Thanks to Tim and all the Old Mill Theatre for welcoming the ASeTTS Drama Therapy Group in the School Holidays. Tim writes: At Old Mill Theatre today we hosted eleven refugee children re-settled from their strife-ridden homelands, who belong to a special programme that uses drama teaching to build trust, personal confidence and relationship skills. We gave them a tour of the theatre and explained how it all works, Jenny Prosser gave them free rein of the costume wardrobe and they tried their imaginations out, with paper and crayons, by designing their own stage sets. They adopted their own characters, helped by their choice of costumes, and acted out little improvised sketches up on the stage. It was wonderful! ... Some of these kids have come from very bad situations, but the drama programme has obviously been an immense success because you would never have guessed the trauma that these beautiful, happy children have experienced before coming to Australia. Their eagerness to ask questions and hear the answers, their interaction with each other, their easy acceptance of each others differences and the genuine friendships they shared amongst themselves...was one of the loveliest, uplifting things Ive seen in a long while. At one point of the improvisation session, there were two girls up on the stage, one black and one white, who had chosen similar costumes and decided that they were sisters. The other kids, sitting in the auditorium, were instructed to ask questions pertaining to the chosen characters (they would all get their turns in the limelight in good time), and one little olive-skinned girl asked the question: How can you both be sisters when youre different colours? And guess what...nobody was offended. In fact, they all had a good laugh, especially when the reply came that Because our parents were different colours! What more can I say? It was beautiful!
Posted on: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 04:05:36 +0000
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