#1

#1
Monday, 13th June 2016
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FIVE WONDERFUL DAYS
TOGETHER
Theatre, music, dance, art, interaction, community, tolerance, friendship, sharing experiences,
multicultural diversity – these are the words that describe Young Malta Festival.
The third edition is connected with the idiom: Actor/Spectator/Witness. 60 participants, from 12 schools and 12 nationalities
all here to spend these five wonderful days
together. Tonight, at 8p.m. – official opening ceremony. And tomorrow you are invited for the first performances. We start with
Da Vinci theatre group with ”Hikikomori”,
followed by students from Lower Secondary School Nr 9 from Poznań. After that
you may expect a dance show by the girls
from Wrocław branch of British International
School of Cracow with their “Pop Phenomena”. And this year we will get a chance to
see Theatre “23” from Ukraine again – as,
luckily, they got the visas. They will show us
“The Sketches”. Wednesday performances
are opened by Georg-Büchner-Gymnasium
from Seelze, Teatrynki Club from Jerzykowo
and theatre groups from two schools in
Poznań – Lower Secondary School Nr 9 and
Secondary School Nr 3. On Thursday we will
see on stage pupils from British International School of Cracov, as well as the groups
from Escola Sagrada Familia in El Masnou,
Saint Roch’s Secondary School in Glasgow
and the group “LUSTRZANI” from Feliks
Szołdrski Lower Secondary School in Nowy
Tomyśl. And last but not least, on Friday afternoon, on the main stage at Plac Wolnosci, the final performance will be held: ‘P2P
people to people’, prepared by all the participants and directed by Grażyna Wydrowska.
K-POP IN BETWEEN CLASSES
They came from Wrocław, danced
and got a standing ovation. And made
girls at Da Vinci want to dance in between classes.
admirable fact is the honorification in Korean language and behaviour (two versions of
the language – formal and informal) and the
great respect that Korean people have for
each other.
Marysia – one of the actresses from Da Vinci
theatre group – started her adventure with
the Korean culture by watching the series
”For You in Full Blossom”. It is a story about
a Korean girl living in the USA who moves
to Korea to attend the same school as the
boy she saw on TV. She has to change her
hairstyle and her outfit, as it is a school… for
boys. After this Marysia watched other series, became fascinated with K-pop and finally started learning Korean. She still does
not speak it well enough to communicate
but is determined to brush it up soon.
Last year during Young Malta Festival we
had the chance to see the performance by
students from British International School of
Cracow, and to be precise – from its Wrocław
branch, where a lot of children of Korean
Samsung employees attend. When Marysia heard about their planned performance
she was in seventh heaven. This motivated
her to learn Korean more intensively. During
the festival she could pick up more Korean,
talk about her favourite bands (e.g. BTS) and
learn some of the dance routine. Since then
Redhead (it is her nickname because of the
hair colour) practises – sometimes with Hania – the choreography for some songs. She
does it whenever she has free time, even
in between classes. She continues learning
Korean, watches even more dramas and series, even draws members of her favourite
bands.
Our school’s K-pop fans cannot wait to welcome the girls from Wrocław again and see
their performance? Maybe they will be a
chance to go on stage together?
Zuzanna Zwolińska
All this brought about a slight obsession
with the Korean culture – and as it is with
obsessions – who knows – it may continue
for years to come.
The most fascinating aspects of the Korean
culture are its subtlety, distinctness, orientalism and the cuisine. Another student from
Da Vinci, Hania, is so fascinated with the ritual of taking care of female complexion and
the Korean ideal of beauty that she tries to
follow them herself. Another surprising and
Polina Shved, Ukraine/Poland:
My life has always been connected with art: I used to play the bass guitar, attended art school,
and then went for a casting to a theatre and this changed my life. I could see a different world.
It was incredible: to get to know all the theatre secrets. Before I was a quiet, modest girl. All
my complexes disappeared. I got to know a lot of interesting people, fell in love with poetry.
Two years ago I came to Poland for Young Malta Festival with our Theatre “23”. I could see
how beautiful Poland is. And I realized that I want my future life to be connected with art. Now
I study graphic design at Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and like going to the theatre. And
have great memories from the time when I acted in plays myself.
Chris Sagan, teacher, Scotland:
Theatre can be entertainment or it can be a type of therapy thing. It can be an ego trip or it
can release people from a prison that is their mind. It can be a stage to let their inner most
hidden thoughts come out without having to expose themselves, which means it can help
if someone needs to go on a journey to change and they need to summon up the courage
to do so.
Zoe Meyer, Germany:
Theatre affected my life very much. Thanks to Young Malta Festival and other theatre festival
that we have here in Hannover, I discovered that I actually love drama. Now I want to develop
my talents and my dream is to work in a theatre one day.
Marc Martos, Spain:
In my opinion theatre is a way to express things that u can’t say with words. Theatre has
changed my vision of the world. I can now see others’ points of view and I don’t need their
words for that, I just feel and know it. Theatre gave me the opportunity to meet new people.
In my “normal” life I’m very shy and the theatre changed it.
Anna Bednarek
CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATION
Krystyna Lipka will run artistic
workshops during this year’s Young
Malta Festival and prepare the mise-en-scene for the final performance. She is an art teacher at Da Vinci
Schools. She is an artist.
Wiktoria Chełmińska, Julia Stroemich:
– Have you ever had anything to do with
theatre?
Krystyna Lipka: – In secondary school I took
part in a folk scenography course. As I attended a school in Zakopane*, highlander
patterns and various icons were for us both
important as well as fascinating.
Could you reveal some back-stage details
connected with preparation for Young
Malta Festival this year?
– I cannot answer your question so as not
to reveal all the secret. The only thing I can
say now, is that it will all be connected with
a tree-part structure. There will be three
groups and each of them will create some
spatial form. I can add that the project is
rather open, so we will give our participants
freedom to develop their ideas. I will give
them some aim and let them use their imagination.
What do you associate theatre with?
– Hmm... It is not artificial. Every time I go
to see some performance, I feel this incredible atmosphere, so natural, almost magical.
Theatre is about expressing your emotions
and expressing yourself. That is why it is so
important.
What abilities does Young Malta develop
in young people?
– Most importantly, it develops their creativity and imagination. It gives young people
space to be themselves.
*A famous Polish resort in the Tatra Mountains
Wiktoria Chełmińska, Julia Stroemich
ALMOST LIKE
A MAGIC PILL
– For one person a comedy, or simple cheering up works best.
People with a more reflexive nature may do better watching
a tragedy – this helps them to distance themselves from their
own problems – says Dr Dagmara Krzyżaniak from Adam
Mickiewicz University. She studies the ways theatre may
influence spectators.
Małgorzata Morchało: – In what way does
theatre affect people?
Dr Dagmara Krzyżaniak: – It is an issue that
has been bothering researchers for centuries. Since Aristotle in his Poetics described
the phenomenon of catharsis, or purification, which is achieved by a viewer as a result of the emotions felt, theatrologists and
researchers have been wondering what his
words actually mean. Theatre offers the experience of emotional involvement that can
be so intensive that it is often compared to
dreaming. It helps to understand other people and social relations. Sometimes theatre
forces us to confront something which is
terrifying and is rejected by our conscious
mind. Theatre is also a way of simulating
some life situations, which helps us solve
our problems.
How did theatre become your study area?
You left the theatre and you felt better?
– Usually when I leave the theatre I feel better…… or worse… which is just as good. I am
a literary scholar and I have always enjoyed
reading, but the magic of theatre has a very
specific impact on me. The way it happens
has always puzzled me.
And when did you get interested in theatre for the first time?
– In secondary school. Quite important here
was my fascination with a young actor from
Teatr Polski, the late Mariusz Sabiniewicz. I
can still remember the sound of his voice in
the first words of the Great Invocation where
he laments the loneliness of a poet. Only
recently have I realized the paradox of his
words. The extract says that the thoughts,
words, and feelings of a great poet, like Gus-
for more information go to davinciszkola.pl
taw Konrad, are redundant, unnecessary for
people. Konrad demands of God the ‘power
over souls’ and this is what he receives as
an actor. He casts a spell upon the audience.
What play would you recommend to a person who is feeling sad?
revealed to everybody there. However, this
kind of performances is rather rare.
– Theatre plays are (rather unfortunately) not
magic pills that can be prescribed as a remedy to a specific soul ache. But their beauty
stems from the fact that they have beneficial
effect on many sad people. For one person
a comedy, or simple cheering up works best
(a very interesting phenomenon of contagious laughter of the audience). People
with a more reflexive nature may do better
watching a tragedy – this helps them to distance themselves from their own problems.
You mentioned that you also have contact
with disabled people theatre groups? Is
this kind of work much different?
Can theatre, just like a bad therapy, do
harm?
– The risk of this happening is minimal. When
a spectator does not feel comfortable, they
may leave the theatre. For me theatre is a
safe space, more like a lab, where a spectator can perform some emotional and cognitive experiments without the consequences
this could entail in real life.
Of course, there have been cases of performances having a negative impact on the
spectator. For example, after performances
by the Belgian company Ontroerend Goed
from Gent, some spectators fell in love with
the actors. It was so called ‘one-to-one’ performance, where the actor took a spectator
to a special booth to talk to them. The conversation was held in such a way that some
people, convinced by the actors, revealed
their secrets and really fell in love with them.
In the second part of the performance the
information revealed to the artists was also
– As a spectator I took part in a performance
by a group “Chorea”. It was entitled “Vidomi” and the actors were blind people who
wrote the text of the play themselves. It was
to a great extent a dance performance. The
edges of the stage were wrapped in bubble
foil so that a blind person was warned by its
sound which would keep them on the stage.
This small detail indicates the obstacles that
disabled people must overcome every day.
Such performances by disabled actors have
also a great influence on the audience – by
evoking empathy and understanding.
Young Malta Festival reveals that theatre
attracts young people: they are involved
even though only few think of acting career themselves. What do you think makes
theatre attractive for teenagers?
– I wish I could ask them this question myself. … How come that in today’s multimedia
world they still find the energy and time for
such an ephemeral event as a theatrical
performance. I believe it is the preparation
process that matters most. Team work, body
and voice trainings. Feeling that together
you are doing something special.
Małgorzata Morchało
All texts translated by Sylwia Pielin-Sołtys