An Unexpected Experience

From April 25th to April 30th I was in Ankara, Turkey for the 5th annual “Little Ladies, Little Gentlemen International Children’s Theatre Festival.” When I received the notice that the festival was looking to host a Canadian to observe the festival I was so excited. My parents are Turkish and I used to go to Turkey to visit my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin but I haven’t been back in almost 10 years. For a while now I have wanted to go back and couldn’t believe that it would be my work as an arts educator that would eventually take me back to Turkey. I spent a few days in Istanbul before the festival with my family and learning more about my grandparents and great grandparents. I was surprised at how emotional this was for me. I felt very much at home.

Leaving for Ankara was a huge shift from that feeling. I was heading to the unknown. I was suddenly very aware that I hadn’t even spoken to members of the festival committee. I had made all of these plans via email and now here I was on a bus on my way to Ankara for the first time and not entirely sure of what I would find there. Of course, upon my arrival I met people from the festival, checked into the hotel etc. and everything was fine.

My role in the festival was to be an observer which meant seeing the shows and participating in all of the festival events. I had also been asked to give a workshop for children ages 9-11. It was an exciting opportunity but I was nervous; my Turkish is pretty rusty and although I had a translator, so much of how a teacher develops a rapport with their students is in the way we communicate with one another. The morning of my workshop I met a woman, Fatma who is a professor at a university in Istanbul. After chatting with her for a while we discovered that the work we do is very similar. She asked if she could attend my workshop. My response was: “of course. But, if you come, you have to participate and play along with the kids.” She said she was relieved because she always prefers to be an active participant rather than just an observer.

The workshop went really well. Even though there was a language barrier, I felt that the kids and I were able to establish a connection. The workshop showed me that kids are kids. The dynamic was the same as any other workshop. I felt right at home as if I were doing a workshop at LKTYP.

The evening after the workshop, Ahmet from the festival committee approached me to let me know that there were some teachers from Van (Kurdish part of Turkey) that wanted to meet and speak with me. They had come to the festival with a group of teenagers and had performed a play. When I met with them, they asked me (through Ahmet who translated): “how do you teach drama”? I wasn’t sure where to begin. We talked some more about their goals for the students and then with trepidation they asked if I would do another workshop for their students. I was happy to do the workshop and realized that this would be a great opportunity to collaborate with Fatma. I agreed to teach the workshop with Fatma and hoped that she would participate! Fatma was really excited about the idea and the next day we planned our workshop.
At 7:30pm we started the workshop in one of the hotel meeting rooms. It was supposed to be an hour and a half long from 7:30- 9:00pm but 9:00pm came and went. We wrapped up the workshop at 11:00pm. I have never seen a group of teenagers so motivated and excited. They wanted to do another workshop the next night and Fatma and I thought, “why not try and offer them a different kind of experience?” We asked the director/choreographer from a Dutch company attending the festival if he would do a movement workshop for the students the next night. He agreed and luckily I was able to attend that workshop as well.

The whole trip was amazing. Reflecting back over the last few weeks I have realized how special the experience was. I should conclude by thanking my colleagues at LKTYP for being so supportive and filling in for me while I was away. A special thank you to Alexandra Parravano our intern from OISE. She stepped into a leadership role and managed some of our educational events that took place while I was away.

Photo of festival program if interested:http://www.devtiyatro.gov.tr/23nisan/program/oyunlar/atolye_tiyatroileegitim.htm

Karen Gilodo - Education Services Coordinator