The second of our ideas implemented in the school year 2017/2018, was the theatre project under the auspices of the Mayor of the Ursynów District. On November 21-24, 2017, the students of grades 4a and 4b, and from November 28 to December 1, 2017, the students of grades 5 and 6, participated in the project at school which turned into a theatre.
By participating in the project tasks, we wanted to provide our students with an opportunity to:
- acquire theoretical knowledge on the theatre, its origins and history,
- learn about different types of theatre (musical theatre, shadow theatre, mime, puppet theatre) and their specific language,
- learn various means of stage expression,
- gain knowledge on the specifics of the work of people associated with theatre in a situation of direct contacts,
- prepare individually short improvised theatrical etude and its scenery and props.
Our objective was also to awaken in our students the attitude of empathy by charity action which took place in our school for the benefit of the inhabitants of the House of Veteran Artists in Skolimów. In both project weeks the students participated in workshops with professionals. Mrs. Marta Jędrzejczyk (educator, singer in the band Łysa Góra) and Mrs. Sarah Johnson (music therapist, teacher at The International School) told us about the music theater.
Mr. Krzysztof Falkowski (a successful director of puppet shows) and his FalkoShow allowed our students to become familiar with the ins and outs of animation and puppet theatre.
Our scheduled workshops allowed our students to gain practical knowledge about the difficult art of pantomime. They practiced scenic communication without words with the educators from Warsaw Pantomime Center in the Theatre Na Woli by Mr. Bartłomiej Ostapczuk.
During the four project days the students also gained theoretical knowledge on the history of theatre (ancient and Elizabethan), learned about symbolism of theater posters and specialized vocabulary describing the world of theatre. All classes were held in Polish and English.
The last day of the project did not mean the end of the project. The four-grade students took part in an educational trip to the Syrena Theater to become familiar with the theater’s backstage. The students of class 5 and 6 prepared a Christmas fair in order to raise funds to finance the library of audio books for the inhabitants of the House of Veteran Artists in Skolimów.
