On this page
Children On Stage
This initiative used acting and theatre workshops to give the pupils of Faik Konica Primary School in Pristina a better understanding of children's rights.
Description
This program was designed for students to learn the basics of theatre, and to use those tools creatively to express themselves and create a short performance. A similar project implemented last year became a success and we found that there was an interest from the pupils for this initiative to be repeated.
The Centre for Children's Theatre Development (CCTD) team worked with a group of 25 pupils from Faik Konica school. Classes were held three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for an hour and a half at their school. As the students began to develop the show, class time began to increase to Monday-Friday at two hours a class.
Aims / Objectives
- To introduce the basics of acting/theatre;
- To challenge the students to think creatively and critically; and
- To develop a short creative original theatrical piece on “children's rights”.
How it is Articulated
The students were set up with a basic topic of children’s rights. The students then had to collectively develop a show about “children’s rights” from their point of view. Two classes were spent talking to different people, visiting institutions etc. After this, the students had open discussions about the different characters that could be found for the performance.
The class was then split into four groups, each group was given a separate “situation” and they had to create a short scene about their particular “dramatic situation”. Those individual scenes were intensively work-shopped over two weeks, and as a group we collectively came up with a show.
The performance date was scheduled for 6pm on Aug. 1st, outdoors, close to the Grand Hotel platform. Publicity for the show was taken care of by placing advertisements in local papers and by word of mouth.
Achievements / Learning points
- We are proud of our colleges and the youth who were the carriers of the activity and implementers;
- Communication and support within the working team; and
- Personal satisfaction and belief.
The children were enthusiastic and they are the ones who have asked for this type of initiative to be done again. There is nothing substantial we would change in running the project again but we have used feedback from last year in order to improve our work.
Geographical Area of Operation
Kosovo, Pristina, in the west Balkan region.
Funding Resources
Our local sponsors and donors.
Organisations Involved
- Faik Konica Primary School; and
- Academy of Arts in Pristina.