TEXT AUF DEUTSCH – TEXT IN GERMAN

TRANSFORMATION IN SCENARIOS OF PERFORMATIVE PRACTICE

What is it?

Scenario Summer School Berlin is a weeklong, practice-based series of workshops aimed at anyone with an interest in exploring the transformative potential of performative approaches in a diverse range of pedagogical-artistic settings. There will be two groups (strands), one working on performative aspects in teaching, learning and other group settings, while strand 2 will be primarily focused on staging a live-performance.

During the workshops, emphasis will be put on different aspects of performativity in various fields, for example in foreign language learning and teaching, but also on developing self-awareness, performative presence and awareness of group dynamics. Alongside, there will also be an opportunity for young researchers to present engaging projects with an explicit focus on aspects of performative pedagogy.

The summer school is a learning site, a maker lab and a shared space for think, do and reflect in a creative way.

This inaugural session will take place in Berlin, Germany, a multicultural city featuring a huge diversity of arts and artists in every medium. 

Who is it for?

Scenario Summer School Berlin is for anyone who functions in the role of a teacher at school or university, a workshop facilitator or community leader, and who already uses or would like to use performative pedagogy in their work. In the Summer School, participants are encouraged to think about the application of performative pedagogy to their specific context. As participants will come from different cultural backgrounds the Summer School is an excellent opportunity to engage with and learn from other culture-specific drama/theatre traditions. 

Who is organizing it?

Scenario Summer School Berlin is being organized in collaboration with Freie Universität Berlin (FU) and the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Venue: International House, FU Berlin

Dates: August 4th-8th, 2025

Organisation Team

Scenario: Sukhesh Arora, Bernadette Cronin, John Crutchfield, Manfred Schewe 

Free University Berlin (FU): Alexandra Hensel & Francesco Manelli 

University of Neuchâtel: Laure Kloetzer

The Summer School will be led by international practitioners and scholars with a wide range of experience in the field of performative pedagogy. They are fluent in English and German and their profiles can be accessed here.

Participants

As it is expected that Summer School participants will come from different parts of the world, English will be the main working language.

Max. number of participants: 30
[Strand 1 (15) / Strand 2 (15)]

You can register here – registration deadline: April 15, 2025

Registration fee : 320 €  
[The fee does not include accommodation and meals] 

Please enter SCENARIO SUMMER SCHOOL BERLIN 2025 as a reference and transfer the fee to:

MS–REVOLUT BANK UAB IRELAND
IBAN: IE24 REVO 9903 6041 6438 59
BIC/SWIFT Code: REVOIE23

Enquiries/expressions of interest can be sent to: scenario@ucc.ie
Please indicate "Scenario Summer School Berlin" in the subject heading

CONCEPT 

TRANSFORMATION IN SCENARIOS OF PERFORMATIVE PRACTICE

I was addicted to theatre. I only understood the connection later. What the philosophers could not explain, the stage demonstrated. Despite all changes, despite all enlightenment, it believes in its oldest secret: transformation. (Thomas Hürlimann)

As the above quote suggests, transformations occur again and again in the theatre, which often seem enigmatic and can cast such a spell over spectators that the world seems to be enchanted anew for them.

Actors are quick-change artists; they can slip into a wide variety of roles in a very short space of time. For example, they can change their physical form, a woman can transform into a man and vice versa, a human into a donkey or vice versa. They can also express how a person's character changes as a result of particular circumstances and events, i.e. how they are transformed internally.  

Erika Fischer-Lichte's groundbreaking publication Die Ästhetik des Performativen (2004, 315) states: 

What occurs in performances can be summarized as ... a transformation of those involved in them. 

In the broadest sense, transformation can perhaps be understood as a reshaping of something. The aim of this summer school is therefore to explore the extent to which the concept of transformation can be meaningfully related to the theory and practice of performative pedagogy. To this end, the Scenario Summer School Berlin will be divided into two different strands that stimulate different dimensions of perspective-taking and meaning-making, which lie at the heart of all drama, theatre and performance work. The two strands will have exchange.

Strand 1, led by Alexandra Hensel and Sukhesh Arora, introduces participants via workshops combined with theory to a range of dramatic techniques and conventions, offering an immersive exploration of how embodied learning can inspire personal and collective transformation, and nurture agency. Through interactive activities, participants will discover how to adapt these methods to their unique context – whether that is in the field of performative language learning and teaching, working with children or adults, small groups or large classrooms, or in the context of specific educational or communal goals. Key themes include navigating embracing multiple perspectives, power dynamics, strengthening one’s sense self and developing a pedagogical-artistic sense of body, voice and space. By the end, participants will hopefully gain experience in using dramatic tools to design inclusive, transformative experiences in their pedagogical context while enhancing the ability to critically assess the impact of performative pedagogy.

Strand 2, led by Bernadette Cronin and John Crutchfield, is concerned with practices one might engage in for larger groups, and practices which are more facilitator-led. Participants will collaborate on the creation of an original theatrical work, to be presented at the end of the week. In the course of the week-long work-sessions, participants will explore their creative potential to generate and develop materials, make a selection and shape these into a piece of theatre for a live performance event. We will use a wide variety of theatre-making tools, including play, improvisation, work with text, object, movement, voice, sound and music. Throughout the work, the focus will lie on collaborative practice and process, on strengthening performative competencies, and on building participants’ confidence in their own creative potential and skills as theatre-makers and workshop facilitators.   

Throughout the week participants will develop performances and formats designed to engage public audiences at different locations in and around the beautiful grounds of the FU Campus where the summer school will take place.

Based on self-awareness in these project groups, the daily reflection phases will focus on the extent to which the performative activities had a potentially transformative effect. 

Each day starts at 9/9:30am (TBC) with a Full Group warm-up and ends at 4:30/5pm with a Full Group sharing/reflection.

It is envisaged to experience cultural and community events in Berlin (details TBC)