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The International Schools Theatre Association
Welcome to the Munich High School festival
February 19th – February 22nd 2015
Our mission
ISTA believes that the future of our world depends on confident,
internationally minded, collaborative and culturally literate young people who
are empowered to engage with and change the world responsibly. We believe
that this is achieved through the ISTA experience.
Educators play a key role in the fulfillment of our mission. We therefore offer
educators worldwide the opportunity to come together to develop themselves,
their pedagogy and their skills, equipping and empowering them to bring
about this change through theatre.
ISTA brings together young people, artists and teachers from different
countries in different settings to experience, create and learn about theatre.
We passionately value diversity and collaboration, celebration and play,
friendship and collegiality.
Our artistic focus
Title
Speaking out
Starting point
This festival looks at the power of theatre to raise awareness about issues
and to honour those brave enough to speak out against oppression. The
stimulus provides an example of young people daring to speak out publicly.
We will take the story of the Munich teenagers Hans and Sophie Scholl as
inspiration. In the summer of 1942 the brother and sister co-authored six anti
Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets. They belonged to a group of
young people opposing the Nazis calling themselves ‘The White Rose’. The
group worked to encourage ordinary Germans to resist the Nazis. They were
arrested by the Gestapo, tried for treason and condemned to death. On Feb
22 1943 (the anniversary falls during the festival) Hans and Sophie Scholl
(age 21 and 18) were beheaded.
Out and about
Participants will head to the university and memorial site to explore further the
story of Hans and Sophie.
Our festival pedagogy
What do young people get out of a festival?
Every festival is a unique, immersive experience and each one:
Ø places young people in an environment in which
international mindedness can flourish;
Ø brings people – educators, artists and young people - together in
a spirit of collaboration regardless of age, nationality and experience;
Ø immerses children in an experience where they can learn about theatre
and through theatre;
Ø develops cultural literacy and capital through interaction
between people, place and perspective.
Through ISTAʼs festival model of engagement (people, place, perspective)
children and young people develop intellectually, socially, emotionally and
physically and are better able to understand who they are, how they fit into the
world and what they could do and be in the future.
Before we get onto the pedagogy itself it is important to recognise that our
festivals can be categorised as follows:
Ø Primary School festivals – for children aged 9-10;
Ø Middle School festivals – for young people aged 10-14;
Ø High School festivals – for young people aged 14-18. They can then be further categorised into:
Ø customary – hosted by a member school and engaging 100-140 young
people;
Ø bonsai – hosted by a member school and engaging approximately
40 young people;
Ø sites of learning – hosted by ISTA in collaboration with
organisations such as the Eden Project or the Terezin Memorial Trust;
where the focus is learning through theatre as opposed to about
theatre. Terminology
AD – Artistic Director – the artist hired by ISTA to lead the artistic team and
the creative work of the festival.
SEL – student ensemble leader – the artist hired by ISTA to lead a specific
ensemble that will be general devising or tech at MS and specialist at HS.
(This is in exception to workshop model festivals where the SEL will lead a
developmental core workshop for a number of sessions throughout the
festival).
PS – Primary School festivals.
MS – Middle School festivals.
HS – High School festivals.
Our High School festival pedagogy – theatre making
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way
in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a
human being.”
Oscar Wilde
Ethos
The high school festival model is situated in young people functioning as
theatre makers. The young person is immersed in the responsible process of
using theatre to communicate ideas. This process empowers young people to
transform thought into action through art. It activates the realisation that
change is always possible through collective endeavor. Young people develop
theatre-making skills, pursuing particular interests and passions through
specialist ensembles. The key focus is on emerging expertise in theatre
making and the opportunity to pursue a passion with others who share it.
Experience – the learning happens:
Ø through interaction with a skilled artist-educator in ensemble groups;
Ø through specialist workshops with artist-educators, focusing
on introducing, developing or honing particular theatre skills;
Ø through an out and about trip, particular to the geography of
the location of the festival, in which the space is experienced as a
place of theatrical possibility and inquiry;
Ø through coming together as a whole group in collective acts
of exploration and theatre making. Expression
The festival culminates with the presentation of a fully produced piece of
theatre. Each ensemble is responsible for the performance or production of a
final product that demonstrates the skills acquired and makes an impact on an
audience.
The final festival sharing is always in the form of a performance to an
audience.