Pretzel Theatre Collective
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In 2019 at the World Alliance for Arts Education conference a group of educators from different continents decided to collaborate on a piece of youth theatre. The premise was simple: each group will create a piece of stimulus which will be sent electronically to the next group around a common theme or ideal. The next group will look at that stimulus, devise something from it, and send their creation to the next group. The viewing, responding, creating cycle would continue bouncing and evolving from continent to continent. The developing concept would travel between six to ten times around the globe, not always on the same path. The resulting work would be five unique performances, containing elements from each of the other collectives. Each performance will include multimedia and text from the other groups. The teachers facilitate the process, presenting the material, asking questions and setting devising exercises. In the end, the world will be able to view unique youth perspective on complex, global topics.
Follow the journey of the Collective around the globe through their blogs and presentations:
The aim of the pilot cohort of the Pretzel Theatre Collective is to trial a proof of concept for a global youth theatre collective connected through technology. We want to demonstrate that through available, affordable technology, young people can connect through creative theatre practice. We want young creatives to see beyond the superficial, edited representations of life carefully manufactured on social media and connect with real peers in far flung lands over common ideals and shared experiences. We want them to feel connected to real people living real lives in a creative celebration of their hopes, fears and dreams.
The Founders of the Pretzel Theatre Collective are:
Juliet Cottrell, Director, The Drama Workshop, Hawkes Bay Youth Theatre, New Zealand
Eva Knight, Drama Specialist, Rocky View Schools, Canada
Jo Lee, Director of Performing Arts, Cranleigh Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mark Pluckrose, Team Leader of Performing Arts, Great Torrington School, Devon, UK
Man Cheung, Consultant, DoReMi Dramatic English, Shanghai, China, PHD Candidate, Monash University
The Collective can be reached at PretzelTheatre@gmail.com.
What are our goals?
1.
To build an online presence for the global project to foster dialogue and enable the theatre education field to track the progress of the pilot cohort.
2.
To facilitate the documentation and research process engaged of the theatre educators leading the initiative.
3.
Compiling and disseminating the findings of the work within and without the theatre education field.