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European school theater festival May, 14th - 19th 2008 in Göttingen
COMENIUS Theatre festival at OHG and Junges Theater - a raving success Machinations, whips, a Turkish wedding, wild fencing scenes and, of course, romantic love in the balcony scene from Shakespeare’s ”Romeo and Juliet”. More than 800 enthusiastic spectators watched the four performances of the theatre plays about “Young love in Europe” staged by the Comenius partner schools of the OHG. From May 14th until May 19th 2008 the partners of the EYES-project came together in Göttingen to present in public the result of what began in Töstamaa, Estonia, last November. There the students from five nations had come together and developed the first act of a play about love. The outcome had many different faces. The Italian version from Scandicci was a successful combination of acting scenes and multimedia projections. The two Estonian schools also enhanced their plays that dealt with Cupid’s arrow (Töstamaa) and the activities of some young man entangled in love matters (Vastse – Kuuste) with the support of powerful pictures. The Turkish plays from Izmit and Osmaniye also had contrasting endings. While in the former love culminated in a classic wedding, the Osmaniye play ended in tears and unrequited love. From the quiet forests of Finland came a loud performance of rock music, shadow play, Barbie girls, and a dominant woman teacher. The OHG drama course presented the topic of ‘unrequited love’ as a combination of a Shakespearean comedy of errors with classical Greek drama with a chorus. The balcony scene was included as a dream sequence. Last but not least, thanks to the Junges Theater Göttingen and its professional team headed by theatre pedagogue Daniela Urban, the participants experienced the atmosphere of a real theatre, stage fright included. Ms Urban had been so much taken by the idea of putting student theatre on a real theatre stage that they included the Comenius project in their playing schedule as guest performance. So this school project could be presented to a wider public. The visiting students stayed with the families of OHG students. Offering their hospitality, the host families contributed considerably to the success and the wonderful atmosphere of the festival. All people involved in it agreed that the idea of the Programme for Lifelong Learning fully has come into its own: to bring students from various cultures together and give them the chance to make friends. The tears that were shed at the goodbye barbecue at the Junges Theater and at the station when the guests departed expressed that beyond words. Everybody is sure that a good basis has been laid for new encounters in the second Comenius year, which will start with a meeting in Imatra/ Finland next October. After the festival a DVD set was produced that contains performances from each school plus some outtakes and a picture gallery.
Running order of the performances: Friday, May 16th 2008, 7pm at the Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium Göttingen
Saturday, May 17th 2008, 4pm at the Junges Theater Göttingen
Saturday, May 17th 2008, 8pm at the Junges Theater Göttingen
Sunday, May 18th 2008, 11am at the Junges Theater Göttingen
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