III ÉPOCA. ERASMUS+ IPEP de JAÉN. Drama is essential for the organic development of the student, by Francisco de Asís Palomo Ruano.

"In fact, stage practices for the population, who are deprived of freedom, could not only be an instrument for socialization, flight or pleasure."

Video of students rehearsing at

Madach Imre Gimnazium in Budapest

 

    Zack Snyder's unjustly underrated Sucker Punch (2011) has many elements to become a cult film. Still, it looks like one of dozens of movies Hollywood overwhelms us with every year. However, its strengths lie in its particular aesthetics and structure. From Gothic and decadent imagery to the most powerful surrealism, this feature film appeals to the viewer's imagination to adapt as a whole on several levels: one on the ground, that of the dirtiest reality, that of a reclusive psychiatric institution in the dark 1950s in the United States, that of the despicable policies of McCarthy and his notorious followers.

Rethinking educational practices for adults,

 prison students and young offenders

Another level parallel and superimposed on the previous one, that of the imagination or lucid dream of young women locked up in the institution they use to escape the terrible living conditions they suffer there. Finally, a third level, that of the purest flashes of fantasy, where physical laws no longer exist, a framework in which our young girls undertake a series of random adventures to obtain key objects that allow them freedom in the second.

👉  The importance of Drama in education.

👉 ‘The importance of Drama is not questioned in this school.'

 

Psychodrama as a technique of introspection, acceptance of reality and overcoming the fear of the past, as learning through theatre practice, appears in secret in this story. What is decisive, however, is their overall function as a means of connecting the first two levels and thus as an instrument of escape from the situation of bondage in which they find themselves.

 

As I have already pointed out in an article specifically on African and Senegalese performing arts, the various popular theatrical practices for amateurs (forum theatre, street theatre, social action theatre), together with psychodrama, represent a central instrument of learning and, at the same time, for overcoming the negative aspects of reality. In this sense, the introduction of theatre in prisons or other places of reclusion, is no different from the introduction of street children or young people, whether in Dakar or Saint-Louis, who survive with the bare necessities and for whom the art is offered free of charge in the afternoons in a school, setting themselves up as a refuge from the dangers of the street.

Drama is essential for the organic

 development of the student.

Indeed, for the population deprived of freedom, scenic practices could be an instrument not only for socialisation, flight or pleasure, but also for teaching/learning, especially with regard to foreign languages. The use of language in the situation, in its most communicative and practical side, appears through the staging of small everyday stories, in relation to the experience, the current situation or the future plans of the prisoners,  the time to regain their freedom.

After the great effort of preparing and coordinating an Erasmus+ project, as well as the associated blog, one wonders whether it would be possible to include the theatrical techniques for the appropriation of the goals laid out in advance. However, reading the documents prepared by our coordinator and the connections of the institutions involved together with the IPEP of Jaén, we discover that one institution in Austria, the Katolisches Bildungswerk, uses kinaesthetics (based on performing arts such as theater or dance) and music, among other techniques, to facilitate the learning and care of the elderly.

Regardless of the target audience of these educational measures, we believe that the results would be positive for both teachers and learners. The collaboration and mutual learning within the framework of the Erasmus+ project between several European institutions, including IPEP in Jaén (Andalusia-Spain), is proving to be a cornerstone to verify whether these practices would be successful in a teaching context for an advanced or disadvantaged audience.

 

Francisco de Asis Palomo Ruano

French teacher at IPEP

Traducido al Inglés por Juan Manuel Barragán.