Mittagspause

As part of a strong collaboration between the Hans-Erlwein-Gymnasium Dresden and the Landesbühnen Sachsen in Radebeul, an intensive theatre project week took place in April 2024. Under the guidance of a theatre teacher from the Landesbühnen – Iris Stefanie Maier – and a teacher from the school – Julia Chojna – 26 x 16-year-old students worked together on the play „Mittagspause“ (Lunchbreak”) by Anne Jentsch – this year’s Connect-Up production.

We began each day with a 10-minute warm-up that broke the school routine and focused us on the project. Here are 2 examples for our warm-ups:

1. Circle exercise: “Hey! – Con cara? – A con cara. – A con con cara. – A dossa di famosa!” Everyone performs a small, coherent scene sequence for the speaking part – everyone imitates it once.
2. “swish, boing, pow!” Circle game with impulse transmission with “swish, stopping with “boing” and sending it across the circle with “pow”.

It brought joy and ease, creating a positive start. This routine involved all participants, ensuring everyone was ready to engage in the activities. We saw this tool as essential for theatre work because it involved the body and the voice and opened us up to collaborative action.

Objective

The goal of the project week was to create a film that both documents the creative work of the youth and facilitates an in-depth engagement with the play. The short film was produced by a student who wanted to contribute behind the camera in this way.

Process

Video footage was collected each day to support and document the students’ creative development. The daily content was varied and tailored to the individual needs of the participants:

• On Monday, the focus was on researching the Sorbian legendary figure – „Midday Woman“, which also served as the basis for the theatre play. This cultural immersion gave the students an insight into the many facets of Sorbian traditions and mythology. The legend says that the midday woman would come to the fields for an hour at noon and cut off the heads of all people who were there who could not tell a story. We used this as a starting point and then to help develop our piece, we also asked the young people what they would talk about in that situation. How would they speak? What does language mean to them?  And this research laid the foundation for the content of the week.
• Tuesday was characterized by the classroom play „Mittagspause“, followed by a follow-up discussion and a comparison of the expectations that had arisen from the previous day’s research. The participants were able to reflect on their impressions and share their thoughts on the topics presented, such as friendship, the search for identity, dealing with minorities and prejudices.
• On Wednesday, the students had the opportunity to talk about topics that affect them personally.
• Thursday was dedicated to writing poems, which encouraged the creative expression of the participants.
• Finally, on Friday, a reflection of the entire week took place, during which the students had the opportunity to share their experiences and insights and reflect on what they had learnt.The variety of activities and the intensive exploration of different subject areas contributed significantly to the success of the project week.

Some young people were hesitant to perform and preferred drawing instead.  Others had an affinity for music, and some preferred writing.  The variety of activities ensured that everyone was involved in the project and that no one was forced to do something they were uncomfortable with.

The project week was perceived by all participants as extremely enriching and inspiring. It not only boosted the students’ self-confidence, but also encouraged their teamwork and creativity.