Education to Theatricality

Preface

Education to Theatricality was started in Italy (the first theorist of discipline is: Gaetano Oliva) in the last decade of the twentieth century. It develops and elaborates the studies, the experiences and the ideas developed by the directors (Stanislavski, Mayakovsky, Vachtangov, Copeau, Brecht, by some theatrical theorists of such as Grotowski, Brook, Boal, Barba, and by the Italian experience of the Animazione teatrale. These artistic experiences are reread in relationship to the studies of the pedagogic and psychological studies of the eighteenth and fourteenth centuries (Dewey, Montessori, Freinet, Maritain).

Education to Theatricality is a science that integrates a lot of different studies and ideas: It develops its thinking merging the creative field (literary and performing and expressive arts) and, on the other side, the human sciences (in particular, pedagogy, psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology).

Objective

The objective of Education to Theatricality (Educazione alla Teatralità) is to educate people through the expressive arts in order to develop the creativeness and the personal expressiveness of each individual.

Education to Theatricality as pedagogy uses the expressive arts into the theatre workshop for to lead the subject to path of growth and training activating the original potential skills of this person.

«Education to Theatricality has many different purposes and aims to contribute to the physical and psycho-social wellness of each person, in particular it aims to help everyone to realize themselves as individuals and as members of society. It aims to give everyone the opportunity to express their specificity and diversity, as the bearer of a message to communicate through body and voice. It wants to develop personal skills, to improve awareness of interpersonal relationships».

Keywords: Innovative Pedagogical Models, Art Education, Aesthetic Education, Early Childhood Education, Special Education, Theatre Education.

The birth of Education to Theatricality

The meeting between the dramatic art and pedagogy, for the first time in history, is one of the factors that have influenced the changing of the theatre during the twentieth century (after Grotowski). Theatre and pedagogy have discovered to have the same purposes and the same interests: the theatre allows human to emphasize his expressive skills and to show hid creativity and imagination. The attention moves from the performance (which was considered the final purpose of the dramatic experience) to the actor as the real protagonist of this dramatic renewal.

The Education to Theatricality and the laboratory method, the studies, the schools of the great pedagogists of the twentieth century, the concept of the theatrical laboratory by Grotowski, are an occasion for actors to express themselves freely.

Education to Theatricality”: a science

Education to Theatricality is a science that includes different of disciplines such as pedagogy, sociology, human sciences, psychology and the performing arts in general. The scientific basis of this discipline allows us to apply it in all possible contexts possible and with any individual, because it keep the man as he is in the center of its pedagogical process. One of the fundamental principles of Education to Theatricality is the construction of the actor - person; the main aim is the development of creativity and imagination through a scientific training leads by the actor on himself. This science does not want to transform a man into an actor-object, molding him to product shows that are prepared just to be sold, but to enhance his individual qualities respecting his personality. The final product plays a role linked to the training process of every man, giving a different value to every different personality. Fundamental to the definition of identity and to the development of imagination and creativity is the conservation of the skill of expression, which represents the starting point , the key element for comparison with each other.

The philosophical principle: Art as a vehicle

«Education to Theatricality, which find its psycho-pedagogical basis in the concept of art as a vehicle defined by Grotowski, is education for creativity and it represents a precious opportunity for anyone to affirm their identity, claiming the value of the expressive arts as a vehicle for overcoming the differences and as an actual element of integration. Through art, man can tell something about himself, and he is the protagonist of this creation. It puts him in touch with himself, but, at the same time, it creates a connection with the space in a temporal dimension. The Education to Theatricality is a vehicle of growth, of individual development, of self-assertion and of acquisition of new personal skills. The expressive arts do not present models, in fact every man should be each his own model. So, the identity of every person creates a relation through a telling reality; action, word and gesture become instruments of investigation of life. Performance art becomes a vehicle for self-knowledge, for the manifestation of his own creativity. Art as a vehicle "generates" the idea of an person-actor defined performer, an actual man of action, because he is dancer, musician, actor, total man, which performs a performance, giving completely his personality to the audience. His action does not coy a cliche, it is not a precise and defined action that takes place only and exclusively in the physical completeness and perfection. It conquests its shape depending on the personality of the Ego that does it, because it is intimate and subjective. For this reason, Education to Theatricality, and the laboratory, in an experience that everyone can live, even if we talk about disability or diversity».

The pedagogical principle: The creative subject

Education to Theatricality is trying to define into strictly scientific terms the process that leads to the development of a creative act. The creative subject is, in fact, object of an interdisciplinary debate: on the one hand, psychologists and neuroscientists are trying to identify the individual characteristics and the mental processes that determine the development of creativity, on the other hand becomes always stronger the reflection on these issues in artistic and expressive field and in pedagogy, too. Creative man is, in truth, a category of contemporary thought, defined in the second half of the twentieth century. In theater, on horseback nineteenth and twentieth century, with the directors-pedagogues, the concept of creative actor started to be developed and we can speak about the actor as a man who knowingly uses himself to express. Only from the cultural revolution founded on the figure of Jerzy Grotowski in 1960 and with the development of concepts of art as a vehicle and performer it begins to talk about creative man by nature that uses art, or better arts and expressive language, as a vehicle to consciously work on himself. Beyond the distinction between of artistic genres, Grotowski redefines the idea of art as a field of research about the essence of human existence. Creativity, therefore, ceases to be a matter solely for the artists or for the genius and becomes a characteristic of every human person; this idea is also supported by neuroscience for which each person has a creative potential to develop. Art is a great opportunity to develop this potential. Precisely for this reason, Education to Theatricality focuses on the creative subject: the theater workshop becomes a method of work based not only on the intention to transmit knowledge, but, above all, on to lead every subject to form himself through a practical experience. Through sensory stimuli, through the movement, the subject experiences in practice (learning by doing) and learns or enhances both cognitive and conative factors that modulate the expression of creativity. The first are determined by the ability to develop different answers to the same situation- question (lateral thinking) or in the ability to consider a problem from different points of view (the mental flexibility); the latter are determined in the development of certain personality traits such as openness to new experiences, willingness to run the risk of making a mistake, attitude to the fascination for the unknown, ability to withstand dominant currents of thought and love for creative activity.

The pedagogical methodology

Theory of reference:
Pre-expression + methodology = development of individual creativity

The laboratory as a methodological choice
A fundamental aspect of the theater laboratory is the personal relationship that the participants can build. A similar relationship should exist between actors and spectators of the creative project that concludes the laboratory. Being open to others is a human characteristic, and it is not just a simple communication, but an experience of emotional involvement and reciprocity. The desire to meet the other must be real and authentic, and it implies that each one is able to accept the other as it is. The laboratory is an opportunity to grow, to learn by doing, with the conviction that the most important part of it is the process and not in the product. The final performance (or creative project) is just the conclusion of a training course. The theatrical activity stimulates the need for interpersonal meetings and it requires a relationship where the other is recognized in its dignity. The laboratory therefore offers the opportunity to understand that everybody can change certain situations and even change themselves. The theater workshop has a strong pedagogical value and gives an important contribution to the educational process, because, in the path that everyone takes upon itself, it leads to learn to "pull out" what "screaming inside," to know and control energy, to live with what was suppressed or repressed. Do not forget that the human being depends on the quality of his experiences, which characterize his way of relating or not relating. Theater laboratory allows you to expand your field of expertise and experience life situations which are qualitatively different from the usual ones. It can contributes to the redefinition of the ego, of the world, of the others. Playing theater, in this sense, means to revive anxieties, revisit certain behaviors or situations, without removing them. It helps people to become aware and recognize the positivity of every experience.

The laboratory
A fundamental aspect of the laboratory of Education to Theatricality is the personal relationship between the participants ; a similar relationship should exist between actors and spectators during the creative project that concludes the laboratory itself. The openness to the other is a feature that deeply belongs to man; it is not just a simple exchange of communication, but an experience of affective participation and reciprocity. However, the desire to encounter the other should be real and authentic: this implies that every one accepts others as they are. The laboratory therefore is an opportunity to grow, to learn by doing, with the belief that the most important thing is the process and not the product: the performance (or creative project) is just the conclusion of a training program. The theatrical activity stimulates the need of an interpersonal knowledge that leads to a relationship in which others are recognized in their dignity. The laboratory offers the opportunity to understand that it is possible to change certain situations and to change ourselves. The laboratory of Education to Theatricality has a great pedagogical value and offers an important contribution to the educational process, because, thanks to the personal training, every one can learn to express what it is "screaming" inside, to understand and control our energy, to accept what at first was suppressed or repressed. We should not forget that personality of man depends on the quality of his experiences, which characterize his way of relating or not relating, that is his lifestyle. Theater and in particular the laboratory, allows to make new experiences and to experiment different and unusual life situations, which can contribute to redefine the Ego but even the world and the others. Theater means also see again our past: re-experience fears, relive certain behavior - or situations, not to remove them, but to realize that now we are stronger and we can recognize our positivity.

Aesthetic
«In this context, theater becomes a sort of exercise of beauty, that allows us consider reality in a different and unusual way helping us to find something beautiful everywhere. Interpret reality using the idea of beauty as a key, allow us to abandon the repetitiveness of experience that inhibits every change and helps to understand the complexity of reality which is made of beautiful and ugly things. Theater can therefore be considered as education to beauty, as the acquisition of a new instrument of judgment, as an important chance of socialization, as an instrument of change, as a cathartic representation that allows us to think that there is beauty in every human encounter, in every interaction, in any environment».

Conclusive note

Education to Theatricality as pedagogical and artistic research is experienced by almost twenty years in Italy in laboratories and projects organized in collaboration with universities, schools, theaters, educational centers, cultural centers, educational and social services, associations. The present theoretical writing synthetically introduces the fundamental elements of the theory. Over the years the theory was investigated through congresses, studies and publications. The study is developed by different research bodies, amongst others: The professorship of Theater-Education and Dramaturgy (Faculty of Education Catholic University in Milano, Brescia and Piacenza - Italy), masters Creativeness and personal growth through the theatricality (Faculty of Psychology and Faculty of Education of the Catholic university, Milano - Italy) and masters "Actions and Pedagogic Interactions through the Narration and the Education to Theatricality" (Faculty of Education of the Catholic university, Milano - Italy), Center of Theatrical Search "Theater-Education (CRT Centro di Ricerche Teatrali "Teatro-Educazione"Fagnano Olona - Italy).

Sources

English language

• Gaetano Oliva, Education to Theatricality inside Secondary School, Art and Body, CE Creative Education, Vol.5 No.19, November 2014, pp. 1758-1775 YOU READ THE TEXT ONLINE
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