This text aims to provide the conceptual and pedagogical foundations of the Democracy through Drama project in an accessible form for teachers of humanities in different countries and educational systems.
The text reports on the workshop conducted by the author within the DEMO:DRAM (Democracy through Drama) project. In the workshop “Becoming ‘The Infinity’ by Giacomo Leopardi through mimesis”, starting from the mimesis of the elements (fire, earth, air, water), the participants approach the words of the poem, first in its original language followed by an exploration of the text translated into the participants’ mother tongues.
The text reports on the workshop conducted by the author within the DEMO:DRAM (Democracy through Drama) project. The workshop “Building civic coexistence through body and movement” explores elements of cooperation through movement. As a result of this participants are asked to reflect on their feelings of co-operating in movement with each other and how similarities and diversities open up through the experiences. The participants are also asked to consider how the quality of their relationship with each other is deepened. Gradually we extend this quality to a whole group experience.
The text reports on the workshop conducted by the author within the DEMO:DRAM (Democracy through Drama) project. The workshop “The Poetry of Mimesis” seeks to explore how we can read and respond to texts differently in order to develop a deeper understanding of the author’s intention. During the experience of this workshop, it is intended that participants will create the mimesis of the words of a poem using all of their body. Adaptations of this workshop could be used in English to explore a specific extract of a novel or a news article. Alternatively, this approach could be used in history and/or media studies to evaluate different texts and bias.
The text reports on the workshop conducted by the author within the DEMO:DRAM (Democracy through Drama) project. Starting from the word ‘memory’ in participants’ mother tongue, and from other words connected with ’memory’, the facilitator proposes a ‘mimetic exploration’ aimed to trace a common history of migration. The facilitator builds a shared drama through Mimesis in Education methodology. The starting point of the workshop is to explore words related to journeys in the participants’ home language. The students then build a story through movement and mime based on the connection of the key words. Students work collaboratively to interpret and understand each other’s story.
