Theater Makes Politics in Lesbos!
La transplanisphère team just got back from Lesbos, Greece where we spent 5 inspiring days working on the workshops aimed for European youth during Theater Makes Politics seminar.
*What is Theater Makes Politics?
It is the project coordinated by Bundesverband Theaterpädagogik e.V and is meant to create artistic and creative responses on anti-democratic influences in European societies.
This year, topics of the workshops were the following: Conspiracy theories and disinformation, Racism and anti-refugees’ rhetoric and Far-right Extremism and religious fundamentalism (Muslim and Christian).The program consisted of 4 training workshops by 4 working groups: 12 hours each, followed by reflection and feedback periods. All this to question how these subjects can influence youngsters and how they may deal with them and gain critical capacities.
The idea was to present these workshops to the TMP developers as well as theater/pedagogical/youth workers teams that came all over Europe (Portugal, North Macedonia, Greece, Germany and France). TMP project offers to take part in it and try the different techniques and practices, raising important and sometimes, sensitive, questions all through by doing a theater.
The goal is that after the end of the workshops each team has the material (notes, guides,…) as well as experience and methods needed of doing the same thing with youngsters in their own country. Final destination will be the handbook which will be published in order to support instructors in their own work.
We are back in Paris, processing the subjects and the important questions we were part of during these 5 days in Lesbos. La Transplanisphere is preparing the workshop expected to be given at Albert Schweitzer high school in Le Raincy, Seine-Saint-Denis (Grand Paris) in October, using the materials and knowledge we took and worked on with all of our partners in Greece.
