Cassandra’s last prophecy or otherwise… I’m not a racist...
Athens, 24/11/2018
Katerina Birba, primary schoolteacher, postgraduate student, Greece
2,5 hour workshop
Part of the 2018 ATHENS GREECE INTERNATIONAL THEATRE/DRAMA & EDUCATION CONFERENCE
organised by the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)
Language: Greek
How many times have we thought: "I do not think like that? I have no problem with refugees, foreigners, homosexuals!! Oh no, no!! I am definitely not a racist!!” What is racism? What is its prime stimulus? To whom is being shown? To someone else? To a "third person" that is not familiar to me? What if the basic, the main subject of racism is us? What if, in the end, we are just negatively disposed towards ourselves? This drama workshop is an attempt to come closer to our inner and silent answers to these questions. Through the facilitation of the pedagogical aspect of theatre we can have a dialectical relationship with ourselves. We put ourselves in front and against the others according to the image we have chosen and is imposed on us. Maybe all these are closely connected with the image society has chosen for us. Our self-image and racism maybe are not irrelevant but interconnected. The creation of an initial atmosphere, the contact with our body and the shapes that emerge based on different situations, the suitable audio - visual stimulus, the techniques of inquiry drama, the reactions of our mind, the undertaking of responsibility and the reflection of what might have happened, contribute to the regain of consciousness. They contribute to the inner awareness of what takes place inside us; to the transition of our Ego. They also contribute to the co-movement not only with the Other, but with myself too, to the acquaintance, the recognition, the intimacy, the emergence of unity and human beauty. This workshop is addressed to fellow educators, animators, theatre theoreticians and children aged 11 years or older.
Katerina Birba has graduated from the Pedagogical Department of Primary Education, University of Patras, Greece in 2002. At the same year she started teaching in several Greek Schools. Simultaneously, she participated in various seminars and education programs about multicultural diversity e.g. programs about migrants and immigrants or summer camps for disabled. Within the last years she has been doing educational projects with her students and she has taken part as a trainer to numerous seminars, summits and workshops as well. She has studied and has participated and organized groups, meetings, seminars about “Playing through Theatre”. Currently, she is a postgraduate student in the Dimokritio University of Thrace, Greece. Since 2016, she has been, after three years of training, a seminar instructor on Self-confidence, Personal Improvement and Development in Adults’ Self-esteem at the non-profit civil partnership “Metamorfosis”.
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