{"id":317709,"date":"2022-09-08T13:55:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T16:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=317709"},"modified":"2022-09-12T09:04:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T12:04:59","slug":"brazilians-teach-theater-techniques-to-saudis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/brazilians-teach-theater-techniques-to-saudis\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazilians teach theater techniques to Saudis"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 S\u00e3o Paulo-based Oficina dos Menestr\u00e9is<\/strong>, a musical theater company that gives open courses with its own methodology based on reflex and intuition, gave a workshop to teachers from Saudi Arabia <\/strong>in late 2021. The company created in 1993 by actors Deto Montenegro and Marco Andr\u00e9 Brand\u00e3o de Magalh\u00e3es was invited by entrepreneur Carolina Andraus to train 38 Arab male and female teachers that teach young people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Workshop brings theater to people with autism<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAndraus was hired by an Arab colleague interested in a pedagogical project for young people with disabilities in public schools in Saudi Arabia. After researching, Andraus found us, but since we didn\u2019t have a pedagogical project back then, we developed a material to meet their needs, including our exercises, the types of plays we do etc. Then we had weekly meetings to approve these materials,\u201d said Evelyn Klein, actress, producer and art educator at the Oficina dos Menestr\u00e9is.<\/p>\n

After the project was approved, the workshop was held for the first time abroad in Arab country, in two stages: The group stayed a week in Dammam, where they gave an online training for two hours a day to teachers from three cities in Saudi Arabia (Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah). After five days of online training, the workshop team went to Riyadh to meet teachers in person on a stage. Then they gave five hours of class a day during five days, where the Arab educators took the exercises they had learned.<\/p>\n

She says that the stage was divided into two sections, one for the men and one for the women, and that they had five very rich days of information and knowledge exchange. Theater is not widely spread in Saudi Arabia. \u201cWe started from the very basics: What is a stage, lightning, and more elaborate exercises with a tableau-based dramaturgy,\u201d she says. The latter is used by the group for shows with people with Down syndrome and autism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wheelchair users performing in festival<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the last day in Saudi Arabia, the Brazilians performed with the Saudi teachers. \u201cIt was a very special for us to participate in this project, as we were present in a moment of cultural openness in Saudi Arabia. We saw the power of women<\/strong>, and although they have a religious aspect that is very different from ours, we saw that they are great leaders. Our project was entirely led by Arab women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then the Brazilians had other three online meetings with a 45-day interval between them. During these meetings, the Arab teachers told how they applied the Menestr\u00e9is method with children with disabilities, asked questions, discussed the good and bad parts, and the Brazilians shared the ideas they had from working with children with Down syndrome<\/strong> in Brazil. As a way to continue the training, the Saudi teachers did an internship in the company, participating in the activities of ten performances of children with disabilities.<\/p>\n

What does the Oficina dos Menestr\u00e9is do<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Brazil, Oficina dos Menestr\u00e9is works in two fronts: the regular courses for paying students, focused on children and teenagers, and social projects, with musical theater courses for people with disabilities, senior citizens, and young people with fewer opportunities.<\/p>\n

They work with five different social projects. The first one was first held in 2003 with a group of wheelchair users and the visually impaired, with inclusive musical theater lessons. Three years later came the Projeto Maturidade, to value the elderly and broaden their social inclusion through art. The third social project Up was created for children with Down syndrome.<\/p>\n

Then came the Juntos project for young people with fewer opportunities, and in 2012 the company created Aut for young people and adults in the autism spectrum. At the beginning of the projects, the students are presented with an art training tailored for them. In the second stage of the course a musical play is prepared, and the third phases sees the performances themselves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Young people with Down syndrome on stage<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Up project is adapted to their needs. [People with Down syndrome] have trouble communicating but burst with affection, which makes all the difference in the work. For this project, we didn\u2019t prepare close-ended scripts because we knew they would improvise. People with autism are very pragmatic and rarely make mistakes. We worked on being more flexible, on being able to make mistakes and improvise,\u201d Klein said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe improvisation exercises were a little difficult at the beginning, but they managed to perform them in a playful way. As we worked on a daily basis, they understood what we wanted from them, and we were flexible with each other,\u201d Klein said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the headquarters in S\u00e3o Paulo, the company is present in some schools and clubs in S\u00e3o Paulo, Ubatuba, and the ABC region. They also have a project in Palmas, Tocantins, and they used to have a project in Bras\u00edlia, Distrito Federal, that went on for seven years.<\/p>\n

Report by Rebecca Vettore specially for ANBA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9Stella Obellenis\/Oficina dos Menestr\u00e9is<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Oficina dos Menestr\u00e9is trained Saudi professors that work with young people with disabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2342,"featured_media":317693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[11910,34828,34829,34830,34826,9595,34825,22213,34827,16017,19050,42193,4119,34823,34824],"class_list":{"0":"post-317709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-arabia-saudita-en","9":"tag-down-syndrome-theater","10":"tag-oficina-dos-menestreis-en","11":"tag-oficina-dos-menestreis-arabia-saudita-en","12":"tag-people-with-autism-theater","13":"tag-saudi-arabia-en","14":"tag-saudi-arabia-menestreis","15":"tag-saudi-arabia-theater","16":"tag-saudi-theater","17":"tag-saudis","18":"tag-sauditas-en","19":"tag-teatro-en","20":"tag-theater","21":"tag-theater-autism","22":"tag-theater-down"},"wps_subtitle":"Members of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Oficina dos Menestr\u00e9is trained Saudi professors that work with young people with disabilities.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}