Second exercise was a journey on the train. The participants split up into 4 groups this time all of them assumed different roles such as a mother, punk, Bosnian immigrant, Croatian, lesbian. The groups were at the train platform and the conductor was telling them that there were no seats available on the train for all of them so they needed to decide among themselves one person who would get on the train to travel. After this exercise, the participants were provided with limited time to discuss over the issue, they later on presented their decisions and discussions to the whole group. The participants worked on drawing the portraits of the “friend” and the “enemy”. The first group brainstormed on the concept of the friend and the second group brainstormed on the concept of the enemy. At the end, both groups were combined and discussed together on the drawings of friend and enemy portraits. The next exercise was sculpturebuilding; participants built improvised sculptures inspired by some connotations. They discussed about the outcomes of the stereotypes came out of the ROAD MAP activity and they identified the stereotypes accompanied with their portrait of enemy.
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At the end of the workshop, participants worked on developing Final Conference
the concept of the sculpture they would build to present to the plenary as the outcome of the workshop. This presentation of sculpture should have presented the problems discussed, stereotypes and their alternative solutions. To this end, participants identified some factors that are creating problems in Turkish-Greek relations and they made analysis of movement. The presentation fascinated all Final Conference participants.
THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED WORKSHOP by Neslihan Özgüneş The Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is the ensemble of techniques and approaches to theatre pioneered by the Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal. The common element of the various branches of this work is that all seek to make the power of theatre as a force for change available to everyone, particularly those in oppressed situations. One of the goals of our workshop was to work with assumptions and stereotypes and issues of conflict. Through the exercises and participation of the youth, we were able to touch on action and reaction to conflict, group dynamics, and expressing oneself in physical form. There seemed to be a reticence in terms of approaching controversial, conflicting issues, and an unwillingness to dive deeper into sensitive topics partly due to the lack of time. We were able to set up two Invisible theatre sketches that were played out in the final session in the amphitheatre. The first sketch, with some (Turkishin parenthesis because this only became relevant later) youth protesting two (Greek) ‘lesbians’ created a great deal of reaction. Four or five of the AEGEE staff reacted in panic (not knowing of course that this was just theatre) and began to shout at the girls and boy complaining about the ‘lesbians’. While the intention of the exercise was to create a discussion about homosexuality and perspectives on homosexuality in our societies, the violent reaction of the staff (shouting at the youth “who do you think you are?” “Go Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe