information & Constructive Dialogue, 5) Mental Health and Wellbeing, 6) Moving Rural Youth Forward, 7) Quality Employment for All, 8) Quality Learning, 9) Space and Participation for All, 10) Sustainable Green Europe and 11) Youth Organisations & European Programmes.
The participants were aged between 17-25 years old and had diverse social, education and cultural backgrounds. They learned about improvisation theatre and how to express themselves through different theatre methods such as forum theatre. Ice-breakers, physical activities and theatre games helped the participants to open-up and feel comfortable with the group. Moreover, a presentation was given about the European Youth goals made by the team member of JKPeV, Stefan May and discussions were held on what the European Youth Goals mean to young people today and what their main purpose is. The theatre-pedagogue Frank Hohl facilitated all theatre activities and supported the participants’ team in the creation of their improvisation theatre performance.
Frank Hohl (insta: @hohlerfrank) is a free-lance theatre-pedagogue in Dresden, who specializes in sociocultural theatre-projects and is also a theatre-therapist. He works with young people, adults as well as seniors. He uses methods of speech and body movement, improvisation and forum theatre which were also used in this theatre workshop.
The young participants confronted these contemporary issues with a recourse to ancient myths, the story of Prometheus and the story of Pandora. Both stories deal in their own way with the price of progress. This progress, in the form of digitalization and globalization was a recurring topic in the thoughts of the participants. They discussed issues related to the European Youth goals such as the exploitation of young people in the new economy, digitalized consumerism, and the destruction of the natural environment. The participants discussed also personal issues as they got closer to each other and became a tight-knit community. Despite the different opinions and experiences, they had what actually united them was their passion about theatre.
Coming up with their own concept and performance was a lot of work, exhausting at times, but also very rewarding. The performance that the young participants created, was called “Grenzenlos” (a German word that can mean “limitless”, “without boundaries” and “without borders”). It starts with the participants expressing their ideas about the European Union and continues with several different theatrical approaches to the ideas they came up with during the discussions they had.
You can watch the whole performance here – If you like it, you can give it a like and/or leave your comment!
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The project is co-financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ Programme
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