Environmental protection & sustainability as theatre!
The pupils of the 2nd class Montessori (one of the schools participating in the SPACE Consortium pilot) dealt with the topic of environmental protection and sustainability in a theatre week. During the whole week the regular lessons were cancelled and the children worked on the realisation of the play together with the theatre director Alessandro Anteghini.
In the play, space and time become enraged with the young people who see the world as their own and bring them into contact with different ecosystems. Suddenly they can understand the language of the animals and they describe to them what it is like for them when humans ruthlessly make the world their own.
Slowly, the young people begin to understand that life on this planet is a gift for all of us and that we have to take care of this planet.
Special attention was also given to multilingualism: The young people meet animals in the different ecosystems who talk to them about the planet and the environment in German, Italian and English — here some excerpts from the play. Enjoy!
RAGNO (Spider): A voi non basta quello che avete già… Avete una casa? Ne volete due… Avete due macchine… ne volete un’altra…Non c’è nulla di male a migliorare la propria vita… ll tema vero è l’equilibrio! La sostenibilità! La vera questione è che molte delle cose che volete e che comprate… non solo non vi servono, ma non le usate nemmeno!
(Translation: What you already have is not enough for you … You have a house? You want two… You have two cars… you want another… There is nothing wrong with improving your life… The real issue is balance! Sustainability! The real thing is that many of the things you want and buy… not only don’t you need them, you don’t even use them!)
TOPO (Mouse): Where you settle, where you build your houses and roads, you change everything: the environment, the earth, the sky, the air, the subsoil… You adapt the world to yourself… all the other inhabitants of this planet adapt themselves to the world around them…
RAGNO (Spider): Il problema è che per costruire case, auto e qualsiasi altra cosa servono risorse… serve energia… serve spazio… e queste tre cose da dove le prendete? Dalla Terra… togliete spazio alla natura per costruire case di cui nessuno ha veramente necessità! Utilizzate materie prime ed inquinate il terreno per costruire cose inutili ma che le persone comprano e comprano e comprano all’infinito… senza rendersi conto che non gli serve a niente tutto questo comprare… Questo meccanismo gigantesco è mosso da un unico interesse: il profitto! Continuo e senza limite! Il mercato dell’inutile a spese gratuite della natura!
(Translation: The problem is that to build houses, cars and anything else you need resources… you need energy… you need space… and where do you get these three things from? From the Earth… take away nature’s space to build houses that no one really needs! You use raw materials and you pollute the ground to build useless things that people buy and buy and buy endlessly… without realising that all this buying is useless… This gigantic mechanism is driven by a single interest: profit! Continuous and without limit! The market for the useless at the free expense of nature!)
SPAZIO (Space): Non c’è nulla di peggio della convinzione di non avere in mano il proprio futuro! E’ nelle vostre mani! Voi potete fare la differenza nella vita vostra e dei vostri compagni di viaggio… La vera differenza la fa la comprensione ed il desiderio di cambiare le cose che ritenete essere sbagliate!
(Translation: There is nothing worse than the belief that you do not have your own future in hand! It is in your hands! You can make a difference in your life and that of your travel companions… The real difference is the understanding and the desire to change the things you think are wrong!)
SCHIMPANSE (Chimpanzee): Sie zerstören mein Elternhaus! Ich bin dort geboren! Jetzt ist nichts mehr da! Bäche sind ausgetrocknet… es gibt nichts mehr zu trinken… wir müssen ständig umziehen!
(Translation: You’re destroying my childhood home! I was born there! Now there is nothing left! Streams have dried up… there is nothing left to drink… we have to move constantly!)
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The SPACE Consortium is a transnational collaboration of education professionals from France, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands and is co-funded by the European Union.
