Abstracts
Abstract
How should theatre talk to children about migration and its politics, about death and separation, about arrival and new hopes? What tone—when speaking of violence and torture, injustice and political manipulation, losing one’s family and language, seeking safety and new friends—should the artists take on? Should this conversation be educational, protective, cautious, neutral, or entertaining? How should artists shape their work for children of different ages to help them respond to the scope and complexity of the topic? Estelle Savasta’s play Traversée (2011) provides some responses to these questions. It engages with the pedagogical and artistic traditions of making “emancipatory theatre for children,” and it allows the conversation about war and migration to take place. Director Milena Buziak’s 2016 staging of Traversée presents an example of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) that takes on the responsibility of making its spectators politically aware and emotionally engaged, specifically when it comes to their understanding of social injustice today. By engaging with the most urgent political issues related to global migration, this article provides an example of making theatre for children political.
Keywords:
- migration,
- children refugees,
- political theatre for children,
- emancipatory theatre for children
Résumé
Comment le théâtre doit-il parler aux enfants de politiques d’immigration, de la mort, de la séparation, de l’arrivée dans un nouveau pays et de nouveaux espoirs? Quel ton doivent adopter les artistes pour parler de violence et de torture, d’injustice, de manipulation politique, ou pour dire la perte de sa famille et de sa langue, la quête de sécurité et la recherche de nouveaux amis? Cette conversation doit-elle être pédagogique, protectrice, prudente, neutre ou divertissante? Comment les artistes doivent-ils façonner leur oeuvre destinée à de jeunes publics pour les aider à saisir des sujets si complexes? La pièce Traversée (2011) d’Estelle Savasta fournit quelques pistes de réponse à toutes ces questions. Elle tient compte des traditions pédagogiques et artistiques du « théâtre de l’émancipation pour enfants » et favorise une conversation sur la guerre et la migration. La mise en scène par Milena Buziak de cette pièce en 2016 est un exemple de théâtre pour jeunes publics qui assume la responsabilité de conscientiser son auditoire aux réalités politiques, notamment en ce qui concerne des injustices sociales contemporaines. En abordant des questions politiques urgentes liées à la migration mondiale, Yana Meerzon montre comment on peut faire du théâtre jeunesse un instrument politique.
Mots-clés :
- migration,
- enfants réfugiés,
- théâtre politique pour jeune public,
- théâtre de l’émancipation pour jeune public
Download the article in PDF to read it.
Download
Appendices
Biographical note
Professor Yana Meerzon teaches for the Department of Theatre at the University of Ottawa and she was appointed President of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research in June 2020. Yana’s research interests include drama and performance theory; theatre of exile; and migration, cultural, and interdisciplinary studies. She is the author of three books, with the latest volume, Performance, Subjectivity, Cosmopolitanism, published by Palgrave in August 2020. She co-edited several collections, including History, Memory, Performance with Dr. David Dean and Dr. Kathryn Prince (Palgrave 2015) and now Migration and Stereotypes in Performance and Culture with Dr. David Dean and Dr. Daniel McNeil (Palgrave 2020).
Bibliography
- Bariso, Justin. “There Are Actually 3 Types of Empathy. Here’s How They Differ—and How You Can Develop Them All.” Inc., 19 September 2018, https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/there-are-actually-3-types-of-empathy-heres-how-they-differ-and-how-you-can-develop-them-all.html. Accessed 3 April 2020.
- Beauchamp, Hélène. Apprivoiser le théâtre : les enfants, le jeu dramatique et le théâtre, Les Éditions Logiques, 1997.
- Beauchamp, Hélène. “La dramaturgie jeunesse. De refus en résistance et d’appropriation en création : l’invention d’un genre.” Le théâtre québécois : 1975–1995, edited by Dominique Lafon, Éditions Fides, 2001, pp. 133–50.
- Beauchamp, Hélène. Le théâtre adolescent : Une pratique artistique d’affirmation. Les Éditions Logiques, 1998.
- Beauchamp, Hélène. “Theatre Research as (Theatrical) Practice: Recognizing Theatre for Young Audiences.” Theatre Research in Canada, vol. 14, no. 2, 1993, pp. 178–95.
- Beauchamp, Héléne, and Bernard Lavoie. DynamO théâtre : théâtre de mouvement acrobatique. Duchesne, 2003.
- Benjamin, Walter. “Program for a Proletarian Children’s Theater.” Selected Writings, Volume 2, Part 1, 1927–1930, translated by Rodney Livingstone and others, edited by Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland, and Gary Smith, Belknap Press, 1999, pp. 201–06.
- Bond, Edward. Foreword. Theatre & Education, by Helen Nicholson, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. ix–xii.
- Bond, Edward. “Notes on Theatre-in-Education.” The Hidden Plot: Notes on Theatre and the State. Methuen, 2000, pp. 56–58.
- Brecht, Bertolt. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Edited and translated by John Willett, Hill and Wang, 1964.
- Buziak, Milena. Class Lecture, 4 March 2019, University of Ottawa.
- Buziak, Milena. From Somebody to Many, Interview with Milena Buziak. National Arts Centre, 2017, https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/16571. Accessed 25 June 2020.
- “Canada Welcomes 25,000 Syrian Refugees.” Government of Canada, 29 February 2016, https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2016/02/canada-welcomes-25-000-syrian-refugees.html. Accessed 12 November 2020.
- “Compagnie Hippolyte a mal au Coeur.” Hippolyte a mal au Coeur, https://hippolyteamalaucoeur.fr. Accessed 12 November 2020.
- Côté-Delisle, Sarah. Le théâtre québécois destiné aux enfants : exploration de ses rapports à l’enfance. 2006. Université Laval, unpublished thesis.
- Douillard, M., and H. Volle, editors. Traversée. Dossier d’accompagnement. Théâtre français de Toronto, 2019.
- Elnan, Merete. “Notion of Children: How Can the Idea of Childhood, of Children as Spectators, and of Understanding Influence Theatre for Young Audiences?” TYA, Culture, Society: International Essays on Theatre for Young Audiences, edited by Manon van de Water, Peter Lang, 2012, pp. 165–79.
- Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather. Ignite: Illuminating Theatre Creation for Young Minds. Playwrights Canada Press, 2016.
- Foon, Dennis. New Canadian Kid and Invisible Kids. Playwrights Canada Press, 2006.
- Gagné Dion, Chloé. “Quitter la terre mère.” Le devoir, 17 November 2016, https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/theatre/484862/theatre-quitter-la-terre-mere. Accessed 4 April 2020.
- Goleman, Daniel. Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Bantam, 2006.
- Nicholson, Helen. Theatre & Education. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
- Pitofsky, Marina. “Children Make up More than Half of the Refugee Population, U.N. Says.” USA Today, 19 June 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/06/19/children-refugee-population-syria-afghanistan-south-sudan/702806002. Accessed 4 April 2020.
- Rancière, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator. Translated by Gregory Elliot, Verso, 2009.
- Savard, Cindy. “Traversée : « une journée qui se déchire, un monde qui se déplace ».” apt613, 20 November 2017, https://apt613.ca/traversee-une-journee-qui-se-dechire-un-monde-qui-se-deplace. Accessed 4 April 2020.
- Savasta, Estelle. Traversée. École des Loisirs, 2013.
- Savasta, Estelle. Traversée, Dossier le Presse. Cie Hippolyte a mal au Coeur, https://lepreambuledesetourdis.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/dossier-traversc3a9e.pdf. Accessed 12 November 2020.
- “Le théâtre par et pour les sourds in Traversée.” Traversée. Dossier d’accompagnement. Edited by M. Douillard and H. Volle, Théâtre français de Toronto, 2019, pp. 13–15.
- Théroux, Anne-Marie. TSURU, l’enfant et moi : le travail de l’inconscient dans la création et la réception d’un spectacle tout public. 2004. Université du Québec à Montréal, unpublished thesis.
- Turgeon-Charest, Jennifer. Apprivoiser les monstres par le théâtre: analyse du traitement des sujets difficiles dans le théâtre jeune public contemporain au Québec. 2013. University of Ottawa, master’s thesis.
- Voyageurs Immobiles. “Notre Mission.” Voyageurs Immobiles, 2013, http://www.voyageursimmobiles.ca/compagnie. Accessed 30 June 2020.
- Walsh, Bryan. “Alan Kurdi's Story: Behind the Most Heartbreaking Photo of 2015.” Time, 19 December 2015, https://time.com/4162306/alan-kurdisyria-drownedboy-refugee-crisis. Accessed 30 June 2020.
- “What is Grips?” GRIPS Theatre, http://www.grips-theater.de/unser-haus/english/new-contentpage-2. Accessed 12 November 2020.
- Zaroulia, Marilena. “Performing That Which Exceeds Us: Aesthetics of Sincerity and Obscenity During ‘the Refugee Crisis.’” Research in Drama Education, vol. 23, no. 2, 2018, pp. 179–92. Taylor and Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2018.1439735.
- Zipes, Jack David. “GRIPS. Toward the Emancipatory Theatre for Children.” Political Plays for Children, Telos Press, 1977, pp. 1–18.
- Zipes, Jack David. “Political Children’s Theater in the Age of Globalization.” Theater, vol. 33, no. 2, 2003, pp. 3–25. Duke University Press, https://doi.org/10.1215/01610775-33-2-3.