Anna Galassetti
A. Galassetti - Theatre Week, a relational and creative gym
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In their first year of training, Bachelor's degree students in teaching at primary level (pre-school and primary school) participate in an unusual teaching experience: the Theatre in Education module, which everyone calls Theatre Week. A module that involves them in the collective creation of a play in small groups of about ten students. Coordinating this course for the past 15 years is Anna Galassetti, senior lecturer in music education at DFA/ASP and module leader. We asked her to tell us about Theatre Week, which has been part of teacher training in Canton Ticino for almost forty years.
The Theatre Week started in 1986 with the 鈥淪pecial Weeks鈥� of the Magistrale post high school. You picked up the baton from Enrico Ferretti and have been coordinating it for fifteen years. What still continues to excite you?
鈥嬧赌�The wonderful thing is that every year is a different and unique experience. The groups are formed by drawing lots, mixing male and female students from all five first-year classes, and this makes the week new every time, even for us teachers. We never know what dynamics will arise. Our role is that of chaperons, not directors, and this allows each group to find its own way. As trainers, we try to gradually 鈥渄isappear鈥� over the course of the week until we are spectators at the final performance. It is exciting to see the boys and girls enhance each other's skills and get involved in ways that are always unexpected. Every year is a discovery, and for me it is like being their age.
What do the students tackle during the week and what is the objective?
鈥嬧赌�The week starts with rotating workshops to experiment with different expressive languages and create cohesion within the teams. The groups are given a broad theme - a word, a concept, a symbol - on which to build their piece. Work is done on improvisation, voice, body, narration, sound. After the first day, each group continues independently, with a logistical base (a classroom of their own) and moments of counselling by two colleagues from the Dimitri Academy. The Italian teachers advise on storytelling, the plastic arts teachers advise on the construction of sets and costumes, and the musicians advise on sound design. The final goal is the performance on Saturday, but what really counts is the process that takes place: learning to collaborate, manage time, welcome the ideas of others, listen to others, and engage with the language of theatre. It is a relational and creative gymnasium.
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What is the role of the expert advice of the Accademia Teatro Dimitri?
鈥嬧赌�They help students transform ideas into theatrical language. It is not just a question of acting, but of finding alternative ways of expression to speech: gesture, music, movement. The watchword is to avoid being didactic. If a concept can be expressed with a gesture, it does not have to be explained in words: students are guided to avoid verbal explanation and encouraged to communicate with the whole body. Thanks to the advice of the experts, often a half-hour canvas is transformed into ten minutes full of meaning.
How does theatre work help to develop skills useful for the future teaching profession?
鈥嬧赌�Theatre strengthens transversal skills that are fundamental for teaching: the expressive use of the voice, non-verbal communication, the ability to lead by example by involving oneself. Students learn to modulate the tone of their voice, vary their rhythm, use their body to communicate effectively; they experience collaboration, group management, appreciation of diversity; they also discover their own creative resources and learn to recognise them in others. It is an experience that trains them to put themselves into play authentically, just as they do in the classroom. A play comes to life when there are spectators in the audience who give energy to those on stage. Energy that the actors give back to the audience, in a unique two-way relationship at each performance. In the same way, the teacher enters the classroom every day and his or her actions take on their full meaning only in the relationship with the children.
You have often spoken of the 鈥渃ourage to dare鈥� that you see emerging in students. What makes you realise that this transformation has taken place?
鈥嬧赌�I see it in the evolution they make during the week. In the weekly music lessons during the academic year, many remain reserved. After all, it is a three-hour weekly lesson and only for one semester. But in drama week, immersed in a context of trust and sharing, everyone lets go, helps each other, teaches each other to play musical instruments, dares to play roles we would not have imagined. Even the most timid find a way to express themselves, perhaps starting as an off voice and then surprising everyone. Eventually, they blossom.
It is important to emphasise that these are not didactic performances for children: they are experiences designed for adults, allowing students to get involved themselves. They do not think didactically, but experience a profound formative process, which helps to understand, also in view of the future role of teachers, what it means to expose oneself to others and to communicate with authenticity.