This year, the Hungarian theater artist Gábor Takács contributed to the creators of the program of the “Don’t Go to the Theater” festival organized by the National Kaunas Drama Theater (NKDT) for the fourteenth year. he – Káva Dramas / Theater Education Associations (Káva Drama / Theater in Education Association) manager, actor, drama teacher.
For the past 20 years, Mr. Takács has been creating a genre of democratic theater characterized by interactivity, partnership, diversity of themes, participation, criticism and questioning. More about this genre, the performances brought to Kaunas and the audience’s involvement during them, in a guest interview with NKDT artistic director Edgars Klivius.
– The festival program includes two of your theater performances. Introduce them.
– For linguistic reasons, we will show two plays in Kaunas that are not pure examples of theater education, but interactivity is an extremely important element here. “Borka” is a performance for the youngest children. It tells the story of a mother-daughter day without words. The performance, in which sounds, music, shapes and movements create the whole world, lasts 25 minutes, after which we invite the audience to a joint game with the creators.
Our other play “Mother and the Genie” also consists of two parts. As usual in our theatre, you will see a 35-minute performance, followed by a discussion and a game. This is a story about a little girl whose mother suffers from addiction. The story is conveyed by the heroine’s poetic monologue and an ancient projector. Later, the participants are invited to try the usual interactive form of theater – creating abstract images.
Form: the performance of the Hungarian collective “Borka” tells about the day of mother and daughter without words – with various sounds, music, movements. / Káva Drama photo.
– I understand that you focus mainly on theater for children and young people. What do you think are the disadvantages of mainstream youth theatre? What is the responsibility of modern theater towards the young audience?
– When it comes to theater for children and young people, several things are significant. One of the most important things is that the performance must present such a phenomenon or problem that they can identify with, empathize with. There is also a great need for material (work) that does not convey any direct message (positive or negative), but on the contrary, encourages thinking and acting in such a way that the audience discovers its own relationship with the problem. When preparing an educational performance, creators must know the psychology of the target age group. It is no less important that the game encourages exploring the personal relationship with society: realizing oneself in society and society in oneself. Our goal is not to offer solutions, but to awaken the responsibility of the participants so that they, based on their thoughts and wishes, discover a new, deeper knowledge of themselves and the world.
Our goal is not to offer solutions, but to awaken the responsibility of the participants so that they, based on their thoughts and wishes, discover a new, deeper knowledge of themselves and the world.
– Coffee Drama you have been in charge since 1996. Your theater develops a special drama technique or genre called democratic, participatory and questioning theatre. Tell me how and why you were born Coffee Drama? What is your theater philosophy?
– Coffee Drama is a small independent theater operating in Hungary that pursues both social and artistic goals through forms of participatory and community theater. We care about activating democratic processes in our country (this is quite a challenge in recent years) by means of forms of participatory theater.
Our democracy-spreading theater is open to all, but pays particular attention to socially and culturally marginalized groups in society, as well as the needs of children and youth (ages 7-18). In the theater, we work with various genres of participatory theater, but the most important are theater education and drama education.
Educational theater genre (eng. Theater in Education, TiE) was created in England in the mid-1960s and took off in Hungary in the early 1990s. Educational performances are born when theater and pedagogy merge into one. This is a unique way of education, as the participants are given the opportunity to see a professionally staged performance that examines a universal social, moral issue related to a certain age group.
Coffee Drama the founders of the theater were the first members of the educational theater group in Hungary, and I myself and my team have been continuing their work since 1997. Of course, we also try other forms of participatory theater, such as debate theater and forum theater. We create community theater performances, we also use educational drama tools, but most of our performances are based on educational theater.
Theater games lesson
May 17 at 3 p.m. “Káva Drama” organizes a class of theater games – an educational workshop for teachers, students of pedagogy and theater arts.
The collective from Hungary regularly organizes theater games for primary and secondary school students, various groups and organizations, where they apply similar conceptual methods to their own performances. In these drama classes, the audience is offered a non-traditional role in complex theater games where stories and situations are created through theatrical means. Prepared theater scenes/episodes are interspersed with interactive games that aim to allow the audience to think and act together, using their emotions, creating a forum to examine an important human issue and creatively express their relationship to the proposed issue.
The game “Playground” was originally created 5-6 for grade school students about intragroup violence, but sometimes it is also played with adults for educational purposes. In “Playground”, we meet fourteen-year-old Áron, who meets his classmates. The concept of “victim” and what emotions Áron might experience in this situation are discussed with the participants. Participants can also ask Áron questions.
Káva Drama photo.
