The Red Lantern Festival, or How the Emperor’s Maidservant changed his Mind and Saved the People

Αθήνα, 22/03/2025, εργαστήριο για εκπαιδευτικούς, John O’ Toole

The Red Lantern Festival

or How the Emperor’s Maidservant changed his Mind and Saved the People

John O’ Toole Professor University of Melbourn, Australia

WORKSHOP

Athens Conference “Theatre/Drama & Inclusive Education”
22 March 2025

Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)
 

Language: English

Limited number of participants

The workshop is addressed to teachers of all levels and specialties as well as to animators of youth groups with little or no experience in theatre pedagogical techniques.

Abstract:  
This drama is for children between 5 and 8 years old (or with appropriate adaptation for disability) based on one of the many explanations for the now world-wide annual Red Lantern Festival.

The participants will take a full part as endangered townspeople working with the Jade Emperor’s humble maidservant to prevent the angry, lonely Emperor from destroying the town and its people. They will collaborate to deal with the problems and dangers, then take decisions to try and help the Emperor change his evil thoughts to kindly ones.

Note: The workshop is experiential, participatory, includes exercises, games, improvisations, role plays with possible physical contact and movement in space and on the ground. For this reason, it is necessary for participants to:

1. wear comfortable clothes and shoes for movement exercises in the space

2. bring with them... fun and appetite for experimentation!

John O’ Toole. Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia

John O’Toole is an Australian drama and arts educator, formerly Professor of Drama and Applied Theatre at Griffith University, and Foundation Chair of Arts Education at University of Melbourne. He has been teaching, researching and writing on drama and applied theatre for fifty years, with all ages, and on six continents. He has written and co-written over twenty books, including student textbooks, teachers’ texts, research and research methods in the arts. He was Lead Writer for The Arts and for Drama in the 2013 Australian National Curriculum. He is active in curriculum and professional association development, founder-member of Drama Queensland and Drama Australia, and Convenor of IDEA 95 triennial Congress. In 2002 he received the American Alliance for Theatre and Education Lifetime Research award. In 2014, he was awarded membership of the Order of Australia (AM) for his services to drama education