Online Trust Tour workshop – Training in the Transplanisphère method
From 24 to 27 February 2021, 10 young Europeans met online for the first intercultural workshop of the Trust Tour project! This week of workshop was organised by La Transplanisphère and aimed to test and train the participants in the French Trust Tour method, created by the company.
A European workshop to discover the Trust Tour method of lA Transplanisphere
Through theatre and co-creation, the Trust Tour project questions the relationships between native and local inhabitants of the European territory. Inspired by various experiences from 2016 to 2019, 4 European artistic partners (from Germany, France, Italy and Portugal) propose to collaborate and design innovative artistic methods to help any multicultural group to create theatrical performances.
Trust Tour aims to provide a space for creation and reflection for young and old, artists, teachers and the European public. A space that stimulates creativity to imagine the future of society together, providing new artistic tools to create ‘commons’ and build new narratives.
In 2021 and 2022, Trust Tour will develop a series of 4 European workshops in Dortmund, Paris, Évora and Rocca Sinibalda, all of which will be stages in the development of creations that question the issues at stake (interculturality, human rights, creation of the common good, etc.) and train citizens in the project’s 4 methods.
In February 2021, 10 young Europeans from Germany, France, Italy and Portugal met online to discover and be trained in the artistic methodology created by La Transplanisphère. The aim was to familiarise the participants with the method of documentary theatre in the context of intercultural encounters.
The participants were offered theatre, writing and staging exercises in order to create a performance together. Several areas of intercultural encounters were also addressed: group life, exchange of practices, mediation of debates, involvement and participation of local communities, documentation of the experience… The participants were also able to discover adapted artistic methodologies both for the writing work with the principle of the hyperlink story and in the staging by investing the urban space in different forms. And in the context of digital technology, they created an immersive online theatre performance!
Discover the 4 European partners present during this workshop:
Ex Quorum
Portugese partner
Teatro Rigodon
Italian partner
KJT Dortmund
German partner
La Transplanisphère
French partner and project coordinator
Day 1 - Launch of the workshop
On Wednesday 24 February, the participants were welcomed with music on the Zoom platform by La Transplanisphère.
This first day of the workshop started with a series of icebreaking exercises allowing young people and artistic trainers to meet and get to know each other in a playful way. After several exercises, the group dynamic was launched!
In this friendly atmosphere, La Transplanisphère started the workshop with an introduction to the project and to the programme of the week, which was to be rich in creative activities around documentary theatre and testimony.
To conclude the first day, the participants had to prepare several elements that would be used for the activities: choosing their totem song, an object that is dear to them and carries a story, a text that is important to them, as well as their answers to a questionnaire about their personal life.
Day 2 - Discovering documentary theatre
This second day started with a quiz on the participants’ totem songs to get to know each other better, and the desert island exercise to initiate first exchanges and cooperation.
Then came the first aspect of the French method: documentary theatre! Transplanisphère presented the process of this theatrical technique based on social sciences (choice of subject and angle, interviews, constitution of a corpus, creation of characters and a narrative from the corpus…).
After this presentation, it was time to put it into practice! Each participant presented their object and text, prepared the day before, to the others. This moment of sharing was rich in personal stories and emotions.
This was followed by a creative writing session to close the day. From the shared personal elements that formed the first corpus, each participant let their imagination run free to write a text.
Day 3 - Discovering hyperlink performance
The third day started with a language animation, useful for intercultural encounters. The participants then exchanged their answers to the questionnaire prepared earlier. These exchanges about their personal lives, aspirations, memories and values provided input for the corpus.
Then came the second aspect of the French method: the hyperlink performance. This process consists of following several characters with their own narrative threads that have nothing to do with each other, but which are brought together or linked by a common theme. This technique, which puts emotions at the heart of the story, allows each person’s voice to be heard through multiple characters and plots.
The participants then put it into practice during a creative writing session. Using the material collected during the week, they created a hyperlink performance, with several characters and plots. The final performance began to take shape…
To close the day, the Transplanisphere presented the next two stages of the writing process: the staging and the performance. The relationship with the local population and urban spaces was detailed, with many examples.
Day 4 - Closing of the workshop
For this last day, La Transplanishère presented the last modules of the Trust Tour toolbox: techniques to facilitate a debate, activities to facilitate integration, organisation of group life, innovative evaluation systems to integrate this task in a playful way, but also the documentation and communication processes of such a youth encounter.
This was followed by the finalisation of the performance created during the workshop, combining digital tools and immersive theatre, and a final rehearsal before the public event in the afternoon.
To close this rich week, the participants proceeded to the evaluation in 2 steps: an individual questionnaire to evaluate the workshop and their skills, then a collective discussion on this week spent together.
Final event - An immersive online theatre performance
In the afternoon, the participants gathered online one last time for the closing public event. In front of emerging and established artists, students and teachers, they presented the project, and the method, and testified about the intercultural encounter experienced during the week.
Then came the performance: Elephant Rooms Company, a digital performance at the heart of the public’s memories!
The public was welcomed on Zoom by the receptionist of the Elephant Rooms Company, who presented them with several services for their memories. She then sent them to different Zoom rooms where they were greeted alone by an actor. Each room was dedicated to a type of memory: lost and found memories, the repair service, the jungle of the unconscious, the archives, bad memories etc…
The spectators were invited to share some of their memories and to discuss the importance of these in our construction as human beings evolving in society. They moved through this labyrinth, from laughter to tears, from surprise to reflection, and came out with a vivid memory!
It was an enriching and moving experience for both the audience and the artists. To find out more about the show.
