IV Festival Mater Terra and Symposium PUSH
The Festival Mater Terra (lat. Mother Earth) opens a space for encounter and presentation of drama groups, with the possibility for expert advice for all the teachers, artists and drama teachers who believe, just like we do, that drama education and theatre itself can influence positive personal development, and the development of our society and the world we live in.
We analyze the presented performances in two ways: the first discussion happens after every block of performances and includes young performers, their drama teachers, the audience and experts who openly talk about the work and where the processes behind the performances are revealed. The second reflection is among the members of the expert team, when a written evaluation is sent to the drama teachers.
Theatre has the power to publicly confront important subjects, to initiate and empower the spectator. The performances of Mater Terra deal with the themes of ecology and “ecology of the soul”. “Ecology of the soul” is a new expression, that for us implies healthy and developed human relationships, openness and acceptance of the other or different, the development of empathy and activation of solidarity and support.
With our Festival we want to confront the contemporary tendency of growing competition, comparisons and superficiality. We believe that competition should be left for sports, and that performance art should nourish solidarity, and the possibility and inclination to constantly learn and grow, developing ourselves on the way.
Symposium PUSH (Theatre in Schools) “Innovative Drama Methods in the Prevention of Violence”.
The Symposium is organized out of the need to inform the public and all interested parties with the TIE methodology, that is implemented with success in a number of European countries. In Serbia, it is a new method, and our wish is to spread TIE in as many schools as possible, implemented by a large number of theatre groups, artists and drama teachers. The themes of the interactive performances of TIE are many. Through scenes and interactions with the young participants it is crucial to make sure they are thought about and understood profoundly. This time our theme is violence, bullying, and especially cyberbullying.
As part of the Symposium a Panel discussion will take place with the theme “Peer violence and cyberbulling”, where the phenomenon of violence in our society will be analyzed, especially peer violence, and models of different creative methods for the prevention of violence will be presented, that leave a deeper and more influential mark on the participants, thus serving in the prevention and reduction of violence amongst children and youth.
During the panel an online application will be presented that could be used as a tool in TIE projects or work with children. This application was created for the needs of the ERASMUS + project R.U.IN, and the participants of the Symposium will have the opportunity to join another meeting in 2018, where the results and outcomes of the research on the prevention of bulling with TIE methods, that is carried out in Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Cyprus.
Performances presented:
Interactive performance-musical WORDS OF STONE, CEDEUM/Hleb Teatar, Belgrade, Serbia (in Serbian)
Interactive performance EPIC GAMES: BUILDING OF SKADAR , Hop.La! ( in Serbian)
Photo: CEDEUM