PERFORMING POSSIBILITY - Training Manual

PERFORMING

POSSIBILITY Theatre and the Digital for an Inclusive European Youth

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This publication is distributed free of charge and follows the Creative Commons agreement Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND). You are free to reuse and share the text of this publication or parts of it as long as you mention the original source. Rights on the use of photographs are reserved.

This publication should be mentioned as follows: M.Walling (ed), PERFORMING POSSIBILITY: Theatre and the Digital for an Inclusive European Youth.

For further information please contact michael@bordercrossings.ie The publishers have made every e ort to secure permission to reproduce pictures protected by copyright. Any omission brought to their attention will be solved in future editions of this publication.

ISBN-10: 1-904718-15-9 ISBN-13: 978-1-904718-15-4 EAN: 9781904718154

Published by Border Crossings 2025

Cover image and Bologna photography: © Davide Saccà Cork photography: © TJ Hourihan

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PERFORMING

POSSIBILITY Theatre and the Digital for an Inclusive European Youth

Erasmus + project 2024-3-IE01-KA210-YOU-00029292 Partners:

Border Crossings (Ireland - co-ordinator) Teatro dell’Argine (Italy) National Council of YMCAs (Ireland) Opera di Padre Marella (Italy)

E-book edited by Michael Walling (Border Crossings) © All copyright remains with the authors.

This project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. However, European Commission and Irish National Agency cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which re ects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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CONTENTS p.5 • Foreword - Niamh McGrath p.6 • Introduction - Micaela Casalboni & Michael Walling p.9 • The Cork Workshop, April 2025 - Micaela Casalboni & Lucy Dunkerley p.18 • Dear World - a poem by the workshop participants in Cork p.21 • The Bologna Workshop, July 2025 - Micaela Casalboni & Claudia D’Eramo • Epilogue: Theatre and the Digital for an Inclusive European Youth - Michael Walling p.29

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FOREWORD

by Niamh McGrath (Participant - YMCA Cork) PERFORMING POSSIBILITY was a workshop that explored the themes of immigration, stay versus leave and connectivity through theatre and other forms of media.

I’m writing this on June 8th, which marks World Ocean Day. On this day one can re ect on all the positives of the ocean: a source of food, a recreational area and a means of transportation and connectivity. But living on the island of Ireland, one has to acknowledge that while oceans, seas and other bodies of water can facilitate transport, they also lead to isolation.

Ireland is on the edge of the European Union. This means that the young people in Ireland are not as connected with the rest of our EU peers to the extent we should be. Therefore the cultural exchange that PERFORMING POSSIBILITY o ered is one that is so valued. For myself and 20 other young people in Cork, we had to opportunity to talk to other young people living in the EU. These young people are living in Bologna in Italy, another edge of the EU. These young people were immigrants, who had come from places such as Tunisia, Ukraine and Afghanistan. We were able to talk over Zoom. We talked about our dreams for the future, our music tastes and parts of our cultures (e.g. food). I hope that this cultural exchange will only be the beginning.

One of the main themes we explored over the week was the idea of staying or going. On the Wednesday, our group wrote reasons to stay and reasons to go on two di erent pieces of paper. Then on Thursday, in pairs, we picked out words and phrases that appealed to us and wrote something about it. After we would write something, our partners would then respond with something else. My partner Pádraig and I circled around a reason to stay: to walk down the same streets as one’s ancestors.

Pádraig came up with the phrase “to walk in the worn down comfortable footprints”. This line has stuck with me. The idea that if I were to leave Ireland, I would be leaving the comfort, the familiar and my own history.

After writing pieces and answering each other, Pádraig and I had created a piece of theatrical writing that debated the idea of immigration. Then we practised performing the piece. This for me was the tricky bit, as I would not be an actor. But from this experience I have gained a greater understanding of the weight words can carry and how important and thought provoking a few well placed pauses can be.

The thing that I believe will always stick with me from this experience is the realisation of the links between advocacy and art. There are many was to advocate for change - lobbying policy makers, running campaigns, protesting - but also through the arts. Theatre and drama can tell a story, prove a point and provoke a thought. The power in the delivery of what you say is priceless.

In my opinion the best part of the workshop was the new perspective I left with. The workshop not only opened my eyes to the power of theatre but also showed me a snapshot into the lives of other young people who are living on another edge of Europe. This experience is something I would one hundred percent recommend.

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INTRODUCTION

by Micaela Casalboni (Direzione Artistica, Teatro dell’Argine) & Michael Walling (Artistic Director, Border Crossings)

Micaela: Our Europe, with its member states, is a magni cent democracy, founded on high ideals and the defence of fundamental rights, enshrined in documents that are moving in their openness and foresight: the Treaty on European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the European Convention on Human Rights, and many, many more. And its motto is “United in Diversity.”

And yet, our Europe’s member states are the same ones making deals with Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, Albania to turn away from its borders — borders which are themselves unclear — people seeking new horizons, a better life, protection, a safe place to live. They are the same states that turn a blind eye to the methods used by border countries (Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, among others) to detain, push back, abuse, blackmail, or torture these people. They are the same states that ignore the deaths and disappearances of men, women, and children to the east and south of their borders.

Our Europe’s member states are the same ones that neglect the climate emergency at every level and have failed to organize a coordinated and e ective response to safeguard the planet, the environment, and biodiversity. Apparently, the “diversity” in the motto does not extend to all human beings — let alone all living beings.

Our Europe’s member states are the same ones currently grappling with wars they had (almost) managed to keep outside their borders for decades, and with a growing imbalance of power and threats from forces once considered allies — so much so that Europe is now responding with a general rearmament plan.

Our Europe’s member states are subject to a techno-capitalist system that is increasingly revealing its cracks in the form of growing inequality, the crushing of the vulnerable, and a way of life, work, and production that is unsustainable on many fronts.

And yet, in this Europe there has been — and still is — a force that brings all of this to our attention: the force of grassroots activism, often led by young people. Young people who say no to the sacri ce of innocents, no to inequality between people and nations, no to war, no to the exploitation of the planet

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and its inhabitants. Young people who take to the streets and take action, even though they feel the crushing weight of older generations, su er from being ignored, and see their perspectives dismissed — as if peace, the environment, equality, and rights were children’s games, and not the responsibility of every citizen.

As if the Future were only a matter for adults.

We met over fty such young people recently, with our partners from Border Crossings, YMCA Ireland and Opera di Padre Marella, as part of our Erasmus+ project PERFORMING POSSIBILITY: young people who live in Ireland and Italy, and so in Europe, but who come from all over the world.

For them, Europe means the possibility “to make my voice heard, not to be invisible as a woman, to become a doctor so I can help others, especially women” (Oh Mani, Afghanistan); the opportunity to improve communication between us, because “to communicate is to love,” and “together we learn more and better” (Diallo, Senegal); and also the hope that Europe might “invest more in cultural and artistic projects like this” (Dominique, Cameroon) and “less in militarization” (Pádraig, Ireland).

Some of them live in rural areas with major transportation challenges, yet they are permitted to travel anywhere in the EU. Others have only just arrived in a land di erent from their own, still waiting to nd out if they’ll be allowed to stay.

Some are engaged in complex advocacy projects. Others have learned up to four languages — and are now learning a fth — on their long journey towards what will one day become home.

No prejudice and no stereotype ts them — neither those about ‘foreigners’ nor those about ‘young people’: they are cultured, generous, open-minded, intelligent, value-driven, sel ess individuals, eager to engage and do their part. And to act together.

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Michael: Globalisation, evidenced by migration patterns and the omnipresence of the internet, is rapidly changing how Youth engage with and understand the world they inhabit. Increased diversity and technological change also present challenges to artists, particularly theatre-makers, in engaging communities and facilitating practices that feel relevant to Youth. Theatre-makers need to embrace the diverse and the digital so as to re ect and acknowledge the changing communities they serve. As members of the PERFORMING POSSIBILITY partnership, we were excited by the creative intersections between performance, digital storytelling and the diverse viewpoints and cultures of contemporary Youth in Europe. The project’s combination of participants and disciplines served to generate new sites of possibility for Youth representation and participation, both within our project and on the much bigger stages of civic engagement and public discourse.

In her book “Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre and Youth” (New York, Routledge 2015) Megan Alrutz says: “With the increased popularity of technology in our everyday lives… we can harness the potential and negotiate the challenges of digital media in and through the performance of personal stories. Through attention to how we value and engage youth, build new knowledge, and foster dialogue and change…. this interdisciplinary practice invites participants to contribute to and critique systems of power in their lives. What can embodied and mediated performance teach us about young people and their ideas for the future? How can digital storytelling and theatre combine to develop and shift our understandings of who we are and our place in the world?” (p.4).

PERFORMING POSSIBILITY was a response to these ideas and questions, providing Youth participants with tools both to understand and to tell their stories in relation to migration, diversity and sociopolitical contexts, so empowering them to take their own initiatives as active citizens in the emerging diverse and digitised European space.

The project was motivated by the urgency of these questions, and the awareness of the partner organisations that, working together, they had the skills and concerns that enabled them to be addressed. Border Crossings and Teatro dell’Argine’s established methodologies for intercultural theatre-making both developed and were revitalised by the encounter with digital youth work, enabling the development of techniques and educational practices that created powerful and impactful creative digital outputs, foregrounding the voices of diverse Youth.

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THE CORK WORKSHOP April 2025

by Micaela Casalboni & Lucy Dunkerley (Associate Director, Border Crossings) This chapter, and the later one about the Bologna workshop, can be used as a step-by-step guide for facilitators leading similar theatre-based workshops for young people around identity, movement, storytelling, and intercultural exchange. The Cork workshop involved 20 + young people from County Cork, particularly the more remote areas of West Cork.

The workshop plans should be treated as an adaptable framework. Respond to the group, follow the energy in the room, maintain a balance between structure and freedom.

DAY 1 - INTRODUCTIONS AND KEY THEMES Morning Session 1. Welcome & Introductions (10 minutes total) • Brief welcome and overview of the PERFORMING POSSIBILITY project and the Cork week.

• Each partner organisation introduces themselves very brie y (keep it moving and energised).

2. Name Circle (10 minutes) Round 1: • Each person says their name loudly and proudly - e.g.

“Rowan” • Group responds together: “Good morning, Rowan!”

Round 2: • Each person says their name and performs a simple physical action.

• The group repeats the name and the action.

Names and actions

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Round 3: • Name and one thing I like • Name and one thing I don’t like • Name and something I dream • Name and something I fear 3. Walking Through The Space (10 minutes) Instructions while they walk; change frequently: • “Window” • “Up” • “Down” • Speed, direction, size, levels, etc.

• Aim: focus, group awareness, grounding.

4. Journey to the Workshop (approx. 25–30 minutes) Step 1 — Individual writing Participants write 12 steps or moments describing how they got here today.

Step 2 — Find a “charged moment” Ask them to choose one moment where something could have happened — a moment with potential.

Step 3 — Small group sharing (groups of 4–5) Each participant shares their journey and their chosen moment with the small group.

Step 4 — Scene Creation In the same small groups, participants choose one moment to turn into a brief scene or physical vignette.

Step 5 — Share back Groups show their short scenes to everyone.

Three examples of journeys to the workshop, highlighting the “charged moments”. One participant decided they saw Michael Jackson at the bus stop; the second sees a “sign from the universe”; while the third has to rush back home to stop the dogs eating the Easter chocolate!

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A group image being made in Cork.

Afternoon Session 1. Home Corners: Word → Physical Response (10 minutes) • Split the group into 4–5 small groups.

• Each group is assigned a “home corner” in the room.

• Participants walk freely around the space.

• When the facilitator shouts a word: • → Groups run back to their home corner and create a collective physical statue of that word.

• It can help to give a “prize” to the quickest group, and another to the most inventive in each case. e.g. Washing machine, Cork, dinner, teaching, care, injustice 2. Three Pictures of the Day (approx. 30 minutes) a) Individual still images Each participant creates three frozen images representing moments from a typical day. b) Transitions • Participants decide how to move from Image 1 → Image 2 → Image 3. c) Sharing • Half the group performs while the other half watches; then switch. d) Group composition In the same groups as the home-corner exercise: • Combine the images to create a short group sequence.

• Groups write down words or themes that emerge. e) Share back • Each group shares their combined image sequence and words

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A group image being made in Cork.

3. Pictures of the World (approx. 30 minutes) Step 1 — Discussion If group dynamics are working well, keep the same groups for this activity; otherwise, facilitators may reshu e. In your small groups, discuss: • What important things are happening in the world right now?

• What would you like to say to the world?

Groups may create: • A list, • Key themes • Short statements.

Step 2 — Individual writing Each participant writes three things they want to tell the world (mirroring the structure of the “three pictures” exercise).

Step 3 — Image creation Participants create physical images for each of their three statements.

Step 4 — Add words Include the shared statements, plus any additional words that arise.

Step 5 — Share back Group presentations or demonstrations.

4. Closing Game: The Mirror Game (with music) 1. In pairs: one leads, one mirrors.

2. Switch roles.

3. Pairs merge to form a line; the line can move together.

4. Move from pairs → to one collective body.

5. Optional: Re ection / Evaluation Round Explain: • The morning built group identity • The afternoon began exploring their view of the world and Europe • Clarify how this links to the week’s journey Keep the evaluation informal, short, and woven into conversation.

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DAY 2 – ENERGIES, BODY, AND INNER SPACES 1. The Four Energies Aim: to tune participants into four emotional/elemental qualities and develop embodied listening.

Energies: • Earth — something heavy, grounding, pressing down • Air — something uplifting, joyful • Fire — anger, drive, urgency • Water — connection with the other, uid listening Facilitation Steps 1. Begin with a brief introduction to the four energies.

2. Read aloud the materials created from the previous day’s “Pictures of the World”.

3. Ask participants to stand around the room.

4. Facilitators read the materials again — this time, participants move physically move, according to how the words make them feel.

5. Encourage nonverbal communication, sensitivity, and intuitive response. The group is the emotional engine.

Exploring ideas for writing

2. The Bedroom Aim: to explore personal space, desires, fears, and perception of the outside world.

Writing Prompts Each participant imagines themselves in their bedroom: • What is there?

• What would I like to be there?

• What would I not want to be there?

Then they imagine themselves looking through their window: • What do I see from the window?

• What would I like to see?

Facilitation Steps 1. Give participants time to write individually.

2. Divide the group in two: watcher and performers.

3. With music the performing group advances together in formation.

4. Participants speak their texts as they move.

5. Place a symbolic “window frame” in front of their faces as they speak.

6. Switch groups.

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3. Post-It: Staying & Leaving Step 1: Participants write short sentences on Post-It Notes Prompts (1 idea per Post-It) • I want to go because…

• I want to stay because…

• My reasons to stay (min. 5) • My reasons to go (min. 5) Step 2: “Capture-the- ag” 1. Make two rows facing each other.

2. Assign numbers.

3. Call out one number.

4. The two corresponding participants run, grab a Post-It, read it aloud, stick it on themselves, and return.

5. Repeat until everyone has several post-its.

Outcome: A “living museum” — participants walk around and observe each other’s reasons, read from the Notes stuck to each other’s bodies.

Covered in captured ags.

1. Pair up.

2. Exchange and read each other’s post-its.

3. Each person writes: • What struck them in the other’s notes • Any personal responses inspired by the post-its

DAY 3 – IDENTITY, HOME, WORLD, AND DIALOGUE Morning Session 1. What I Bring With Me Participants have been asked to bring: • A photo and a song representing their home and / or themselves • A photo and a song representing the world, the unknown or the other Facilitators guide them through re ection, discussion, and simple movement or writing tasks, enabling each participant to share their picture and music with the others in a creative way: a simple personal performance.

2. Silent Dialogue Exercise Aim: to create a shared text through attentive listening.

Participants work in pairs 1. On a blank sheet, A writes one line and reads it to B. 2. B writes a response and reads it to A. 3. Continue alternating until a poem emerges.

4. Read the co-created poem aloud.

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Afternoon Session At this point in our Cork workshop, we introduced the intercultural exchange, with a Zoom call to a group of young people at Opera di Padre Marella in San Lazzaro. Participants were told that some of them would be able to visit their counterparts in Italy, but that most of the young people on the call could not travel to Ireland because of their immigration status.

Participants responded on camera to prompts like: • Where do you come from?

• What do you do?

• What is your home town like?

• What’s your dream?

• What’s di cult for young people in Italy/Ireland?

• What do you love about Italy and Ireland?

• Describe where you live: food, environment, places you like • What does Europe mean to you?

Zoom call between Cork and San Lazzaro

DAY 4 – GROUP COORDINATION, FORMATIONS & COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY 1. Warm-Up and Group Work • Feel the vertical line and breathing: inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth, and stretch upwards onto your toes with your arms, then downwards bending your knees • Walk while maintaining this verticality, with focus, changing direction often but never losing the vertical • While walking, try to feel (feel) and listen (deep listening) to the other people in the room: who do I see, who do I sense behind me…

• Find someone’s eyes in the room, preferably far away, and don’t let them go. It’s a dynamic of deep attention and listening

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• When we say “line”, you form a line facing the window. Then walk again • When we say “triangle”, form a triangle with the point facing the window, and your gaze toward the window. Then walk again • When we say “square”, form a square, looking toward the window. Then walk again • When we say “circle”, form a circle and look toward the inside • Two people look at each other and then walk towards each other with the right hand on the other’s right shoulder. Pause for a moment, then return to swapped positions. Then two others, then two others, until everyone has done it Now we repeat all the shapes but without us calling them out.

The sequence is: • walking → line • walking → triangle • walking → square • walking → circle • three exchanges in the circle with the hand on the shoulder • walking → circle • three claps Aim: Collective intuition and nonverbal leadership.

2. Making a Digital Statement The group made use of the images they had brought in on Day 3 to stimulate the performance of short, wordless scenes. At the same time as these were being performed, music was played, and other group members spoke some of the texts that had been created through the workshop. The combination of these elements led to this video. You can watch by clicking on the image.

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3. Final Recorded Messages In small groups, participants record three short video messages: • One for Ireland • One for Italy • One for Europe The videos were shared with the group in Italy, so as to o er an introduction to the visit in two months’ time.

Here’s just one example. Again, you can click on the image to play the video.

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DEAR WORLD This is for you One world we want To end senseless bloodshed And the endless killings of innocent people What is the guarantee that you are not going to be the next?

Stop war!

Russia is a terrorist Russia kills children – at least awareness Support Ukraine Breathe Take a moment Pause End to war Kindness End to starvation Kindness Why do you think impoverished people should pay the environmental price for your space tourism?

Kindness Protecting the environment Breathe Take a moment Pause Millionaires are the problem We need more appreciation of nature and our space We need to rethink share of power We need to reduce overconsumption And exploitation of natural resources and people We need to listen to (young) people at the heart of change instead of politicians only Breathe Take a moment Pause Is it still possible that we reverse the e ects of global warming?

World peace Solving world hunger Ending discrimination Gender equality (end stigma) Climate justice Breathe Take a moment Pause Trump’s impeachment No corruption End discrimination Respect for others

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Stop violence Be kind Treat people the way you want to be treated Stop bringing celebrities to space Space capitalism is abhorrent Stop sending elitists to space Breathe Take a moment Pause We are all deserving Quality of life Access to resources Autonomy No discrimination Peace Before you do anything, think “Why?” Think Can we share the earth resources between all humans?

Practice equity Protect nature Share resources End occupation Stop hoarding wealth Think One human race Accepting people for who they are Breathe Take a moment Pause Love is love No violence Someone violent with human Why war?

Protect our planet There is no planet B Sustainability Respect Empathy Understanding Kindness Open-mindedness Inclusion Equity Love Kindness SDGs Purpose Love Live Peace Health Belong 19

No poverty Nature Love Empathy Peace Climate action No hunger Support Respect the world Allow others to live their lives Animal rights Freedom of movement It’s not all about us It’s about all of us Breathe Take a moment

Pause

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THE BOLOGNA WORKSHOP June 2025

by Micaela Casalboni & Claudia D’Eramo (Curator and Director - Olinto Marella Museum)

GROUP COMPOSITION AND WORKSHOP PLANNING The group of participants in the Italian session of PERFORMING POSSIBILITY proved to be a mix of people of di erent ages, cultures and backgrounds, most of them under 25: “native” Italian adolescents and young adults, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees from various countries—some of whom had arrived in Italy only very recently; a few vulnerable individuals; youth workers and cultural mediators under 30; the four Irish participants under 20; the project’s team leaders; and several guests and experts involved at di erent stages, including sta members from the community of Opera di Padre Marella.

We felt it to be important that there was intergenerational, intercultural and cross-sector involvement in creating and running the activities. Throughout the di erent phases of preparation, implementation, and, when needed, daily re-adjustment of the programme, four young Irish participants and four young Italian participants worked alongside the senior team leaders, sharing perspectives, ideas, challenges and problem-solving.

In preparing the Italian session, Teatro dell’Argine and Opera di Padre Marella worked very closely together to design the schedule for the week. The group’s highly diverse composition—ideal for the aims of the project—required activities and spaces that were varied and appealing, interactive, and suitable for a wide range of personalities and inclinations. In this respect, the knowledge of Opera di Padre Marella’s social workers and cultural mediators, combined with the theatrical and relational expertise of Teatro dell’Argine’s facilitators, was essential to understanding which activities—theatrical, digital, social, exploratory, recreational—would be most appropriate to propose.

Furthermore, as in the Irish session of the project, the Irish partners—both YMCA and Border Crossings —collaborated actively at every stage: they provided feedback on the draft programme, co-led sessions, and supported problem-solving as well as the development of personalised alternatives to the main programme. Active listening and exibility were key words throughout this session, as they were in Cork, and as they are in the daily work of the partners involved: when working with people, there are no standard recipes—no programme, practice or process that cannot be changed, even along the way, if the needs (and dreams) of those involved call for it. For this reason, every morning included a long working session dedicated to analysing and, when necessary, revising the plan for the coming afternoon.

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In the streets of Bologna

DAY 1 - WELCOME TO BOLOGNA 11.00–12.30 @ Opera Padre Marella Planning meeting for the week among the group leaders.

12.30 @ Opera Padre Marella Lunch with all participants, community guests, and sta .

14.30–17.30 @ Opera Padre Marella and around Bologna • Group introductions, theatre icebreakers, sharing of the weekly programme.

Main Activity - Discovering Bologna The Italian participants take the Irish participants and the workshop leaders to Bologna’s city centre, guiding them through the places they like most, feel connected to, or believe their peers should visit, starting from the Montagnola area. The tour o ers an opportunity to get to know each other and the city from a di erent perspective, and it is also useful for gathering footage and materials for the videomaking and podcast projects. Throughout the tour (and the whole week), everyone is invited to take photos, short videos, and sel es of things/people/landscapes they nd interesting.

The chosen locations include both traditional tourist spots such as Piazza Maggiore, Via Piella, Biblioteca Salaborsa and Piazza Santo Stefano, and more popular or underground areas, such as the former Jewish Ghetto with street artworks, and the neighbourhoods near the station and Montagnola.

Interestingly, some parts of the city were new not only to the Irish participants, but also to several of the Italians—especially those newly arrived. Many Italian participants later commented in the podcasts that guiding the Irish guests allowed them to see their own city through new eyes: the exchange truly became a dialogue and generated change.

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DAY 2 - POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES 11.00–12.30 @ Unaway Hotel Planning meeting with group leaders and the Irish participants.

12.30 Lunch together.

14.30–16.30 @ Opera Padre Marella • Nelson Bova, a journalist from the regional section of RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana, visits the group to interview the participants for a TV feature: https://youtu.be/aJu6IhjGTSI • Warming up and theatre icebreakers.

Main Activity - Bologna and Europe • Building on the Bologna tour and the rst meeting, four groups of participants are invited to respond —through writing or drawing on four large sheets—to the following questions:

- What is good in Bologna?

- What would you change in Bologna?

- What is good in Europe?

- What would you change in Europe?

• After having time to contribute to each question, every group selects three key points to highlight and shares them with the others.

• Finally, each group chooses whether to work on Bologna or on Europe and prepares tableaux vivants with one positive still image and one negative still image related to Bologna or Europe. The images are then shared with the larger group.

What stands out in these collaborative activities is the way they break barriers of age, culture, and background. Just one example among many: after a group discussion, a 14-year-old girl from Afghanistan directed her teammates—which included two boys from Italy and Ukraine, along with her educators.

Bologna’s rich street art

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DAY 3 – MESSAGES FROM THE MUSEUM 11.00–12.30 @ Unaway Hotel Planning meeting with group leaders and the Irish participants.

Bologna’s rich street art

12.30 - Lunch together.

13.30 - Transfer to the Museum via cars and the Opera Padre Marella minibus.

14.30–17.30 @ Olinto Marella Museum, Bologna • Claudia D’Eramo shares with the group the story of Olinto Marella, founder of the Opera Padre Marella, to whom the Museum is dedicated: https://museo.operapadremarella.it/olinto-marella/ • Warming up and theatre icebreakers.

Main Activity - Walk & Talk Participants are divided into small groups (three people maximum).

Each group receives an envelope containing three tasks, formulated as questions to be discussed.

They have twenty minutes to discuss the rst question while exploring the area, walking or sitting wherever they prefer. The response can take the form of a collective or individual speech, a short performance, a still image, or any other expressive medium. The group also decides on the setting they nd most appropriate and meaningful, as well as the direction and editing. Once ready, the Italian and Irish teams join them to record the responses.

The groups then move on to the second and third questions.

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Olinto Marella Museum

Olinto Marella Museum

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Questions asked: • What do you love about Italy and Ireland? What is easy and what is di cult for a young person in Italy and in Ireland?

• What is your dream, and how do you think Italy and Ireland can help you make it come true?

• What is your message to Ireland? Your message to Italy? Your message to Europe?

• What does Europe mean to you? What would you like Europe to become?

DAY 4 - ENCOUNTERING THE IMMIGRATION SYSTEM 15.30–17.00 @ Opera Padre Marella Planning meeting with group leaders and the Irish participants.

Transfer to DLF DopoLavoro Ferroviario via cars and OPM minibus.

17.00–18.00 @ O ce for Mediation Services, DLF DopoLavoro Ferroviario, Bologna Visit and meeting at the o ce providing mediation and legal services run by Cooperative Arca di Noè, where people seeking protection are prepared for their hearings before the Territorial Commissions and informed about acceptance or denial of their protection status.

Two experts from the o ce, Roberta Lo Giudice and Chiara Somaschini, introduce the group to the crucial work carried out there.

Sulayman Camara, Mamadou Diallo and other participants share their experiences of facing this essential bureaucratic step.

The Irish group is asked about Irish legislation on migration.

A long and rich discussion follows—on rights, citizenship, legislation, and inclusion practices— recorded by both the Italian and Irish video-makers.

19.30 @ Park of DLF DopoLavoro Ferroviario A joyful workshop on luzzi, a set of traditional dances from the Emilia-Romagna Region, involves all participants and local residents: https://www.bolognaestate.it/calendario-bolognaestate-2025/workshop-di-ballo-liscio-e- luzzi-2025 Dinner together at the social restaurant Fuori Orsa!, where refugees and migrants also work.

DAY 5 - MAKING DIGITAL RESPONSES 10.00–13.00 @ ITC Teatro, run by Teatro dell’Argine The nal working morning with all participants takes place at ITC Teatro, the municipal theatre of San Lazzaro di Savena and home of Teatro dell’Argine. It begins with a visit to the theatre, the Teatrobus, and the nearby ITC Lab (circus tent).

Some of the video recordings from the previous days are shared with the larger group, followed by re ections on what everyone has seen and experienced.

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Participants then divide into smaller groups to identify which further questions they wish to explore and ask other project participants. After this, small mixed groups or pairs from all partner organisations take turns being interviewer and interviewee, with cameramen always recording.

The interviews range from personal backgrounds, migration experiences, projects and dreams for the future, to favourites (food, books, internet, games, travels).

The shorter and longer interviews recorded will be used to produce the project’s videos and podcasts.

13.00 Pizza lunch: a nal collective moment to share ideas, feelings, and mutual gratitude.

14.30–16.30 @ Opera Padre Marella Additional interviews recorded with sta members and other community guests.

Exchange of all video, photo, and audio materials collected during the week; planning of the nal editing process.

20.00 Farewell dinner in the countryside.

Filming at the Mediation Services O ce

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Making performances at the Olinto Marella Museum

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EPILOGUE: THEATRE AND THE DIGITAL FOR AN INCLUSIVE EUROPEAN YOUTH

by Michael Walling

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Trailer for SOULEYMANE’S STORY - click on the image to play video

For his interview, Souleymane will need to tell a story that convinces the authorities he would face persecution if he were to return to Guinea. Coached by a man called Barry (a character who often feels uncomfortably close to a theatre director), he fabricates a story of political activism, imprisonment and torture, rooted in the 2019 protests against President Alpha Condé. Barry’s coaching in the art of the lie feels all the more urgent as the crucial interview approaches; and the tension is made all the more powerful by the deep psychological resistance that Souleymane feels towards lying. In Sangaré’s masterful performance, we see a young man trying very hard to perform something that is not true, and being held back by his inherent honesty. The interviewer, played by Nina Meurisse in another performance of great subtlety and nuance, seems at once to admire, to like and to doubt him. Because of the structures within which both of them are caught, the refugee’s basic human decency, which elicits her natural kindness, is the very quality that is endangering his chances of avoiding deportation.

Watching this brilliant and complex work, I could not help but think of Sulayman Camara: another young migrant from sub-Saharan Africa, who had been part of the PERFORMING POSSIBILITY workshop in Bologna just a few weeks before. Originally from Gambia, Sulayman had the good fortune to come into the orbit of Opera di Padre Marella when he arrived in Italy, and his rst encounters with performance were not to do with fabricated stories for immigration interviews: he took part in Teatro dell’Argine’s 2014-15 performance project LAMPEDUSA MIRRORS. He now works as a cultural mediator and social worker for Padre Marella: a role which includes helping recently arrived young people to navigate the complexities of the Italian asylum system.

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While we were working on PERFORMING POSSIBILITY, in the autumn of 2025, the remarkable French lm SOULEYMANE’S STORY, directed by Boris Lojkine, was released in Irish cinemas. The title gure is an undocumented migrant from Guinea-Conakry, who is living in Paris and seeking asylum at the French O ce for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA). The fact that he is played, with astonishing energy and beautiful truthfulness, by non-professional actor Abou Sangaré, who himself travelled from Guinea as a teenager, makes the lm’s exploration of performance, truth, story and migration all the more complex and resonant. There are several versions of Souleymane’s story in play.

The rst of these is the basic story of the lm itself, which of course parallels without re-telling the story of its leading performer. But that story is itself about another story: the one that Souleymane will have to tell to the OFPRA o cials in order to win his European residency.

Sulayman, like his lmic counterpart, is refreshingly honest about his personal history, willingly sharing experiences and advice. During our fascinating visit to the Bologna O ce for Mediation Services, he explained with great care and insight many aspects of the interview process, including considerations of demeanour and body language. In many African cultures, it is considered disrespectful to meet the eyes of someone in authority: in Europe, that’s regarded as “shifty”. Sulayman, like Barry, coaches young asylum seekers in how best to perform at interview. Unlike Barry, he does not cross the blurred line into the overt lie - but, as always with performance, it is di cult to distinguish where deception might begin or end. We all behave as we do in public spaces because of how we believe the Other will respond, because of what we think they want to hear from us, do we not? In performing our own possibilities, we connive in the ctions of power that determine our fates.

Sulayman Camara (centre) in LAMPEDUSA MIRRORS. Photo: Luciano Paseli

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Lojkine’s lm also contains a third story for Souleymane: the reality of his life before he came to Europe, which continues to shape his emotions, his psychology, his decisions. There are no crass ashbacks, but occasional snatched phone calls with his girlfriend (who misses him deeply but has also received a marriage proposal from another man), and his sick mother (whose illness and need for costly medication seems to have been the real reason why he travelled to France in the rst place). This third story, at once compelling, urgent and true, is every bit as signi cant as the fabricated story he is compelled to tell - but this true story is institutionally inadmissible. To acknowledge the way in which global health inequalities are the outcome of colonial histories would open the oodgates to unlimited migrations and even reparation demands. And that, of course, would never do.

The playful, performative, ctional space of the theatrical workshop admits these stories in a way that more o cial, apparently serious spaces never could. In the Bologna workshop, there were two teenage sisters who had come to Italy from Afghanistan, Hosna and Om Hani Yalani. On the second day, responding to the prompt “What would you change in Bologna?”, Om Hani created a tableau with some other participants, in which she was on the oor, while other, male gures pointed at her aggressively. I asked her what was being portrayed, and she said it was about the prejudice against the hijab that she had encountered in Italy. “So it’s not a coincidence that it’s you who’s on the receiving end of the attack in this scene?” I asked, and she answered that it was. My memory of this exchange is that Om Hani was smiling throughout the conversation. We were dealing with a di cult subject, and she knew it: but it was happening in a safe and playful way, and people were listening to her. She was, for once, empowered.

As the week went on, it became clear that a real friendship was developing, across languages and across cultures, between these two Afghan girls and their Irish counterparts Maebh Burke and Rowan Mohan. By performing truth and possibility, the workshop had led to trust and imagination. It was from this basis of understanding through dialogue that it became possible for them to interview one another on camera. And that was how the digital element of PERFORMING POSSIBILITY truly came into its own: allowing conversations that could not have happened without a careful and curated process to occur with an astonishing level of spontaneity and intimacy, revealing the truths of these young people’s lives.

With great clarity and insight, Om Hani and Hosna explained what their lives would have been like had they stayed in Afghanistan under the Taliban, recounted what they had left behind (including many positive aspects of Afghan culture), and talked about their hopes for their new lives in Europe. You can listen to these stories: we have put the interview online. It’s important that you do, because these young people don’t have the vote, they can’t travel beyond Italy, and they don’t get covered in the mainstream media. But if we don’t hear what they have to say, we will compromise the values of inclusivity and democracy which are supposed to underpin our European way of life.

We all need to perform the possibility of a more inclusive future.

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Om Hani Yalani in the Bologna workshop

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PERFORMING

POSSIBILITY Theatre and the Digital for an Inclusive European Youth

Erasmus + project 2024-3-IE01-KA210-YOU-00029292 Partners:

Border Crossings (Ireland - co-ordinator) Teatro dell’Argine (Italy) National Council of YMCAs (Ireland) Opera di Padre Marella (Italy)

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bordercrossings.ie https://www.teatrodellargine.org/ https://ymca-ireland.net/ https://www.operapadremarella.it/