Drama club FINLAND
Work at schools during the project
Each school had a drama club for the students who participated the project. Here are some examples of activities done.
Finland
The drama club of Kuopio Senior High School of art started with ice breaking exercises. The 18 students and teachers got to know each other.
Since our school acted as the coordinator and has a focus on drama, we took responsibility on working for writing the play on he whole project. For this, we did exercises with the students, where they together chose a topic, the main character and built a plot. Based on these, they made small presentations. We used this to test the functionality of the method before we met with students from the other countries.
This method enables the students to make own decisions not only about the topics but also about the plot, and thus they become more committed to the play they are writing and later playing. The method also develops teamwork skills. Everyone needs them both in their studies and in their working life.
Each of 18 students participating the project read a novel that was originated from Hungary, Greece, Poland, Portugal or Turkey and translated in Finnish. They wrote an essay about the themes of the work and the development of the main character. They also considered how the novel reflects the culture of the writer’s home country.
With the whole group we read Portuguese and Polish poems and the students made small performances of them based on movement and speech. Here is an example:
During the year 2022 the group made a play called ”One visit to Puijo”. It is based on a short story of a Finnish writer Minna Canth. Finnish and literature teacher Kaisa Björkbacka dramatized it into a play and the students translated it in English. The play was performed in the LTT in Finland (January 2023). Actors, dancers and musicians from our high school participated in the performance. It was directed by Finnish and litterature teacher Kaisa Björkbacka, our dance teacher Sannamaria Kuula did the choreography and music teacher Touko Raatikainen conducted the orchestra.
The script and the performance in January 2023 during the LTT in Finland:
Click the link to see the performance:
https://youtu.be/iZgTJdgvXKQ?si=oj1_10EQT2K-lD7X
The script:
Minna Canth
One visit to Puijo
Based on a short story of a Finnish writer Minna Canth (1844–1897)
Dramatized by Kaisa Björkbacka
Translated by the students
- Act. Backround
Caithlin: Minna Canth
Routa: One visit to Puijo
Nella: Eighteen ninety-two
Pessi: Minna Canth writes about young, seventeen- year old girls
Helmi: Aina
Sara: and Hilma.
Hene: They, who liked each other so very much
Robert: And had known each other since childhood
Rauha: Both of them often had the urge to do something they knew the public opinion didn’t accept
Helmi: Do you remember?
Routa: Yes! Do you remember!
Caithlin: That time, that one time!
Sara: What if someone knew?
Hene: Now they had been apart the whole summer
Pessi: Since they got out of school in the spring
Nella: Aina invites Hilma to her place for the summer
2. Train
Routa: What a joy when the train arrived at the station
Nella: And Hilmas’s joyful face appeared first in the window
Pessi:And then whole persona at the door of the carriage
3. Decision
Helmi:After a week the girls decide to go to Puijo alone
Caithlin: Aina didn’t even ask for a permission from her mother
Hene: Since they were adults now, seventeen years old
Sara: And they had decided they were thought as children way too much
Pessi: And that it was degrading for them to ask for a permission for everything
Nella: What must have been in it that girl were kept so under the yoke
Rauha: Herman, only twelve yars old could already go somewhat freely. Often he was gone from home for hours and if the mama then asked:
Routa:Where were you?
Rauha: She would usually get a short answer:
Robert: Just there
Routa: Boys are boys!
Helmi: So why couldn’t they do the same thing
Caithlin : They who were five years older than Herman
Hene: Almost adults already
Sara:Aina hadn’t even gone to he downtown before
Nella: Without asking for a permission and now-
Pessi:Now they, two young girls would go to Puijo, alone and on their own
Routa: It was terible- but that was what was so mesmerizing about it
4: in the forest
(Fast talking that dies down)
Rauha: The birds were singing
Robert: sun was shining
Caithlin: the forest was lively
Helmi: The spruce and pine rose around them as tall as the sky
Pessi: they were so small compared to them
Robert:The wind hummed and swung the tops of the trees somewhere up there
Nella: but the forest was calm
Routa: They got a little out of breath as they climbed up the steep hill
Hene: Hilma –
Sara: What?
Nella: Isn’t life just wonderfully lovely?
Caithlin: I wonder whats it like in heaven when here it is so charming
Helmi: Listen, here in the forest the is an odd bliss in the air
Caithlin: But hear me out -! Listen to me Hilma! Whu don’t we remove our shoes and socks?
Helmi: Oh great heaves – What are you thinking? That we would go barefoot to the tower?
Nella: But think about it, Hilma, what would the girls say if they knew?
Routa: We won’t tell
Hene: of cource we won’t
Sara: no matter how much they ask. Let’s decide that we will never tell anyone in the world about this.
Caithlin: This will be our biggest secret in our entire life.
5: In the Tower
Rauha: Not long until they were high up in the tower
Helmi: The world was around them
Nella: Everywhere you could see
Routa: Small, green islands were swimming
Hene: like green, round balls in a golden sea
Caithlin: And there was so much air
Rauha: And so clean
Helmi: And so light
Routa: Look Hilma, University students!
Robert: Dear god, what do we do know? Poor us, and we’re barefoot.
Robert: There came walking three university students along the road
Pessi: They looked up and caught them in the tower.
Hene: Hear me out! Let’s go downstairs and sit on the bench in a way that our feet hide under our skirts.
6: The way home
Pessi: The university students were men of cource
Rauha: And the girls biggest worry was being seen barefoot
(They try to run down the hill to where their shoes are hidden.
The university students discover their shortcut and their attempt to deceive them.
And now they were excatly on the path the girls were heading to.
The girls put their shoes on and pass the bench where the university students are sitting, feeling panicked and with their gazes on the ground)
Sara: They decided that they would not take the main roads home, instead walk on secluded pathways
Caithlin: that way they thought to better avoid those who harrassed them.
Robert: And now they were so tired and they barely could lift t their feet off the ground
Nella: Now they were forced to enter the gate of their home
graduate caps off, the choir of the criticizing family members
- The end
Group 1 :where in the name of god have you guys been for this long?
Group 2 :what were you thinking!
1:two young ladies, going alone to Puijo,
2:what is a public place!
everyone: almost like a restaurant!
1 :didn’t you guys know, how terribly inappropriate is that?
girls go to sleep. They are called to eat, but they won’t go.
Helmi: Is there any person in the world who would be so terribly unhappy!
Hene: us-our reputation-
Helmi:and our glory!
Hene:no, no one wants to be with us anymore
Caithlin:you see, Aina? I have to go home tomorrow.
Nella: I miss my mom so much.
Pessi:can’t you stay?
Routa:no I can’t.
Rauha :You had to be here for the whole summer.
Helmi: Sure.
Sara: There was the joy of this summer that she had been waiting for and hoping for since winter!
Robert: Alone, she was allowed to stay here to carry sadness and shame.
THE END