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2016-2017 January ISSUE 2 SCENE THE JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS THEATRE ASSOCIATION THIS ISSUE: Theatre across/without languages www.ista.co.uk WHO’S WHO @ ISTA… CONTENTS Patron ISTA core staff (listed alphabetically) 1 Editorial • Professor Jonothan Neelands, • Emmy Abrahamson, Sweden National Teaching Fellow, Chair of Drama and Theatre PA to the CEO 2 Digital Theatre+ Education in the Institute of Education and Chair of Communication Manager Creative Education in the Warwick Business School Editor for Scene and Behind the 4 Speaking without words (WBS) at the University of Warwick. Scenes by Anna Andresen Board of trustees [email protected] 6 Our bilingual friends Iain Stirling (chair), Scotland Liane Campbell, New Zealand • • by Kevin Burns Formerly Superintendent, Advanced Learning Schools, Consultant Riyadh. Recently retired. [email protected] 9 A case for theatre without language • Emily Ross (vice chair), United States • Keriann O’Rourke, Singapore by Simon Bell Director of International Implementation at the College Event Coordinator for primary and Board, New York, United States. middle school festivals 11 Thai ghostbusters – Phi Ta Khon • Alan Hayes, Belgium Social and digital media by Clynt Whitaker Theatre teacher, International School Brussels. coordinator • Sherri Sutton, Switzerland [email protected] 13 Witnessing theatre as education Comic, director and chief examiner for IB DP Theatre. • Jo Parish, United Kingdom by Mhairi MacInnes Theatre teacher at La Chataigneraie. Business Director Jess Thorpe, Scotland • [email protected] 16 A language all its own Co Artistic Director of Glas(s) Performance and award by Katy Bingham winning young people’s company Junction 25; visiting • Ian Pike, United Kingdom lecturer in the Arts in Social Justice at the Royal Senior Consultant 18 How visual are you? Conservatoire of Scotland. Event Coordinator for TaPS and IB by Georgina Christou workshops Honorary life members [email protected] 19 The poetry of physical theatre • Dinos Aristidou, United Kingdom • Sally Robertson, Australia by Shane Anthony Jones • Doug Bishop Chief Executive Offi cer • David Lightbody, Hong Kong [email protected] 22 The truth of matter Ted Miltenberger • by Noa Rotem • Mike Pasternak, Switzerland • Tom Scott, United Kingdom • Ian Pike, United Kingdom Safety Manager Event Coordinator for high school 24 Drama: the Esperanto of the world of Global patrons: schools/organisations festivals and AiR programme education and the arts • ACS Hillingdon International School, United Kingdom [email protected] by John Somers • American Scool of The Hague, The Netherlands • Jen Tickle, Jamaica • Anglo-American School of Moscow, Russia 26 A multilingual stage Event Coordinator for primary and • Atlanta International School, United States by Nadya Shahd middle school festivals • Copenhagen International School, Denmark Membership Coordinator • International Community School Zurich, Switzerland 28 Using home languages and Ways of PD coordinator • International School of Brussels, Belgium Knowing in drama [email protected] • International School of Dusseldorf, Germany by Nita Dewse • International School of Luxembourg, Luxembourg • Kristen van Ginhoven, United • Marymount International School, London, United Kingdom States of America 30 Alternative mask performance • St John’s International School, Belgium Consultant by Avital Manor Peleg • St Julian’s School, Portugal [email protected] • Taipei American School, Taiwan 33 Where do words go when we have • Carla Weiss, United States of • Vienna International School, Austria said them… ? America • Western International School of Shanghai, China by Joachim Matschoss Event Coordinator for middle and high school festivals, IB workshops Individuals 36 Biographies • Debbie Kidd, United Kingdom and TaPS in the Americas • Tom Kline, China/United Kingdom [email protected] Edited by Emmy Abrahamson Artwork by Jo Doidge Front cover photograph courtesy of Mike Caemmerer Taken at the Hong Kong TaPS and IB workshops hosted by Hong Kong Academy, October 2016. To submit material or comments for future issues please email Emmy Abrahamson on [email protected] © International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) 2016-2017 ISTA and its editors accept no liability for the views, opinions and advice contained in this journal.The editors reserve the right to edit any materials submitted for publication. ISTA contact information: International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA), 3, Omega Offi ces, 14 Coinagehall Street, Helston TR13 8EB U.K. offi [email protected] Editorial By Emmy Abrahamson When I was younger I used to love watching the TV-series The writes about the powerful lesson he learned as a teacher when Twilight Zone. The thrill of getting frightened from the safety of using “signs, symbols and the understanding of the body” and the sofa and surrounded by my siblings was both addictive and how these moments become refl ective impacting future practice. comforting. But there was one episode that genuinely scared me As he writes: “There is something surprisingly freeing about being to the core – and still does. It was called Wordplay and centred asked to create with your body alone”. I hope that many teachers around a salesman called Bill Lowery. As Bill leaves for work one will also fi nd inspiration from Avital Manor Peleg’s text to explore day his neighbour refers to his dog as an “encyclopaedia”. Lowery a practitioner approach, rather than a teacher one, as well as the just assumes that he has heard wrong. But during the day a young truth and wisdom in Noa Rotem’s “The truth of matter”. In this salesman talks about teaching old dogs new “trumpets”. More issue we have also a very special contributor: former ISTA student and more usages of words that are completely out of place occur Nadya Shahd. In her brilliant “A multilingual stage” she not only e.g. when Lowery comes home his wife says that their son has demonstrates the craft of research and writing but how it is also not eaten any of his “dinosaur”. Lowery becomes increasingly possible to fall in love with another culture. We hope to hear a lot frustrated at the rising level of gibberish and soon he can’t even more from Nadya in the future. In total we have fourteen exciting make himself understood at all with the people around him. In the contributors giving us a varied and balanced range of articles on last scene Lowery sits down with one of his son’s ABC books in Theatre across/without languages, ranging from lesson plans to order to study the language he now needs to re-learn. Under the more theoretical texts, and lots of ideas for you to pick up on and picture of a dog it says “Wednesday”… delve more into. We’re also delighted to profi le a contribution from Even now, 30 years later, thinking about this episode makes my one of our formal partners: Digital Theatre+. ISTA members get body go cold. The possibility of suddenly existing in a world where a 10% discount on a year’s subscription and they are an amazing words mean something completely diff erent is absolutely terrifying resource for both teachers and students. to me. Language is how we communicate and the characteristic So ban English. Go on, I dare you. Ban English for one day. Or at that separates us from other animals, along with free moral agency least for one lesson with your students. Tell them that no-one will be and, as George Carlin pointed out, our ability to make plastic. So allowed to speak English during the next lesson, yet that you are still what would happen if we took it away? Apart from me personally going to teach them a new skill. From start to fi nish the lesson can having a bit of a breakdown and needing to look for another be conducted in Swahili, French, gibberish or just using the body. career, it would probably be an amazing and liberating process Anything but English. And I guarantee that your students will love it. in many ways. This is the reason we decided to dedicate a whole It will be one of those lessons that they will never forget. Go on, you issue of Scene to Theatre across/without languages. Working in can do it. It’s never too late to teach an old dog a new trumpet. international schools we are used to being surrounded by other languages, or as Nadya Shahd writes, “where multilingualism is the norm and a classroom of fi fteen students can have more than twenty diff erent languages between them”. Yet we are still reluctant Emmy to let go of English at times and just use home languages as cute little details and after-thoughts (“If you could say ‘Merry Christmas/ Hello/We wish you welcome’ in Swedish that would be great!”). Yet using no language or a foreign language in drama is enriching, Still available for booking! exciting and engaging - and should be treated with the utmost respect. As Nita Dewse describes in her article “using languages 3-Day Teacher Studios other than English can be a rewarding and liberating experience ISTA is delighted to off er a new series of for students and the eff ects it can create can be powerful ones”. workshops for teachers in Asia, Europe and the The Swedish fi lm-and theatre director Ingmar Bergman once spoke United States. Three full and amazing days. Three of the “pane of glass” the existed when an actor acted in a foreign very diff erent locations and three very diff erent areas of theatre. language stating: “I have always had a suspicion that an actor cannot act to 100% when acting in a foreign language”. While I Kathakali in Kerala don’t fully agree with this statement I do believe in the existence 14th – 16th April 2017 of Bergman’s “pane of glass” and by giving our international students a chance to perform in their home language we remove Musical Theatre in London it.