Finding a voice through theatre
View(s):Dr Wolfgang Schneider speaks to the Mirror Magazine about youth theatre and his experience at the recently concluded Colombo Theatre Festival
Wolfgang Schneider can’t mask his enthusiasm for youth theatre: “theatre for young audiences (TYA) respects its young audiences by presenting their hopes, dreams and fears,” he says. “It develops and deepens experience, intelligence, emotion and imagination; it inspires ethical choices; it helps awareness of social relations; it encourages self-esteem, tolerance confidence and opinions. Above all, it helps young people to find their place and voice in society!”
A professor of Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim with a PhD in theatre, Dr. Schneider is the UNESCO-Chair in Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development. From 2002 to 2011 he served as the President of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) and was later elected Honorary President. He is currently the chairman of ASSITEJ in Germany.
He describes ASSITEJ as the “United Nations of TYA,” backing up his claim with figures that point to their activities in over 80 countries, represented by over 10,000 companies. The biggest event on their calendars is the ASSITEJ World Congress, held every 3 years. Dr. Schneider who was elected for the first time in Seoul in 2002 was honoured by the General Assembly in Copenhagen in 2011 with the honorary presidency.
“As President you have to work with them to realize the rights of the children to take part in the performing arts, to save cultural diversity and to make sure that arts education is part of the national curricula,” he says. All of these issues were of concern when Dr. Schneider visited Sri Lanka last year to participate in the first Colombo Theatre Festival and then returned again this year – in time for the event’s second chapter. “I felt honoured to observe a vibrant collection of shows with artistic ideals,” he says looking back, remembering that the “performances were inspiring, the workshops state of the art, the meetings in the illuminated garden of the Goethe-Institute fruitful for the debates and the exchange.”
Today, Dr. Schneider helps manage the ASSITEJ Award for Artistic Excellence. Drawing on his vast experience, he says that moving forward, Sri Lankan theatre enthusiasts, practitioners and teachers, should tap into the youth base: “Take care of the participation of all children and young people in theatre, take care that TYA is an artistic challenge, take care that the subjects are relevant, because in my experience, there is only one absolute necessity for theatre arts productions and that is that they must go to the edge. They must be stories that don’t avoid, diminish, or appease conflict, rather realistically portray its consequences to children and young people.”
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