CACAV – Círculo de Animação Cultural de Alhos Vedros

Name of the N-arts activity: Words Workshop

To share work experiences in groups, through reading texts in various voices, to stimulate the pleasure of expressive or "theatrical" reading of the texts of Portuguese-speaking authors, to provide learning moments in a playful way.

Framework

Description of the activity

The Word workshop has different characteristics from the two other activities developed by the CACAV association under the N-arts project.
This workshop is organized by a group of 6 people, who recite poems or texts by Portuguese-speaking authors. It does not work as a course in which learning is developed from activities to be carried out by the participants. Learning is done informally, based on the content and form of the public presentations.
It is intended to stimulate enthusiasm for reading, dramatization and dissemination of the works of many different authors.
Involving the community is achieved through public presentations, framed in the activities developed by CACAV, in which the work developed is known and where the public is called to participate, repeating some verses of the poems, creating forms of interaction and stimulating the creativity of the participants. The public changes from a passive assistant to an active participant.
As the activities are presented publicly, an interaction is established between the six elements and the people in the audience, who are called to participate actively, thus creating an atmosphere of empathy and collaboration. On the other hand, as these activities continued, CACAV achieved the objectives of this project, involving several people in participation and life-long learning, through various art forms, in a project open to all, regardless of personal aspects, social, economic or cultural conditions.

Intention, goals, aims

• Promote the pleasure for reading, prose or verse.
• To disseminate literary creations of Portuguese-speaking authors.
• Share work experiences in groups, through reading texts in various voices.
• Stimulate the pleasure of expressive or "theatrical" reading of the texts.
• Providing learning moments in a playful way.
• Stimulate the creativity of the participants, creating forms of interaction.

Planning/preparation

A group of six people was formed to create this Word workshop. It was considered that it would be an interesting way to integrate in the community and provide, in an informal way, a playful adult education.
It was also intended to acknowledge Portuguese-speaking authors, so a selection of texts and authors was made to please the public and disseminate our literary culture.
Some sessions were thematic, dedicated exclusively to some authors.
Before each public presentation, several essays were made.

Teaching/Training Method

The coordinator, in collaboration with the participants, selected the texts.
The reading of the texts was prepared by practising small scenarios to choose the best way to read.
For each text, a different way of reading and representing the words was chosen.

Outcomes

The aims of this course were fully accomplished.
Several presentations were made in public, in some cases asking the audience to interact, collaborate and react on the readings.
Knowledge and dissemination of texts by various authors of prose and poetry were provided.
An incentive to reading was created, in the form of representation.
Based on individual performance, there was an increase in sharing and collaborative work.
The results were very positive, each presentation had great receptivity. The group was always received with enthusiasm and encouragement to continue this activity.