The prince and the prince
George Konstantinidis
Child Psychologist, Actor, Volunteer at the Rainbow School, Greece
Elena Skarpidou
Sexual Education Trainer, Head of Education Department at the Rainbow School, Greece
WORKSHOP
As the International Conference "Theater/Drama and Inclusive Education"
Athens, March 21-23, 2025
Hellenic Theater/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)
Language: Greek
Limited Seats
The workshop is aimed at education professionals.
The goal of the workshop is to foster an understanding of gender and sexual diversity and related terminology, raise awareness among individuals working with children—both within and outside the school environment—regarding issues faced by LGBTQI+ students, and empower participants to include LGBTQI+ individuals and their stories in their practices.
Brief workshop description:
Using the structure of classic and traditional fairy tales as a starting point, we discuss gender and sexual identities, deconstructing stereotypical models and gender expectations. Based on Inclusive Education, understanding another person's position from different perspectives is a skill that can be effectively developed through dramatized scenarios shared by all participants. Participants are thus invited to contribute, through creative writing, to the adaptation of a text (with the aforementioned traditional structure), dramatize it through improvisation, and apply various physical theater techniques. Collaborative methods and theatrical techniques are used to present unconventional sexual and gender identities that resist rigid classifications and highlight theoretical assumptions that gender and sexuality are fluid, socially constructed, and performative, existing on a broad spectrum and continuously evolving.
Specifically, during the workshop, participants will explore unconscious biases that hinder or distort pedagogical relationships with LGBTQI+ children and learn the basic principles of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and Queer Pedagogy. The participants will be invited to use their personal experiences with LGBTQI+ individuals as a foundation, together with the emotions that will arise, in order to search for and discover new ideas, experiences, and ways to include LGBTQI+ individuals in the content and implementation of theatrical and experiential activities. Special emphasis will also be placed on envisioning the classroom/group as a liberating environment where members learn to respect rather than fear differences, collaborate in an atmosphere of trust and safety, and transform what they learn into simple and effective actions against injustice, inequality, and rights violations.
The workshop can easily be adapted and applied to groups of pre-adolescent and adolescent children.
Note: The workshop is experiential, participatory, and takes the form of a theatrical workshop. It includes creative writing, physical contact, and movement in space. Therefore, it is essential for participants to:
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes suitable for movement exercises in the space.
Attend the seminar in its entirety.
Bring along… enthusiasm and a willingness to experiment!
George Konstantinidis was born in Thessaloniki Greece, where he studied theater, psychology, and pedagogy, specializing in child psychology. He has worked as a supervisor in public and private mental health facilities. He has designed educational programs for private and public organizations. George has performed in productions by the state and national theater and has directed plays for children and adolescents. Additionally, he has worked in public schools providing parallel support. He currently lives and works as a child psychologist in Athens.
Elena Skarpidou is an educator with extensive experience coordinating adolescent groups on Sexual Education within the framework of Health Education programs. She is also a trainer for groups of education professionals and parents/guardians, with expertise in designing experiential educational workshops on topics related to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and the rights of LGBTQI+ children in schools. She is the creator of the educational application SecsWise and has contributed to the writing teams and training sessions of numerous European educational projects on similar topics. Elena has collaborated with organizations such as OKANA, the Social Welfare Center of the Attica Region – Public Entity, and the Ark of the World. She is also a certified trainer for the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA). Since 2017, she has been the head of the Education Department of the Rainbow School (https://rainbowschool.gr/). She is also a founding member of Intersex Greece (an NGO advocating for the rights of intersex individuals) and a key collaborator with Synixiseis (a Psychotherapy and Education Center).
Finally, she is the owner and administrator of the website https://sexualeducation.gr/.
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