School theaters, acting classes, stage productions and all kinds of acting clubs are reflected today both in school activities and in external creative audiences. Children's staging of all kinds of actions and role plays, carried out in various thematic areas (from humorous to deeply social), play an important role in the formation of the intellectual consciousness of modern youth.
Theatrical art allows children to show their talents, express emotions and feelings, learn to work in a team. It was participation in amateur stage performances that served as a springboard for the career of many actors, whose names are now full on all covers of glossy magazines and on all platforms of the existing media space. But for the programmatic, theatrical, student or social scenarios of performances for adolescents and young people to have an effect, be organized correctly, and also perceived by the viewer in the right way, young actors must find support in the person of their parents and follow the sensitive guidance of mentors in the person of theater leaders. It is very important for adolescents at this age to pay full attention, and so that the child does not shut himself in and protect himself from all the shells of his own embarrassment, he needs to help him show his theatrical abilities and skills: both parents and school theater directors should participate in this.
The goals and objectives of theatrical school productions
Like any school curriculum, theater at school and related acting classes are based on certain targeted aspects. For what purpose are the leaders of theatrical student groups developing mini-plays for teenagers according to the script in the school education program?
- Intensification of the development of a sense of cohesion and collectivism in a friendly atmosphere of amateur performances.
- Providing opportunities for each student to reveal their acting skills and creative abilities.
- Creation of a platform conducive to the disclosure and self-realization of young people from the perspective of acting.
If we talk about the tasks of this method of modern school education, whether it be scenarios of puppet shows for teenagers or personified roles (using characters to stage different characters by students personally), in any case, the development of student productions has a list of specific conventions in the coordinated work of leaders and students.
- The main task of the participants of the performance is the creation of an unusual in form and content presentation, which will be understandable and accessible to understanding by every spectator in the hall.
- An important aspect is the consolidation of the skills of creative activity, instilled in teachers by young representatives of the future generation.
- A significant indicator of the effectiveness of the developed production is the fact that the heroes and their viewers make specific conclusions from the action shown. After all, each performance carries in itself some specific semantic load. And it is important enough that the participants in the theatrical action, and those who watched their role play throughout the production, learn from this work some important lesson for themselves.
Principles of work in a school theater
The development of musical, humorous, social scenarios of performances for teenagers in mini-versions of theatrical productions, like any other educational work, is based on the corresponding principles of constructing a moral perception of what is happening by students. What specific principles are we talking about?
- Communicative relations - a game in theatrical student productions, one way or another, involves the development of a sense of some responsibility to their fellow partners and to the immediate audience.
- Cognitive aspect - during rehearsals, students gain empathy, and also learn to respect each other.
- Regulatory aspect - at the time of studying and developing the storyline of the script for a puppet show for teenagers or the usual production with traditional characters, schoolchildren have an emotional perception of the environment, their worldview is changing, they begin to perceive the world differently, more deeply imbued with the plot, the game, the relationship with partners in the stage.
- The upbringing aspect - theatrical productions, like any other subject of study, have the predetermining qualities of educating character traits that are important for building a healthy society, and also contribute to the emergence of a spectator culture in teenagers, respect, understanding and love for the theater.
Social performance
One of the most common types of theatrical performances is a social performance. For 16-year-olds, a scenario that includes the problems of modern society is moving forward to the forefront of everyone's attention. The point is that the educational work of parents, leaders and teachers should be supported by visual variations in the development of various events that can be understood by adolescents in real life. It is very important to create such an atmosphere and provide such a performance for the audience that is able to consolidate the most important principles of social structure in the consciousness of schoolchildren, and those who look at them in the hall of teenagers to think about the topic raised in this performance. Indeed, it is this transitional age that lays in the perception and character of young people the initial aspects of their moral beliefs. What they will become in the future depends at this stage precisely on the parents and teachers who guide them through life and coordinate their path to the adult world.
Often for this kind of productions, the cast of no more than 5-7 people is organized. The script of the play for teenagers outlines the storyline, the main task of which is to highlight the pressing problems of youth.
AIDS highlights
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is one of the most commonly discussed topics in high school, which is updated with adolescents reaching puberty. The plague of the twentieth century, this disease cannot be cured, is often covered in all kinds of seminars, life safety lessons, thematic meetings dedicated to the healthy lifestyle of high school students. It is not surprising that this theme also affects performances for adolescents. Interesting storylines that make the viewer imbued with the production make it possible for the actors-students themselves to feel the share of the problem that has arisen in society - the problem of youthful irresponsibility regarding their own health and life.
The action on the stage can take place in various forms, but the presentation should be as clear as possible to the viewer. Therefore, often in topics of coverage of the AIDS problem, the head of the theater group organizes two sides of the performance: one of them consists of one or two leading, the other (central) of three or four participants in the visualization of the ongoing action. The performance begins with the opening speech of the first presenter, briefly characterizing the purpose of reflection on the stage of this production. The second one picks up the first one’s speech in poetic form and throughout the entire production of poems comments on what is happening on stage. Meanwhile, silent actors through their movements, facial expressions, game convey the mood, meaning and decoding of those words that are voiced at this moment by the second presenter. In the background, a melody sounds, originally romantic, symbolizing the meeting of two young people of the opposite sex, and closer to the end it is monotonous and sad, because it accompanies the action on the stage, which characterizes the notification of young people about their infection with a deadly virus. As part of the epilogue, the first presenter makes a final eyeliner, in which he warns schoolchildren that random connections should not take place in the life of intelligent, conscious representatives of youth. Parting words and food for thought are given to viewers who watched the production.
Performances highlighting the problems of drug addiction and alcoholism
An equally important social problem of our time is dependence on psychotropic substances and alcohol. The topic is especially relevant for the teenage generation, since it is at this age that children often make their first choice: to try a harmful substance or refuse it. The period of growing up, which is accompanied by a thirst for knowledge of a new, adult world, with the opportunity to experience new sensations, experience new emotions, plunge into the world of interesting and fascinating events in the realities of the modern world - all this attracts young representatives of today's society so that they quickly plunge into a whirlpool of new acquaintances, opportunities and offers. Cautions of adults about the fact that “smoking is not allowed!”, “Drinking alcohol is forbidden!”, “Tasting prohibited substances is strictly prohibited!” - all these phrases, instilled by parents and teachers since childhood, are relegated to the background against the backdrop of anticipation and unbridled desire to taste the forbidden fruit, to go against adults, to make their own way and thus manifest their own "I". Theoretical knowledge is quickly erased from memory and does not allow teenagers to fully understand and understand the danger of possible consequences. Therefore, theatrical performances are an ideal option for visualizing existing dangers.
The traditional forms of work - conversations, lectures, narrations about the dangers of narcotic substances and alcoholic beverages - are being replaced by visualization of pressing problems as interesting performances for adolescents. This method of work, according to the leaders of theatrical circles, is much more effective and efficient. Since the supply of material aimed at warning students against the use of harmful substances is assimilated by them twice as fast, the awareness of what they saw more convincingly and clearly conveys the necessary information to the children.
What does a production on this topic usually look like?
- Scene one: schoolchildren (teenagers) are sitting on a bench and sharing their plans for life after graduation from school. Their high spirits, they discuss the future, full of hopes and aspirations.
- Scene two: at a teenage party, some representatives of the older generation of young people offer future graduates, who had recently discussed their bright plans, to use "entertainment" pills (smoking mixes, alcoholic drinks). The guys doubt it, but in the end they agree to "a little bit", convincing themselves and everyone around them that this will not happen again and at once.
- Scene Three: the action takes place in a courtyard alley, where, during school hours, future graduates meet again, but not in order to discuss how to restore their once excellent academic performance, which fell to the level of "satisfactory" and lower. They discuss a plan for acquiring a new dose of malevolent drug, and when they realize that they don’t have the money for it, they decide to steal money from their own parents from home ...
- Scene Four: one of the guys goes to the hospital with a severe attack of an overdose. At this moment, he frantically promises himself and his desperate parents to never again use the unfortunate poison, if only fate would give him another chance.
As an epilogue, the host narrates that the guys managed to recover and engage in a terrifying habit. Abstracts are made about the need for conscious abstinence from all kinds of attempts to try psychotropic drugs so that the consequences do not end up being so deplorable.
Performances highlighting sexual problems and early pregnancy
Often a social school curriculum highlights the aspect of puberty and all kinds of situations arising from it in various scenarios of performances. Communication of adolescents sooner or later leads to emerging sympathies between young people of the opposite sex. Sixteen years old is the very age when children begin to experience feelings, emotions, and sexual attraction to each other. And in the modern world, no one is shy about following their passion. Guys start having sex too early by the standards of post-socialist times. Parents may not even suspect that in the life of their eleventh-daughter, there was already sexual intercourse, and not one. And such connections are more dangerous in that they often occur by unprotected sexual contact. Hence, viral diseases, including AIDS. Hence, an unplanned early pregnancy, an abortion performed by an unqualified specialist and, as a result, subsequent infertility. So, you can cross out a casual sexual relationship in youth your whole life. It is to warn against such situations that school performances on this topic are directed.
Festive performance
However, not all representations of acting at school relate to the social sphere. Sometimes the productions touch on the themes of any special events, holidays, important events in the life of the school and its inhabitants. The leaders of theatrical circles develop scenarios for the teenagers for the performances “Life is Beautiful”, “Day of Knowledge”, “Teacher's Day”, “Day of Russian Literature” and many other subject-matter dramatizations corresponding to specific solemn and memorable days. Pupils and teachers especially like productions with the participation of characters that take place in the life of the school in reality: such representations are the most popular, memorable and interesting.
Historical performance
A lot of theatrical productions affect the events of the past. This is especially true of the themes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The scenarios of performances for teenagers about the war are aimed at raising morale in schoolchildren, respect for the actions of their ancestors, their work and attempts to protect their homeland from fascism. The leaders of the circles are trying to instill in their successors patriotism, love for the father’s home, for his native land. Such productions teach both actors and spectators to honor the dedication of their ancestors, to honor their blessed memory, to pay tribute to their courage and courage, because it was they who gave us all the opportunity to live peacefully, once having given their own lives for it.
Often school performances on such topics begin with a musical introduction. Almost always, it is accompanied by a production number with choreographic elements performed by girls in the original Russian attire of those times with long braids braided. In addition, vocal numbers are often used with thematic song compositions such as “Get up, the country is huge”, “It's just a war”, “Birch dreams”, “Holy War”, “We are Russians” and many others. Dressed in military uniform and endowed with accompanying theatrical equipment in the form of imitated weapons from the time of the Second World War, the guys act out the scenes set by the leaders with great enthusiasm and dedication. Each is imbued with a history improvised on the stage and each is mentally transferred to those times when people were guided by different values ​​and thanked fate for each day they lived.
Musical performance
Everyone’s favorite scripts for musical performances for teenagers from high school today are transformed into thematic musicals. Girls, for example, really like the opportunity to participate in amateur performances, to present some kind of choreographic performance, to perform a vocal composition in an ensemble, to show their skills to move and behave on stage, as well as to demonstrate their intriguing outfit, set into an unusual stage image. : , , , . - « ». , «», .
Musical scenes provide an opportunity to develop the creative imagination of adolescents. In general, the subject basis of musical productions provides for the opening of great opportunities for transforming the perception of young people as creative individuals. A musical script for children and adolescents is a fundamental aspect in this direction. This is the historical component of the theater, and the tendency to perceive current music, and the technique of teaching artistic culture. An important moment in the functioning of the musical theater at school is that here a teenager can show his personal qualities, his personality, his expression, sensuality, the ability to play roles together with the manifestation of his musical talents, while endowing his characters and characters with qualities and properties, specific to them. By imitating the feelings of others in each separate production, depicting the emotions of their heroes, students learn through their characters and themselves.
Humorous performance
With special enthusiasm, the guys relate to various comedic scenarios. A teenage play of a humorous nature is able to amuse the audience, set a good mood, joke and laugh with the audience. Recently, such scenes have somewhat transformed. Today, the scenario of a comedy teenage performance is focused on modern techniques for presenting a humorous genre. “Comedy Club”, “Stand Up”, “Comedy Show”, “Comedy Wumen” - all these television programs left their mark on teenagers' understanding of humor per se, therefore they all try to resemble famous Russian ones in their stage theatrical school productions comedians. If the previously ridiculous scenario of the play for teenagers resembled a fragment of the KVN program, today it is a more advanced level of presentation of humorous displays.
In general, the breadth of possible variations of staged comedy scenes is due to the huge range of thematic focus. If social performances are limited to specific models of highlighting the pressing problems of the younger generation, humorous school programs are aimed at entertainment, cheerful mood and a desire to laugh heartily. Children often themselves come up with storylines for their representations: they mimic their teachers, imitate their peers, depicting their vivid features of behavior or parodying their habits. The guys prefer this style of writing a script for a school comedy performance, because it truly looks funny, interesting and organic. What is important: such roles are much easier for students to play than to get used to the role of any other characters.