Let's act!
Start date: May 1, 2016,
End date: Oct 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The idea to "Let's act!" was born in 2015 when the youthcenter "Gewölbe" was hosting the theatre group "Osono" with their self-developed theatre production about youngsters' experiences of social society in Romania. There we thought that it would be a great experience to implement a youth exchange that explores and presents the concerns and important issues of youngsters in Europe thought the means of theatre. The participants involved are young people from Austria, Romania, Malta and Slovakia and come from different backgrounds. About two third of the involved participants have fewer opportunities and face social or economical or cultural problems, eg. living in a deprived area or belonging to an ethnical minority. There will be 33 participants including 5 leaders. The main objectives of this project are to motivate young people are to getting to know themselves better, reflecting their own situation, exchanging their experiences with people from other countries and expressing common issues in a creative way.The activities of this project start with getting to know each other with group building activities and getting to know the surrounding by a "getting to know" walk to the Damberg, a hill with a lookout from which you can see from the alps to the Czech Republic and with a photography scavenger hunt through Steyr. In the next phase of 4 workshops the participants will discover different theatre methods (perception games, dream journeys, statues, silent theatre, improvisation, object theatre, masks, etc.) which encourage them to reflect themselves and express their experiences and issues that are important for them in their lives. A studyvisit to the street art festival "Pflasterspektakel" will provide additional professional inspiration and possible methods of creative expression. At an 'international evening' the participants are invited to present their countries and cultures in a creative way. Due to the actual situation of the refugees in Europe we decided to dedicate one workshop to this topic as it will we very interesting to discover how the different countries experience this situation. A role play developed from "Young Caritas" will be used to experience the situation of being a refugee on his/her way to Austria. Then at an "open theatre training" we invite people from the local community and refugees to get to know each other and gain common experiences by doing theatre excercises together.For a change and to give the participants the opportunity to experience Austria further than in the town of Steyr there will be one "out door expierience day" in the national park "Kalkalpen" with the possibility for rafting, caving or a high ropes course. These common experiences also contribute to the bonding of a group. At the end of the exchange the group will reflect all of the issues addressed and methodes discovered and then decide and develop what they want to do and which message they want to tranport as "Street Art" on the last day. It could be a flash mob, invisible theatre, statues etc. The developement of this "performance" will be a participant's based process, supported by the professional guidance of Osono theatre director. The envisaged impact is to enable young people to reflect themselves, sensitise the perception of themselves, their opposite and the surrounding, exchange experiences and address and express their issues in a creative way. The participants will experience the importance of team work and respectful communication and learn how to create a "mini-project" from the idea to the implementation.Theatre exercises also have a big impact on the personal developement as you get to know yourself better and you can try out different roles and actions in a safe environment. As there will be youngsters from four different countries and within the countries there are diverse cultures after this youth exchange the youngsters will have a lot of experience with intercultural dialogue and consciousness which can mean discovering similarities, appreciating variety and sometimes also being aware and accepting differences with respecting each other. All this will help the participants also in future when they are confronted with other cultures or when they have the feeling that they want to express their opinions or needs to other people or in the society.