The Raft Game
Georgia Antoniou, teacher at 5th High School Corfu Greece
Angeliki Kladi teacher at 5th High School Corfu Greece
WORKSHOP
Athens International Conference “Theatre/Drama & Inclusive Education”
21, 22, 23 March 2025
Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)
Language: Greek
Limited number of participants
Short description
The Raft Game is a role-playing game which seeks to introduce its participants to the concepts of democratic and humanistic values as well as to the identification of prejudices and stereotypes.
This Workshop is divided into three main acts.
First Act. The participants are divided into groups of three and enter a raft. They are no longer themselves. They become: Alan Turing (founding father of modern cognitive science and a homosexual), Stephen Hawking (a foremost theoretical physicist and a quadriplegic), and Ruby Bridges (a major Civil Rights activist and the first black child to go to a school with white students). Right after that, History appears (as a person) and announces that (s)he can no longer carry the technological, social and humanistic load that these three great personalities represent. So, through a peculiar game in time and space, Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking and Ruby Bridges find themselves together inside a raft where they are called upon to defend themselves, when History announces the rule of the game: "One of these three personalities must disappear". This means that each raft group has to decide who will be the “weak link” who should disappear from the history of humankind. The participants are asked to base their choices on fundamental humanitarian principles such as the right to life, the respect for diversity, equal opportunities in education and the rejection of racist stereotypes.
Act Two: Through audiovisual material and narration, the participants learn about the APOLLO 13 lunar mission, in which a crew of three was forced, due to serious technical problems, to embark in an attempt to return to Earth by the only means available to do so: the lunar module. The lunar module was designed for only two people, not three, and could be operated safely for 45 hours, not the 90 hours required for the return journey. Thus, this presentation provides an alternative course of action in relation to the raft game that was presented a short time before, with different results, since it proves that it is possible not to sacrifice anyone and that cooperation can be the best strategy for every situation. As a result, some questions arise: Was there an option of cooperation in the raft game? Was there the freedom to make that choice?
Act Three: The "banality of evil", a term coined by philosopher Hannah Arendt, refers to situations where common, ordinary people commit crimes under the shroud of blind obedience to orders or instructions. According to Hannah Arendt, the basis of totalitarianism is not the fanatical exponents of totalitarian ideologies, but the petty, ordinary people who just don’t think and follow them. Without the latter, who by denying critical and responsible thinking and acting also deny their humanity, the former would be merely eccentric. Drawing on the above analysis, we proceed to presenting one of the most important and shocking social experiments in the history of mankind: the Milgram experiment. Through this presentation, we delve deeper into our theme, by asking: How easily and uncritically do we submit to any given form of power or authority figure?
Note:
No previous experience is required.
Participants are asked to wear comfortable clothes and to be available to step into roles with a reflective attitude.
Some of the workshop’s activities might include (non-aggressive) physical contact.
Georgia Antoniou is a Maths teacher since 2002. In 2009 she was appointed to a public school. After an initial focus on the national exams preparation, the realization that there’s a lack of activities centered on fostering the children's emotional development and social skills drove her to create a school drama group. In 2019-2020, she participated in the "Theatre in the New School" programme of the National Theatre of Greece and, after that, she also took part for two years (2020-2022) in the "Teachers' Academy" (project manager: Sofia Vgenopoulou), another educative initiative of the National Theatre of Greece. She has attended numerous seminars from the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-GR) and actively participates in the programme "It could be me - It could be you". She believes that teaching art in schools can help children understand the value of diversity as well as learn to creatively express themselves. She collaborates with her colleague Angeliki Kladi in all of the school's theatre group events.
Angeliki Kladi is a Philologist, employed in the public sector. In recent years she grew an interest in theatre and attended classes at the theatre workshop "Thymeli", in Corfu. This interest led her to work to bring theatre to the school students, so as to motivate and introduce them to its benefits. She collaborates with her colleague Georgia Antoniou in all the theatrical events of the school group, always seeking the best possible outcome.
| Action Category | - Seminars - Workshops
- Conferences
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| Year | |
| Cities | |
| Facilitators | - Αντωνίου Γεωργία
- Κλάδη Αγγελική
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