Teaching Tolerance
through Drama Dramatizing "Historia de una Gaviota y del Gato que le
enseñò a volar"
The She-Seagull And The Cat
Who Taught Her How To Fly
This experience was carried out at XXV Aprile Primary School in a suburbian district north west Rome, Italy. About 70 schoolchildren in 2nd grade were involved, divided into four groups which alternatively worked on the different steps of the dramatization process:
- first reading
- script drafting
- stage design
- choreography.
The text chosen was "The little seagull and the cat" by Argentinian writer Luis Sepùlveda. Chapter by chapter, the text was read to the pupils and the actors were chosen, depending on the children's personal involvement with the single characters. They acted a first dramatization of the chapter just heard and then the whole group wrote the script together. Simultaneously, they were involved in activities of dancing and singing practice, for the preparation of the whole choreography. In particular, some songs were chosen from the most popular in the children's experience, which could be related to the text main topics. Then, once the script was ready and the pupils had a general idea of the whole performance, they drew the different scenes which were later reproduced for the stage design.